Apple rejection after implementing silent notifications with PushKit

Question

We added silent notifications which require PushKit and enabling VoIP in the Info.plist

See Apple's PushKit Doc

Now my app is rejected by Apple:

Your app declares support for VoIP in the UIBackgroundModes key in your Info.plist, but does not include any Voice over IP services. Please revise your app to either add VoIP features or remove the "voip" setting from the UIBackgroundModes key.

1. The app is NOT a VoIP therefore it doesn't require VoIP features.
2. Removing the VoIP from UIBackgroundModes causes the silent notifications to stop working.

Anyone know what I should do?

What VoIP feature can I add (even if I dont use it, just to pass the review)?

I asked Apple but they got back with an auto generated response with the same rejection reason.

Answer 1

Update on the resolution -

1. We installed a third party VoIP solution and implemented VoIP calls in our app. Awkward to be forced to add a feature but in our case it was right for our app.

2. In iTunesConnect submission page, under "App Review Information" "Notes" I had to state that we added a new feature VoIP calls, with steps to test VoIP calls. This caught the reviewers attention to the new VoIP call feature and the app passed.

When I added the new feature under "whats new in this version", the app continued to get rejected.

Answer 2

You should likely be using iOS Service Extensions to decrypt the message. https://developer.apple.com/reference/usernotifications/unnotificationserviceextension

You use this extension to modify the notification’s content or download content related to the extension. For example, you could use the extension to decrypt an encrypted data block or to download images associated with the notification.

You can also learn more about how this works at this WWDC talk. https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2016/707/

Implementing VoIP features to do this is complete overkill.

Answer 3

We have also faced same issue -

• You can't use voip background mode unless you implement voip features.

• Just implement IM(chat) feature in your app then you will be capable to publish your
  app at Appstore.

Good luck!