App Store 2.5.8 rejection: Replacement home screens

Your app may present a launcher-style interface, but Apple distinguishes an app’s own screen from a replacement system environment. Guideline 2.5.8 rejects apps that create alternate desktop or home-screen environments.

Check the scope of the feature

Review what your app claims to replace and what the installed build attempts to control. Does it provide an ordinary interface inside its own app, or promise to replace how iOS launches and manages other apps? We’d compare marketing screenshots with the actual system interactions.

Redesign within the app’s role

Remove the replacement-environment behavior and unsupported claims. If your product provides a permitted customization feature, explain its specific use of supported system capabilities rather than describing it as a replacement operating environment.

Install the revised build on a clean test device and follow the setup instructions from beginning to end. Show Apple what changes inside your app and what remains a normal system interaction. Cosmetic edits won’t resolve a product whose central feature is the rejected replacement environment.