Getting your app through App Market review: a pre-submission checklist
What Zid's reviewers check, how to prepare your listing, support channels and activation flow, and the issues that most often send apps back.
What the review covers
Before your app appears on the App Market, Zid's team reviews and tests it. The review is broader than your code: it covers the listing merchants will see, the activation and OAuth 2.0 flow, the scopes you request, your plans and your support channel.
The help centre is explicit: these requirements apply to every partner, and non-compliance can lead to content rejection or app removal. Requirements may also change as the App Market and Partner Dashboard evolve, and your app is expected to keep up.
Listing details reviewers check
Your listing is the first thing a merchant sees, so it has concrete rules:
- App name: 3 to 24 characters, must not contain the word "Zid", and must be entered in English and Arabic with a correct translation.
- Category: pick the one that best describes your core functionality. Add a second only if the app has another core function.
- Description: up to 4,000 characters. Lead with merchant benefits and functionality, avoid heavy marketing language and statistics, include detailed activation steps and any important limits (specific countries or themes). Both languages are required.
- Short description: use feature keywords so merchants find you through search, in both languages.
- Developed by: must be the name of the company that built the app.
- Video: embedded YouTube URLs only, in the format
https://www.youtube.com/embed/######. - Screenshots: 1 to 10 images, clear and uncluttered, cropped to your app (no browser windows, no arrows), and no Zid logo.
- Icon: 1:1 ratio, up to 250 × 250 pixels.
Activation and OAuth: where apps usually stumble
The Zid App Activation & OAuth Policy says a standard app starts OAuth immediately when the merchant selects Activate. Any required plan payment happens through Zid before activation, and the app must not ask for an additional partner-side payment.
The policy lists flows that are rejected, including:
- Putting signup or login on your platform ahead of OAuth for a standard app.
- Sending the merchant to a generic homepage or settings area to hunt for the Zid integration.
- Asking merchants to paste access tokens, manager tokens, API keys, or to type their Store ID.
You also need HTTPS, a validated state value, and only the scopes your app actually uses. The Publish your app guide adds that every scope you select must be justified and used in the integration, because the team will test it.
Support requirements for public apps
According to the Support your customers article, every public app must provide at least one support channel merchants can use to get help. The App Market does not provide merchant support for third-party apps, so that responsibility is yours.
- Maintainer E-mail is a required field and must be an active, monitored address.
- A support portal URL (ticketing system or forum) is optional; you can mention it in your app description.
- A phone number is required for shipping apps only.
- The review checklist also asks for an in-app support channel, such as live chat, a contact form or a ticketing link, separate from your listing contact details.
When merchants hit a problem they can click Report Application. The App Market team evaluates the report and loops you in, and there is a monitoring mechanism to make sure response times follow the agreed resolution SLA.
Common reasons apps are sent back
If your app is rejected, you receive an email with the reasons and instructions for fixing and resubmitting. Based on the published requirements, these are the areas worth double-checking:
- Missing fields or missing Arabic/English translations.
- A name containing "Zid", or screenshots that use the Zid logo.
- Activation that doesn't start with OAuth, or that collects credentials manually.
- Scopes requested without justification or not used by the integration.
- No in-app support channel, or an unmonitored support email.
- Plan features the app doesn't deliver, or a listing and video that don't match the implemented journey.
Your pre-submission checklist
- Partnership details completed and the partnership agreement signed.
- App tested end to end on a development store, starting from activation.
- Plans added and the webhooks your app needs subscribed.
- Test accounts for your platform ready where needed, without asking for live merchant credentials.
- QA test cases and a testing video that covers your main scenarios.
- Merchant activation steps, setup requirements and FAQs written up.
- App sent to review from the Partner Dashboard, then testing requirements shared through support under Technical Concern, then App Testing.
The more complete your app is when you submit, the fewer review rounds you'll go through.
Key takeaways
- Review covers your listing, activation, scopes, plans and support, not just your code.
- Start OAuth right after Activate and never ask for tokens or store IDs manually.
- Every public app needs at least one support channel, and the maintainer email is required.
- Test on a development store and prepare test accounts and a testing video before you submit.
Sources
Start building on Zid
Sign up in the partner portal, then build and test on a development store.
