How does apple decide whether an app is in-house? Is there a setting that I need to look into? Apple has rejected my application saying it is an in-house app and I cannot publish that app under Apple Developer Program.
They want me to have Apple Developer Enterprise Program to publish that app. I'll be thankful for any help.
We found that your app is an in-house app, intended for employees or members of your organization. As such, it is not appropriate for the App Store.
For information on distributing proprietary, in-house apps, please refer to the iOS Developer Enterprise Program.
If you cannot - or choose not to - revise your app to be in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines, you may wish to build an HTML5 web app instead. You can distribute web apps directly on your web site; the App Store does not accept or distribute web apps.
HTML5 is the major new version of HTML and enables audio and video to play natively in the browser without requiring proprietary plug-ins. Using HTML5, web apps can look and behave like native iPhone and iPad apps, and using HTML5's Offline Application Cache, a web app can work even when the device is offline. With web apps, you have flexibility to deliver as much or as little functionality as you desire.
To get started with iPhone or iPad web apps, please review the Safari Client-Side Storage and Offline Applications Programming Guide.
For a description of the HTML elements and attributes you can use in Safari on iPhone, check out Safari HTML Reference: Introduction.
I guess there can be many ways by which Apple can think of in-house apps and one of these can be your App Description. Here is the response from Apple that I received.
Hello,
Thank you for your response. The Application Description confirms that the app will be used by employees of your company to stay connected and informed of daily tasks and company information. If the app will have an open registration and not limited to the internal use of your company, please take the time to modify the Application Description by providing this clarity and also accurately describe the app's features and functionality available to all users.
Otherwise, the app is not appropriate for the App Store, and it would be best to be distributed via the iOS Developer Enterprise Program.
As @Paulw11 said, Apple can even decide that your app is in-house if it doesn't allow everyone to use and limited to a group of people.