Hello,
I am planning to develop an iOS app that performs on-device inference using machine learning (ML) models. To improve accuracy and user experience, after the app is installed, I would like to download and update .mlmodel files from a separate cloud server and use them for inference within the app. The .mlmodel files will be provided by the cloud server in a compiled format, compressed as zip files. The app will download the zip file, extract it, and use the model.
No executable code, scripts, or dynamic libraries will be downloaded—only model data files will be used. All code is fully contained within the app bundle, and the downloaded model files are strictly used as data and are never executed as code.
I have previously consulted with DTS (Developer Technical Support), who confirmed that, to their knowledge, this approach does not violate the guidelines and that there are existing apps that rely on this functionality. However, for official assurance and to avoid any potential issues during app review, I would like to request confirmation from the App Review team.
Specifically:
Is it permitted under App Store guidelines to download or update compiled .mlmodel machine learning model files (compressed as zip files) from a remote cloud server after app installation, as long as no executable code is downloaded or executed?
Thank you.
