Apple Developer News and Updates feed provided by Apple, Inc.
May 31, 2022
The Apple Design Awards celebrate apps and games that excel in the categories of Inclusivity, Delight and Fun, Interaction, Social Impact, Visuals and Graphics, and Innovation. Discover this year’s finalists, then tune in June 6 at 5 p.m. PT to watch the event as part of WWDC22.
Digital Lounges are back for WWDC22! Starting June 7, Apple engineers and designers will be hosting text-based Q&As, watch parties, and community events across more than 15 topics. Whether this is your first time participating in Digital Lounges or you’re returning for year two, here’s what you need to know to help you make the most of your week.
You can now register for Digital Lounges to automatically gain access to activities you’re interested in attending — choose from topics like Design, SwiftUI, Developer Tools, Machine Learning, and more. To provide the best experience for everyone, space is limited for each topic, and registering early is the best way to guarantee access to your preferred topics and activities.
You can register for Digital Lounges if you’re a current member of the Apple Developer Program, Apple Developer Enterprise Program, or a WWDC22 Swift Student Challenge winner. To register, sign in with your Apple ID, choose one or more topics, and enter your information. We want to make sure these spaces are helpful and welcoming for everyone — developers and Apple employees alike — and we ask all attendees during registration to review and follow the WWDC22 Interactive Events Policy.
Read the WWDC22 Interactive Events Policy
Once your initial registration is processed, you’ll receive an email with more details on participating and a link to access Digital Lounges.
After the keynote concludes on June 6, you can browse the full list of Digital Lounge activities from the WWDC tab of the Developer app or on developer.apple.com and add them to your personal calendar.
Spot an activity you want to attend but didn’t pre-register for that topic? You can register for additional topics at any time through June 10 as space allows.
Digital Lounges kick off bright and early on June 7 at 8 a.m. PT, with activities happening each day through June 10. We’re hosting all activities in Slack — so make sure you’ve completed the registration process and downloaded the Slack app on your platform of choice before activities begin.
Download Slack for iPhone and iPad
After you register for a topic, you’ll gain access to all channels within that topic. You can switch channels at any time from the Slack sidebar; you can also open a specific activity directly from the schedule in the Developer app or on developer.apple.com.
To ensure we can find and answer your question during an activity, new messages can only be posted in channels while an activity is in session. At the beginning of each activity, our moderators will unlock the channel and — depending on the activity — welcome you to start posting inside the channel, in threads, or through our “Ask a question” submission form.
Having trouble accessing a channel or need some assistance? After you’ve registered you’ll gain access to the Help Desk channel, which can help you with any questions you might have about Digital Lounges during WWDC22.
Additionally, if you have a concern about a specific post during an activity, you can use the “Flag a message” button to alert the Digital Lounges moderation team.
May 24, 2022
As a reminder, apps that support account creation must let users initiate deletion of their account within the app starting June 30, 2022, as described in App Store Review Guideline 5.1.1(v). This deadline was extended to provide additional time for implementation of this requirement.
Please keep these requirements in mind when updating your app:
Learn about offering account deletion
May 24, 2022
Get ready for June 6 at 10:00 a.m. PT, when WWDC22 gathers the developer community for an exciting online experience. Mark your calendars for the keynote and Platforms State of the Union. Learn about sessions, one-on-one labs, Digital Lounges, and more.
The App Store provides a wealth of tools, resources, and features you can use to help people discover and engage with your app or game. Check out a few of the latest videos we’ve put together to help you get the most out of your App Store product pages, in-app events, and subscriptions.
In-app events are timely events within apps and games such as game competitions, movie premieres, live-streamed experiences, and more. On iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 and later, in-app events appear on your App Store product page, in search results, and in editorially curated selections and personalized recommendations. This can help you encourage new people to download your app, keep current users interested, or bring back people who haven’t engaged with your app recently.
Learn more about the in-app events feature and get recommendations, tips, and best practices for helping people discover content or events within your app.
Did you know you can create additional versions of your App Store product page on iOS and iPadOS 15? With custom product pages, you can showcase different features or content within your app. For example, you might highlight a particular sport, character, show, or gameplay feature or even seasonal or culturally relevant content. Each custom product page can include screenshots, promotional text, and app previews that are different from those on your default product page. You share each custom product page with different audiences through unique URLs.
Discover how you can set up custom product pages in App Store Connect and measure their performance in App Analytics as well as strategies for success.
With product page optimization, you can test different elements of your App Store product page to understand which resonate with people most. Alternate versions of your product page, called “treatments” in App Store Connect, are shown to a percentage of people on iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 or later, who are selected at random. You can view and compare how each treatment performs against your original product page and use this insight to optimize your product page, including applying the elements of a better performing treatment to your product page.
Find out how you can use product page optimization to make your App Store product page even more relevant and effective. You’ll also learn more about the setup process in App Store Connect; how to test different app icons, screenshots, and app previews; and testing strategies to help you get started.
Product Page Optimization Overview
Offer codes can help you acquire, retain, and win back subscribers by providing an auto-renewable subscription at a discount or for free for a limited time. You can create two types of offer codes — one-time-use codes and custom codes — and distribute them through online or offline channels.
Learn about offer codes for subscriptions, including the latest enhancements to offer codes, how to set up custom offer code campaigns, implementation tips, best practices, and more. We’ll also review how can complement your existing offer codes campaigns with custom codes to provide even more flexibility to acquire and retain subscribers.
Looking to optimize your app’s subscription strategy? Start here and explore subscriber acquisition strategies, implementation best practices, and how to integrate these processes into your app for success.
Auto-renewable subscriptions are a great way to let people access content, services, or premium features in your app. And Apple continues to set the bar in making it easy and transparent for subscribers to view, cancel, or manage their subscriptions. Our comprehensive approach includes providing email, push notifications, and in-app messaging to let subscribers know about upcoming changes and how to manage their subscriptions, or cancel if they prefer.
Currently, when an auto-renewable subscription price is increased, subscribers must opt in before the price increase is applied. The subscription doesn’t renew at the next billing period for subscribers who didn’t opt in to the new price. This has led to some services being unintentionally interrupted for users and they must take steps to resubscribe within the app, from Settings on iPhone and iPad, or in the App Store on Mac.
With this update, under certain specific conditions and with advance user notice, developers may also offer an auto-renewable subscription price increase, without the user needing to take action and without interrupting the service. The specific conditions for this feature are that the price increase doesn’t occur more than once per year, doesn’t exceed US$5 and 50% of the subscription price, or US$50 and 50% for an annual subscription price, and is permissible by local law. In these situations, Apple always notifies users of an increase in advance, including via email, push notification, and a message within the app. Apple will also notify users of how to view, manage, and cancel subscriptions if preferred.
For all subscription price increases that are above the thresholds, exceed the annual limit, or occur within territories where the law requires it, subscribers must opt in before the price increase is applied. The subscription won’t renew at the next billing period for subscribers who didn’t opt in to the new price. They can always resubscribe within the app, from Settings on iPhone and iPad, or in the App Store on Mac.
For details, view App Store Connect Help.
We’re hosting a special all-day experience at Apple Park on June 6 to kick off WWDC22, and we can’t wait to connect in person. Members of the Apple Developer Program and Apple Developer Enterprise Program, and 2022 Swift Student Challenge applicants can submit their request to be included in the random selection process starting today until May 11 at 9 a.m. PT.
This celebration marks the start of an inspiring week of sessions, labs, and lounges — all online and with more activities than ever.
User trust in quality apps is the basis for all we have done in building and running the App Store.
Back in 2016, to ensure a great user experience and at the suggestion of developers, we launched the App Store Improvements process to remove apps that no longer function as intended, don’t follow current review guidelines or are outdated. This helps us ensure apps work for the vast majority of users and support our latest innovations in security and privacy. Over the course of the past six years, we have removed almost 2.8 million apps as part of this process.
Users and developers alike have benefitted from this effort, including:
Discoverability. Users are able to find great apps that fit their needs more easily when outdated apps are no longer on the App Store. This in turn helps developers’ apps become more easily discoverable on the store.
Security and privacy. Apple hardware and software are constantly evolving, and we frequently provide developers with new tools to enhance performance, security and privacy. When developers update their apps to incorporate such technologies, they’re doing their part to help safeguard user safety and security.
User experience. Keeping apps up to date to conform with modern screen sizes, SDKs, APIs, and all of the other features offered on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS ensures users can have a great experience with any app they get from the App Store.
As part of the App Store Improvements process, developers of apps that have not been updated within the last three years and fail to meet a minimal download threshold — meaning the app has not been downloaded at all or extremely few times during a rolling 12 month period — receive an email notifying them that their app has been identified for possible removal from the App Store.
Apple always wants to help developers get and keep quality software on the App Store. That’s why developers can appeal app removals. And developers, including those who recently received a notice, will now be given more time to update their apps if needed — up to 90 days. Apps that are removed will continue to function as normal for users who have already downloaded the app on their device.
To learn more, visit the revised App Store Improvements Support Page.
April 25, 2022
Last year, Apple announced a $100 million fund to assist US small developers. Eligible developers have until May 20, 2022 to submit a request to an independent administrator to receive payment. The fund is open to all developers based in the United States who:
Learn more at https://smallappdeveloperassistance.com/
Wednesday @ 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Request an appointment with an Apple engineer for guidance and conversation about the latest APIs, best practices, and more. Chat with Apple engineers from the Messages, Shared with You, Messages Collaboration, Share Sheet, UIActivityViewController, Watch Connectivity, and Multipeer Connectivity teams.
