Apple Developer News and Updates feed provided by Apple, Inc.
January 20, 2022
Now it’s even easier to acquire, retain, and win back subscribers. In addition to one-time-use codes, you can now create custom codes in App Store Connect — each with a unique name that you choose (such as SPRINGPROMO). Each code can be redeemed through a direct URL or within your app.
Learn how to set up custom offer codes
Graphically-intensive games can be very demanding on hardware resources, requiring hundreds or even thousands of CPU jobs to be processed every frame. We’ll show you how you can organize those jobs to maximize CPU efficiency and performance on the M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max chips. Learn how you can…
Apple designed the App Store to be a safe and trusted place for people to discover and download apps. Apple’s in-app purchase system, an integral part of our world-class commerce platform, offers people a private and secure user experience across apps and Apple devices, and makes it easy for them to manage their purchases and subscriptions for digital goods and services. Recent orders from the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) will allow developers of dating apps on the App Store in the Netherlands to share additional payment processing options with users. Because we do not believe these orders are in our users’ best interests, we have appealed the ACM’s decision to a higher court. We’re concerned these changes could compromise the user experience, and create new threats to user privacy and data security. In the meantime, we are obligated to make the mandated changes which we’re launching today and we will provide further information shortly.
To comply with the ACM’s order, we’re introducing two optional new entitlements exclusively applicable to dating apps on the Netherlands App Store that provide additional payment processing options for users. Dating app developers who want to continue using Apple’s in-app purchase system may do so and no further action is needed. Before considering applying for one of these entitlements, it’s important to understand that some App Store features that you may use won’t be available to your customers, in part because we cannot validate the security and safety of payments that take place outside of the App Store’s private and secure payment system. Because Apple will not be directly aware of purchases made using alternative methods, Apple will not be able to assist users with refunds, purchase history, subscription management, and other issues encountered when purchasing digital goods and services through these alternative purchasing methods. You will be responsible for addressing such issues with customers.
Last year, we introduced an updated way to submit apps, in-app events, custom product pages, and product page optimization tests for review in App Store Connect. Starting January 25, 2022, the submission experience will be automatically updated for all App Store Connect accounts. You’ll be able to submit multiple items, submit without needing a new app version, view past submissions, and more.
If you’re ready to try it beforehand, Apple Developer Program Account Holders can enable the experience, which applies the update for all team members. No action is required if you’re already using the updated experience or you prefer to wait for the automatic update.
App Analytics in App Store Connect helps you see how people discover and engage with your apps. You can now view information about your in-app events, including event page views, reminder and notification data, and the number of downloads and redownloads that were driven by your in-app events. Each metric can be viewed by territory, source type, device, and more, so you can understand how your in-app events are influencing your apps’ growth and success.
Maps Web Snapshots let you visually share important points of interest and details including business locations, geographic boundaries, and routes — simply by loading a URL. Snapshots work well when you’d like to replace a static image on your website, within an email, or in another location where JavaScript isn’t available and you don’t have need for a fully interactive map.
You’ve probably seen Maps Web Snapshots in action if you’ve used DuckDuckGo as your search engine.
To function, a Snapshot URL requires basic account information — including your Team ID and a Key ID you’ll create specifically for accessing Apple Maps — along with a physical location to center the map. You’ll also append a signature to ensure that the map request isn’t altered anywhere between your server and Apple Maps.
https://snapshot.apple-mapkit.com/api/v1/snapshot?center=[location name or coordinates]&teamId=[Team ID]&keyId=[Maps Key ID]&signature=[base64_url_encoded_signature]The center point of a map is the only required parameter for the URL, and can be either a comma-separated latitude and longitude pair or a physical address. For example, use center="Apple Park" to request a snapshot centered on Apple Park in California.
Maps Web Snapshots can be further customized by adding query parameters to display different annotations and overlay styles, alternate map types, and a choice of light or dark color schemes to better match your embedded content.
Add map annotations To add one or more annotations, use the annotations parameter and include an array of JSON Annotation objects representing the bottom center-point of each. To place the default style, append annotations=["point":"37.33489990234375,-122.00901794433594"] to your snapshot URL.
You can additionally customize an annotation object to alter its color, style, size, or add a custom image.
Set the color scheme Using the colorScheme parameter, you can generate Maps Web Snapshots to match the content and the Appearance setting of a person’s device. For example, to fetch and display a snapshot of Apple Park when the device is set to Dark Appearance, you can append colorScheme=dark to your snapshot URL.
Choose your terrain To display a particular type of map, append the parameter with correct map value: standard, satellite, or hybrid. For example, to fetch the satellite rendition of the Apple Park map, append t=satellite to your snapshot URL.
Now that you understand the fundamentals of Maps Web Snapshots, the best way to become familiar with the full extent of capabilities is by experimenting with Snapshots Studio.
Start a snapshot To preview a snapshot, begin by selecting an address or point of interest and choose your desired image dimensions and language.
Then, click the Show Snapshot button to see the default representation of your chosen location.
To modify results, you can use the snapshot map preview to customize the default annotation, choose a map type, and set the zoom factor.
Create your own snapshots Want to build embeddable Maps Web Snapshots? You’ll want to make sure you have the appropriate credentials. If you haven’t already created a Maps ID and MapKitJS private key, here’s how to do so:
*maps.* will be prepended to the string you enter. With your Map ID created, you’ll next create your MapKitJS private key.Learn how to create an identifier for your developer account
Learn how to create and register a private key
With the above credentials ready, head back to Snapshots Studio. Enter your developer team ID, MapKitJS key information, the domain you’ll refer the Snapshot from, then press the OK button to validate your credentials.
After validation, click the Show Snapshot button one more time.
Now, your map preview image will include a URL that can be placed on your website and linked to from wherever you wish.
Explore Dynamic Snapshots While the generated Maps URL contains all the maps details you configured in Snapshots Studio, it’s actually a flexible template with customizable parameters you can adjust each time the snapshot is requested. To explore all the options you can customize, check out the Maps Web Snapshots documentation for more information.
By default, you can display up to 25,000 unique Maps Web Snapshots requests free with your Apple Developer Program membership.
To avoid accesses that count toward your service limit, we recommend retrieving, storing, then embedding the rendered image rather than serve a link that retrieves the image at display time. If you need additional capacity for your implementation, please contact Developer Relations.
Starting January 27, 2022, intermediate certificate updates will be available for the Apple Push Notification service (APNs) and Developer ID.
APNs SSL certificates will be issued from a new intermediate certificate (Worldwide Developer Relations G4 sub CA) exclusively focused on APNs. Once the new certificate is active and available for download, you’ll be able to use it to send push notifications to apps (including VoIP), complications, websites on Safari, and Apple Wallet passes.
The digital certificates you use to sign your software and installer packages on macOS will be issued from a new Developer ID Intermediate Certificate that expires on September 16, 2031. Newly issued Developer ID certificates associated with the new intermediate certificate can be used to sign software on Xcode 11.4.1 and later. If you’re running Xcode 13.2 or later, the updated certificate will download automatically when you sign software after January 28, 2022. If you’re using an earlier version of Xcode, you can download the certificate manually or create certificates compatible with previous versions of Xcode.
Your existing certificates will continue to function until expiration or revocation, whichever comes first.
Learn about Developer ID Intermediate Certificate updates
Learn about Developer Relations Intermediate Certificate updates
December 15, 2021
Swift Playgrounds is the best and easiest way to learn how to code. And with Swift Playgrounds 4, you have the tools to build iPhone and iPad apps right on iPad and submit them directly to App Store Connect, providing a new way for you to easily create apps and share them with the world. Code is immediately reflected in the live preview as you build apps, and you can run your apps full screen to test them out. A new open project format based on Swift packages can be opened and edited in Swift Playgrounds for iPad, as well as within Xcode on Mac, offering you even more versatility to develop apps across iPad and Mac.
December 13, 2021
The Apple Developer Agreement, Program License Agreement, and Schedules 1, 2, and 3 have been updated to provide clarification, and to support updated policies and upcoming features. Please review the changes below and accept the updated terms as needed.
When taxes or foreign exchange rates change, we sometimes need to update prices on the App Store in certain regions and/or adjust your proceeds.
In the next few days, prices of apps and in-app purchases (excluding auto-renewable subscriptions) on the App Store will increase in Turkey. Your proceeds will be adjusted accordingly and will be calculated based on the tax-exclusive price.
Once these changes go into effect, the Pricing and Availability section of My Apps will be updated. You can change the price of your apps and in-app purchases (including auto-renewable subscriptions) at any time in App Store Connect. If you offer subscriptions, you can choose to preserve prices for existing subscribers.