Category: Apple Developer News

The most powerful MacBook Pro ever is here. With the blazing-fast M1 Pro or M1 Max chip your apps can take advantage of groundbreaking performance and amazing battery life. And along with a powerful Neural Engine for supercharged machine learning and upgraded media engines with ProRes support, the new MacBook Pro allows your apps to do things they never could before. Get your apps ready for the new supercharged MacBook Pro today.

Build Universal apps with Xcode 13.1. To take advantage of the incredible performance of Macs with M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max, use Xcode 13.1 to build your Mac app as a Universal app. Xcode automatically creates a binary slice optimized for Apple silicon Macs and another for Intel-based Macs, then puts them together as a single app bundle thats ready to distribute or submit to the Mac App Store.

Optimize for the new MacBook Pro display. The new MacBook Pro introduces a Liquid Retina XDR display that expands the active area of the display up around the new 1080p FaceTime HD camera. If your app delivers a full-screen experience and uses the default system menus, macOS Monterey automatically accounts for the area around the camera. If your app provides a custom full-screen experience or draws content over the menu bar, you may need to make a few adjustments to provide the best experience on this incredible new display. Learn about running your app in compatibility mode.

Download Xcode 13.1 RC

macOS Monterey offers powerful features and technologies that help you deliver elevated user experiences. Take advantage of SwiftUI, new and improved APIs for apps built with Mac Catalyst, an unparalleled suite of advanced GPU debugging tools and new features in Metal, the power of Shortcuts on Mac, the new StoreKit In-App Purchase API, and ShazamKit.

Build Universal apps with Xcode 13.1. To take advantage of the incredible performance of Macs with M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max, use Xcode 13.1 to build your Mac app as a Universal app. Xcode automatically creates a binary slice optimized for Apple silicon Macs and another for Intel-based Macs, then puts them together as a single app bundle that’s ready to submit to the Mac App Store. Update your product pages and submit your apps for review.

Please note that if you’re updating to macOS Monterey, you’ll also need to update to Xcode 13 (compatible with macOS Big Sur 11.3 or later).

Learn about submitting Mac apps

App Analytics in App Store Connect helps you see how people discover and engage with your app. Now you can view powerful new transaction metrics, including redownloads, total downloads, proceeds, pre-orders, and updates. Each metric can be displayed by territory, source type, device, and more, helping you understand what drives your app’s growth and success.

In addition, as of September 20, 2021, all sales metrics include data from Apple School Manager and Apple Business Manager, and from devices running iOS 7, macOS 10.14, tvOS 8, and earlier.

Learn about App Analytics

The updates to App Store Review Guideline 5.1.1 last June provided users with greater control over their personal data, stating that all apps that allow for account creation must also allow users to initiate deletion of their account from within the app. This requirement applies to all app submissions starting January 31, 2022. We encourage you to review any laws that may require you to maintain certain types of data, and to make sure your app clearly explains what data your app collects, how it collects that data, all uses of that data, your data retention/deletion policies, and more as described in the guideline. Examples of this type of data include electronic health records, and sales and warranty records. Please also confirm that the app privacy information on your product page is accurate.

View the guideline

The App Store provides a safe and trusted place to discover apps that meet high standards for privacy, security, and content. Since its introduction, the App Store has supported a way for users to report problems with their apps and purchases, and to request refunds. Now App Store product pages on iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey display a “Report a Problem“ link, so users can more easily report concerns with content they’ve purchased or downloaded. This feature is currently available for users in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, and will expand to other regions over time. In addition, users worldwide can now choose from “Report a scam or fraud” and “Report offensive, abusive, or illegal content” options at reportaproblem.apple.com, and report issues with their apps, including free apps that do not offer in-app purchases. Apple’s App Review, Discovery Fraud and Live Moderation, and Financial Fraud teams investigate reported problems for signs of fraud, manipulation, abuse and other violations of the App Store Review Guidelines, and will reach out to developers to resolve issues.

Problematic apps diminish the App Store experience for users and developers, and we’re constantly expanding techniques to identify even more types of problematic content for removal. If we suspect that a developer has engaged in purposeful manipulation, fraud or abuse, we will notify them and take action. Consequences may include removal of apps and may impact their Apple Developer Program membership, as described in App Store Review Guideline 5.6.

We are deeply committed to protecting users from problematic apps so that the App Store continues to provide an incredible opportunity for all developers.

Starting in October 2021, regulatory requirements in India will apply to the processing of recurring transactions. The Reserve Bank of India has issued a directive that will affect purchases in India initiated via credit cards and debit cards for auto-renewable subscriptions. This directive requires banks, financial institutions, and gateways to obtain user approval by conducting transaction notifications, e-mandates, and Additional Factors of Authentication (AFA) before the transaction can be completed. As a result, some transactions that don’t meet these requirements will be declined by banks or card issuers. For more information and updates, see the Reserve Bank of India website.

If you offer auto-renewable subscriptions in your app, you can do the following to help prevent or resolve declined transactions on the App Store:

Promote paying with Apple ID. Users who pay with their Apple ID balance will not be impacted by these requirements at this time. Users can add funds to their Apple ID using most credit and debit cards, Net Banking, RuPay, and UPI.

Provide a billing grace period. Enable Billing Grace Period in App Store Connect so subscribers with declined transactions or other payment issues have time to update their payment information while retaining access to your app’s paid content. There won’t be any interruption to the subscription’s days of paid service or to your revenue if payment is successful within the grace period.

When an issue occurs, you can provide in-app messaging that lets the user know about it and mention available payment methods, such as Apple ID balance, so they can fix the issue and retain access.

Learn about enabling Billing Grace Period for auto-renewable subscriptions.

September 27, 2021

The new iPad mini introduces a new screen resolution and aspect ratio with an edge-to-edge 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display, enabling even more immersive app and game experiences. If you’re following best practices with Auto Layout and size classes, your app’s interface will dynamically adapt to the new dimensions. However, if you’ve added UIRequiresFullScreen=YES to your app’s Info.plist in order to keep your app full screen during multitasking, you’ll need to recompile with Xcode 13 and the SDK for iPadOS 15 to take advantage of the full screen size. Test and submit your updated app in App Store Connect today.

Download Xcode 13

StoreKit 2. StoreKit 2 introduces powerful new Swift-based APIs that make supporting in-app purchases and subscriptions easier than ever. You can now easily determine product entitlements and eligibility for offers, quickly get a user’s history of in-app purchases, find out the latest status of a subscription with one simple check, provide a way to request refunds and manage subscriptions from within your app, and more. StoreKit 2 also uses Swift concurrency and JSON Web Signature to simplify how you retrieve product information and handle transactions. Available on iOS 15, iPadOS 15, tvOS 15, and watchOS 8.

App Store Server API. Support users and resolve in-app purchase issues more quickly with new App Store Server API now available in production.

• In-App Purchase History. Get a user’s history of in-app purchases.
• Subscription Status. Determine whether a subscription is active, expired, in billing retry, or in billing grace period.

App Store server notifications. Coming soon. Get real-time updates on your in-app purchases, so you can create customized experiences for your users. You can now take advantage of new notification types that cover more user events, including subscription expirations, offer redemptions, refunds, and more. You can also enter an optional URL in App Store Connect to receive server notifications in the App Store sandbox environment, separate from the URL that you use for production.

Learn about StoreKit 2

Learn about App Store server APIs

Learn about App Store server notifications

With iOS 15, users can download and store verifiable health records, including COVID-19 vaccinations and test results, in the Health app. Verifiable health records in the Health app are based on the SMART Health Cards specification. Users can choose to share verifiable health records stored in the Health app with approved third-party apps requesting this information, like airlines, event venues, and other businesses that facilitate in-person interactions. And in an upcoming software update, they can also choose to add verifiable COVID-19 vaccination records as a vaccination card in Apple Wallet to present to businesses, venues, and more.

Organizations that issue SMART Health Cards will soon be able to use a new button to let users know that they can securely download and store their vaccination information in the Health app and quickly add and present it from Wallet. Artwork and usage guidelines will be available soon.

Learn about verifiable health records

September 21, 2021

As you plan to update to macOS Monterey after the public release this fall, you’ll also need to update to Xcode 13 (which includes Xcode Cloud and the latest SDKs for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS). Xcode 13 is compatible with macOS Big Sur 11.3 or later.

Learn about Xcode 13