Category: Apple Developer News

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

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a critical security protocol used to protect web traffic. It provides confidentiality and integrity of data in transit between clients and servers exchanging information. As part of ongoing efforts to modernize platforms, and to improve security and reliability, TLS 1.0 and 1.1 have been deprecated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as of March 25, 2021. These versions have been deprecated on Apple platforms as of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15, and support will be removed in future releases.

If your app has enabled App Transport Security (ATS) on all connections, no changes are required. If your app continues to use legacy TLS 1.0 or 1.1, please make plans to transition to TLS 1.2 or later. We recommend supporting TLS 1.3, as it’s faster and more secure. Make sure your web servers support the later versions and remove the following deprecated Security.framework symbols from your app:

September 16, 2021

You can now easily create custom marketing assets — such as banners and images — to promote your apps on social media and more. Simply select your app, choose a template, customize your design, and add preset messages in multiple languages. Your assets will be available instantly in all the right sizes, making sharing easier than ever. You can also continue to use these App Store marketing tools to create short links or embeddable code that lead to your App Store product page and display your app icon, a QR code, or an App Store badge.

View marketing tools

iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, the world’s most advanced mobile operating systems, will soon be available to customers worldwide. Improve your app’s performance by refactoring your code to take advantage of asynchronous functions in Swift. Use SwiftUI to enhance your apps with new features, such as improved list views, better search experiences, and support for control focus areas. Take advantage of new notification APIs, offer Safari Web Extensions, and much more.

Build your apps using Xcode 13 Release Candidate, test them on devices running iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 Release Candidates, and submit them for review. Starting April 2022, all iOS and iPadOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with Xcode 13 and the iOS 15 SDK.

Learn more

Deliver even more powerful and personal apps for Apple Watch with the new capabilities of watchOS 8. With the Always-On Retina Display, your apps are always available at a quick glance. Gather HealthKit data and connect to Bluetooth peripherals in the background, delivering up-to-date information to your complications. AssistiveTouch makes your apps more accessible than ever. And the powerful new SwiftUI Canvas API lets you take advantage of the GPU in Apple Watch for rich programmatic drawing.

Build your apps using Xcode 13 Release Candidate, test them on devices running watchOS 8 Release Candidate and submit them for review. Starting April 2022, all watchOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with Xcode 13 and the watchOS 8 SDK.

Learn more

With the tvOS 15 SDK, you can let people sign in to your app and authorize purchases using Face ID or Touch ID on their iPhone or iPad. A redesigned playback UI provides users with convenient access to relevant controls and information while always focusing on the content. MusicKit makes it easy to integrate Apple Music into your tvOS apps using Swift. And the App Attest API helps validate the integrity of your app before your server provides access to sensitive data.

Build your apps using Xcode 13 Release Candidate, test them on Apple TV running tvOS 15 Release Candidate, and submit them for review.

Learn more

It wasn’t long after Prêt-à-Template founder and CEO Roberta Weiand launched her app in 2014 that it became a darling among fashion designers around the world.

With its library of templates, textures, and patterns, the app lets anyone sketch their dream outfit. Start with the outline of a model (there are dozens of body types to choose from). Add an article of clothing—whether a cropped jacket or an A-line dress. Then let your imagination run wild by using true-to-life brushes, textile patterns, and more to bring the details of your vision to life.

We spoke to Weiand about her inspiration and how users are finding their creativity in the app.

What inspired you to create Prêt-à-Template?
I went to university for fashion design, and after graduation I taught at a university in my hometown. But I always had a problem: I didn’t know how to design on a big scale on the big whiteboards. I started to download many design apps, but I couldn’t find any related to fashion. So I thought, why not create one?

What has the response been like? Many people don’t take fashion courses because they don’t know how to draw, but they tell us that the app makes it much easier to develop an idea. It streamlines the prototyping process as well.

How has the app evolved since launch? We have many body templates. We heard from a student who was passionate about dwarfism and she asked us why we didn’t have those templates in the app. We started to research, and with her help we created them.

What’s next for Prêt-à-Template?
We’re working to make it feel more alive. We also develop Prêt-à-Makeup, and in that app we have a lot of realism in the brushes; if you turn the iPad, you can see the light changing. We’re going to borrow the realism we started in that app for Prêt-à-Template’s textures.

What advice do you have for aspiring developers?
Look for something that has meaning in your life, that solves a problem. Form a good team that believes in the same things as you. Always be open and listen to your users — nothing is more valuable than what they have to contribute.

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Download Prêt-à-Template from the App Store

Learn more about the App Store Small Business Program