Category: Apple Developer News

To help you describe your app’s content more precisely, the age rating settings in App Store Connect have been refined. The Gambling and Contests setting is now split into two settings, allowing you to indicate these content types separately. They’re also indicated separately on the App Store.

If your answer to the Gambling and Contests setting was Yes, the update automatically reflects that your app includes instances of Gambling. Contests will be marked as Frequent/Intense. If your answer was No, the update automatically reflects that your app does not include instances of Gambling or Contests.

In addition, you can access age rating settings directly from the App Information section in App Store Connect. Apps that offer Universal Purchase display the same age rating on the App Store across all platforms. You can make changes to your age rating settings when submitting a new version of your app and your app’s availability in certain regions will be updated based on local laws.

Learn more about age rating settings

Apple helps keep the App Store a safe and trusted place for users to discover apps by detecting and taking action against fraudulent developers and users.

Threats have been present since the first day the App Store launched on iPhone, and they’ve increased in both scale and sophistication in the years since. Apple has likewise scaled its efforts to meet those threats, taking relentless steps forward to combat these risks to users and developers alike.

It takes significant resources behind the scenes to ensure these bad actors can’t exploit users’ most sensitive information, from location to payment details. While it’s impossible to catch every act of fraud or ill intent before it happens, thanks to Apple’s industry-leading antifraud efforts, security experts agree the App Store is the safest place to find and download apps.*

In 2020 alone, Apple’s combination of sophisticated technology and human expertise protected customers from more than $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions, preventing the attempted theft of their money, information, and time — and kept nearly a million risky and vulnerable new apps out of their hands.

App Review

The App Review team is an essential line of defense, carefully reviewing every app and every update to ensure they adhere to the App Store’s strong guidelines on privacy, security, and spam. The guidelines have changed over time to respond to new threats and challenges, with the goal of protecting users and providing them with the very best experience on the App Store.

Apple’s goal is always to get new apps onto the store. In 2020, the team assisted more than 180,000 new developers in launching apps. Sometimes this takes a few tries. An app might be unfinished or not functioning properly when it’s submitted for approval, or it might not yet have a sufficient mechanism for moderating user-generated content. In 2020, nearly 1 million problematic new apps, and an additional nearly 1 million app updates, were rejected or removed for a range of reasons like those.

A smaller but significant set of these rejections was for egregious violations that could harm users or deeply diminish their experience. In 2020 alone, the App Review team rejected more than 48,000 apps for containing hidden or undocumented features, and more than 150,000 apps were rejected because they were found to be spam, copycats, or misleading to users in ways such as manipulating them into making a purchase.

Some developers perform a bait and switch: fundamentally changing how the app works after review to evade guidelines and commit forbidden and even criminal actions. When such apps are discovered, they’re rejected or removed immediately from the store, and developers are notified of a 14-day appeals process before their accounts are permanently terminated. In 2020, about 95,000 apps were removed from the App Store for fraudulent violations, predominantly for these kind of bait-and-switch maneuvers.

In just the last few months, for example, Apple has rejected or removed apps that switched functionality after initial review to become real-money gambling apps, predatory loan issuers, and pornography hubs; used in-game signals to facilitate drug purchasing; and rewarded users for broadcasting illicit and pornographic content via video chat.

Another common reason apps are rejected is they simply ask for more user data than they need, or mishandle the data they do collect. In 2020, the App Review team rejected over 215,000 apps for those sorts of privacy violations. Apple believes privacy is a fundamental right, and this commitment is a major reason why users choose the App Store.

Even with these stringent review safeguards in place, with 1.8 million apps on the App Store, problems still surface. Users can report problematic apps by choosing the Report a Problem feature on the App Store or calling Apple Support, and developers can use either of those methods or additional channels like Feedback Assistant and Apple Developer Support.

Fraudulent Ratings and Reviews

App Store ratings and reviews help many users make decisions about which apps to download, and developers rely on them to incorporate new features that respond to user feedback. Apple relies on a sophisticated system that combines machine learning, artificial intelligence, and human review by expert teams to moderate these ratings and reviews to help ensure accuracy and maintain trust. Since 2020, Apple has processed over 1 billion ratings and over 100 million reviews, and over 250 million ratings and reviews were removed for not meeting moderation standards.

Apple also recently deployed new tools to verify rating and review account authenticity, to analyze written reviews for signs of fraud, and to ensure that content from deactivated accounts is removed.

Account Fraud

Unfortunately, sometimes developer accounts are created entirely for fraudulent purposes. If a developer violation is egregious or repeated, the offender is expelled from the Apple Developer Program and their account terminated. Apple terminated 470,000 developer accounts in 2020 and rejected an additional 205,000 developer enrollments over fraud concerns, preventing them from ever submitting an app to the store.

Despite fraudsters’ sophisticated techniques to obscure their actions, Apple’s aggressive monitoring means these accounts are terminated, on average, less than a month after they are created.

Apple’s work to ensure the safety of users who download apps extends even beyond the App Store. Over the last 12 months, Apple found and blocked nearly 110,000 illegitimate apps on pirate storefronts. These storefronts distribute malicious software often designed to resemble popular apps — or that modify popular apps without their developers’ authorization — while circumventing the App Store’s security protections.

And in just the last month, Apple blocked more than 3.2 million instances of apps distributed illicitly through the Apple Developer Enterprise Program. The program is designed to allow companies and other large organizations to develop and privately distribute internal-use apps to their employees that aren’t available to the general public. Fraudsters attempt to distribute apps via this method to circumvent the rigorous App Review process, or to implicate a legitimate enterprise by manipulating an insider to leak credentials needed to ship illicit content.

In addition to fraudulent developer accounts, Apple works to identify and deactivate fraudulent user accounts. In 2020 alone, Apple deactivated 244 million customer accounts due to fraudulent and abusive activity. In addition, 424 million attempted account creations were rejected because they displayed patterns consistent with fraudulent and abusive activity.

Payment and Credit Card Fraud

Financial information and transactions are some of the most sensitive data that users share online. Apple has invested significant resources in building more secure payment technologies like Apple Pay and StoreKit, which are used by more than 900,000 apps to sell goods and services on the App Store. For example, with Apple Pay, credit card numbers are never shared with merchants — eliminating a risk factor in the payment transaction process.

With online data breaches frustratingly common, these protections are an essential part of keeping users safe. But users may not realize that when their credit card information is breached or stolen from another source, fraudsters may turn to online marketplaces like the App Store to attempt to purchase digital goods and services that can be laundered or used for illicit purposes.

Apple focuses relentlessly on this kind of fraud as well. In 2020 alone, the fusion of sophisticated technology and human review prevented more than 3 million stolen cards from being used to purchase stolen goods and services and banned nearly 1 million accounts from transacting again. In total, Apple protected users from more than $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions in 2020.

From App Review, to fraudulent account detection, to prevention of financial crimes, Apple works around the clock and behind the scenes to keep the App Store a safe and trusted place for users and developers alike.

* nokia.com/networks/portfolio/cyber-security/threat-intelligence-report-2020; media.defense.gov

In addition to the Siri Remote, tvOS provides support for a variety of hardware and software remotes with touch or button interfaces. When your app uses standard frameworks — like UIKit and AVKit — tvOS will automatically handle remote interactions to provide a consistent and familiar experience. If you have an app that includes custom interface elements or media players, you can still easily support navigation and content-based features for hardware and software remotes with both touch and button interfaces. Here’s how.

Explore app navigation

On Apple TV, people use a remote or game controller to navigate through interface elements like content posters, apps, or buttons, highlighting each item as they come to it. The highlighted item is said to be focused or in focus. The focus engine in UIKit controls focus and movement on tvOS, listens for incoming focus-movement events triggered from a remote or game controller, and notifies your app so you can provide the appropriate experience. All standard gestures in tvOS work with directional remotes by default, and you can also provide support in your app for custom gestures with classes like UITapGestureRecognizer.

About focus interactions for Apple TV

Adapt custom gestures for directional remotes
If you support custom gestures that control special actions within your app’s interface, you can add UITapGestureRecognizer to map to an explicit directional event.

let customGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(specialAction))
customGesture.allowedPressTypes = [.downArrow]
view.addGestureRecognizer(customGesture)

UITapGestureRecognizer

Learn more about detecting gestures and button presses

Explore the App Programming Guide for tvOS

Support remotes with dedicated channel and guide buttons
Some Apple TV-compatible remotes offer dedicated guide buttons and up and down arrows to control channel changes and electronic programming guide paging functionality. If your app includes channels or a programming guide, you can support these interactions on remotes with dedicated buttons through the TV Services framework.

Providing Channel Navigation

Support playback interactions in a custom video player

If your app includes video content, you can use AVPlayerViewController to provide the best experience across all remote types. If you’ve created a custom video player, however, you can use UITapGestureRecognizer map specific remote buttons to playback interactions as well as MPRemoteCommandCenter to handle media player events.

MPRemoteCommandCenter

Becoming a Now Playable App

Remote Command Center Events

Play and pause
When someone plays content in your app, pressing select, play, pause or play/pause should update the playback state and display the player transport bar. You’ll need to use UITapGestureRecognizer and MPRemoteCommandCenter to handle these interactions in your custom player.

let playPauseGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(togglePlaybackState)
playPauseGesture.allowedPressTypes = [.playPause, .select]
view.addGestureRecognizer(playPauseGesture) let remoteCommandCenter = MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared()
remoteCommandCenter.playCommand.addTarget(self, action: #selector(playHandler))
remoteCommandCenter.pauseCommand.addTarget(self, action: #selector(pauseHandler))

Skip forward and skip backward
When using a directional remote, people can skip through video in the appropriate direction by pressing left or right on the directional pad. Additionally, certain remotes have dedicated skip forward and skip backward buttons that can map to this functionality. To ensure someone can navigate forward and backward through your content, use UITapGestureRecognizer and MPRemoteCommandCenter to create the correct gestures.

let dPadLeftGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(dPadLeftHandler))
dPadLeftGesture.allowedPressTypes = [NSNumber(value: UIPress.PressType.leftArrow.rawValue)]
view.addGestureRecognizer(dPadLeftGesture) let dPadRightGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(dPadRightHandler))
dPadRightGesture.allowedPressTypes = [NSNumber(value: UIPress.PressType.rightArrow.rawValue)]
view.addGestureRecognizer(dPadRightGesture) let remoteCommandCenter = MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared()
remoteCommandCenter.skipForwardCommand.addTarget(self, action: #selector(skipForwardHandler))
remoteCommandCenter.skipBackwardCommand.addTarget(self, action: #selector(skipBackwardHandler))

Fast forward and rewind
People can fast forward and rewind through content in different ways depending on the remote they use. Some remotes offer dedicated fast forward and rewind buttons, while others achieve this with a long press on the left or right directional pad buttons.

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Note: On tvOS, we recommend using the following UI labels to pair with the corresponding supported player rates.

UI Labels to tvOS Playback Rates
1x = 8.0
2x = 24.0
3x = 48.0
4x = 96.0

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Dedicated fast forward and rewind buttons
For remotes with dedicated fast forward and rewind buttons, a short press will initiate a continuous seek forward or backward. Each subsequent press of that button will increase the seek rate. Once someone passes the last seek rate, the player returns to its normal playback rate. If the opposite button is pressed while seeking, it decreases the seek rate; each subsequent press will do the same until the player returns to its normal playback rate.

You can support these controls in your app with changePlaybackRateCommand in MPRemoteCommandCenter. You’ll also want to make sure to update your player rate with the playbackRate property of the MPChangePlaybackRateCommandEvent.

If someone holds a dedicated fast forward or rewind button, MPRemoteCommandCenter will fire a seekForwardCommand or seekBackwardCommand. Your registered target will receive MPSeekCommandEventType.beginSeeking, and your app should set the player to the desired seek rate. Once someone releases the button, your app receives a new command event with the case MPSeekCommandEventType.endSeeking, telling it to return the player rate to normal.

Directional pad fast forward and rewind
If a person long presses the left or right directional pad buttons, your app should seek forward or backward respectively and update the seek rate. While seeking, a person can use a short press on the left or right directional pad buttons to update the seek rate as described in the previous section.

Adopt fast forward and rewind in your custom video player
To incorporate these gestures in your app for all remotes, you’ll want to use MPRemoteCommandCenter, UITapGestureRecognizer and UILongPressGestureRecognizer.

// MPRemoteCommands to handle dedicated fast forward and rewind buttons
let remoteCommandCenter = MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared() // MPRemoteCommands to handle dedicated fast forward and rewind (short presses)
remoteCommandCenter.changePlaybackRateCommand.addTarget { [unowned self] event in guard let event = event as? MPChangePlaybackRateCommandEvent else { return .commandFailed } self.assetPlayer.player.rate = event.playbackRate return .success
} // MPRemoteCommands to handle dedicated fast forward button (long press)
remoteCommandCenter.seekForwardCommand.addTarget { [unowned self] event in guard let event = event as? MPSeekCommandEvent else { return .commandFailed } if event.type == .beginSeeking { self.assetPlayer.player.rate = 24.0 } if event.type == .endSeeking { self.assetPlayer.player.rate = 1.0 } return .success
} // MPRemoteCommands to handle dedicated rewind button (long press)
remoteCommandCenter.seekBackwardCommand.addTarget { [unowned self] event in guard let event = event as? MPSeekCommandEvent else { return .commandFailed } if event.type == .beginSeeking { self.assetPlayer.player.rate = -24.0 } if event.type == .endSeeking { self.assetPlayer.player.rate = 1.0 } return .success
} // Gestures to handle fast forward and rewind from directional pad // Gesture to handle dpad right (long press)
let dPadRightLong = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(dPadRightLongHandler))
dPadRightLong.allowedPressTypes = [NSNumber(value: UIPress.PressType.rightArrow.rawValue)]
view.addGestureRecognizer(dPadRightLong) // Gesture to handle dpad left (long press)
let dPadLeftLong = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(dPadLeftLongHandler))
dPadLeftLong.allowedPressTypes = [NSNumber(value: UIPress.PressType.leftArrow.rawValue)]
view.addGestureRecognizer(dPadLeftLong) // Gesture to handle dpad right (short press)
let dPadRightGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(dPadRightHandler))
dPadRightGesture.allowedPressTypes = [NSNumber(value: UIPress.PressType.rightArrow.rawValue)]
view.addGestureRecognizer(dPadRightGesture) // Gesture to handle dpad left (short press)
let dPadLeftGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(dPadLeftHandler))
dPadLeftGesture.allowedPressTypes = [NSNumber(value: UIPress.PressType.leftArrow.rawValue)]
view.addGestureRecognizer(dPadLeftGesture)

Support additional interactions in a custom player

People expect up or down swipes or presses to provide a consistent experience during video playback, like showing the player controls and transport bar on a press or swipe up, or showing the information panel on a swipe or press down.

Transport Bar
People should be able to see how much time remains on a piece of content. Swiping up or pressing up on a directional pad should show the player’s transport bar without stopping or pausing the player.

let upGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: .upGestureRecognizer)
upGesture.allowedPressTypes = [.upArrow]
view.addGestureRecognizer(upGesture)

Information Panel
People should be able to access subtitle and audio selections along with other options while viewing content. Swiping down or pressing down on a directional pad should show these options without stopping or pausing the player.

let downGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: .downGestureRecognizer)
downGesture.allowedPressTypes = [.downArrow]
view.addGestureRecognizer(downGesture)

Putting Your Users In Control
No matter which interaction method someone chooses to use with Apple TV, you can ensure they remain in control by offering a great experience in your app for all remotes. It’s easy when you use system frameworks like AVFoundation and AVKit and support custom gestures and media interactions with UITapGestureRecognizer and MPRemoteCommandCenter. And when you do, it lets people enjoy your content without worrying how to interact with your app.

May 4, 2021

Apple Search Ads has always made it easy to promote your apps at the top of relevant search results on the App Store. Now you can reach users even before they search with an ad placement on the Search tab. It’s a simple and effective way to help users discover your apps. Try Apple Search Ads for free with a 100 USD credit.

Learn more about Apple Search Ads

The App Store provides a safe and trusted place for users around the world to discover and download your apps. And now with search suggestions, it provides another great discovery method. When users search on the App Store, they see suggested search terms related to what they’re looking for. Tapping a suggestion adjusts their search, so they’ll easily find even more apps that might fit their needs. App Store search is one of the main ways that users discover apps, and developers are already seeing more downloads from those who use these suggestions.

Search suggestions are currently available in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Additional regions will be made available over time.

Learn best practices for App Store search optimization

Private Click Measurement is now available in iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, allowing advertising networks to measure the effectiveness of advertisement clicks within apps and websites that navigate to a website. This information can be used to understand which advertisements drive conversions (such as purchases or signups) — while maintaining user privacy.

Starting with the beta release of iOS 14.6 and iPadOS 14.6, advertising networks that use SKAdNetwork 3.0 are eligible to receive attribution postbacks if their advertisement does not win the attribution. This allows up to five advertising networks to see when an advertisement they ran was a runner-up to an app installation.

Learn more about SKAdNetwork

Last year, to support apps that adapted services from in-person to digital due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we temporarily deferred the requirement to offer paid online group event services (one-to-few and one-to-many realtime services) through in-app purchase in accordance with App Store Review Guideline 3.1.1. As the world continues to recover from the pandemic, we’d like to support the communities that are still providing digital services in place of in-person group events by extending the deadline further to December 31, 2021.

As a reminder, guideline 3.1.3(d) allows apps offering realtime person-to-person services between two individuals (for example, tutoring students, medical consultations, real estate tours, or fitness training) to use purchase methods other than in-app purchase.

Make sure your apps make the most of iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7. Build your apps with the Xcode 12.5 Release Candidate, update your product pages, and submit them for review.

iPhone and iPad apps. Starting April 26, 2021, all iPhone and iPad apps submitted to the App Store must be built with Xcode 12 and the iOS 14 SDK or later. The iOS SDK provides access to exciting new features like App Clips, Home screen widgets, ARKit, RealityKit, and much more.

Learn more

Apple Watch apps. Starting April 26, 2021, all watchOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with Xcode 12 and the watchOS 7 SDK or later. The watchOS 7 SDK lets you create multiple complications for each complication family using new ClockKit APIs, SwiftUI Complications, and Xcode Previews — so users can enjoy your app right on their watch face.

Learn more

With the upcoming public release of iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, all apps must use the AppTrackingTransparency framework to request the user’s permission to track them or to access their device’s advertising identifier. Unless you receive permission from the user to enable tracking, the device’s advertising identifier value will be all zeros and you may not track them.

When submitting your app for review, any other form of tracking — for example, by name or email address — must be declared in the product page’s App Store Privacy Information section and be performed only if permission is granted through AppTrackingTransparency. You’ll also need to include a purpose string in the system prompt to explain why you’d like to track the user, per App Store Review Guideline 5.1.2(i). These requirements apply to all apps starting April 26, 2021.

As a reminder, collecting device and usage data with the intent of deriving a unique representation of a user, or fingerprinting, continues to be a violation of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement.

Learn more about user privacy and data use

It’s now simpler than ever for developers around the world to enroll in the Apple Developer Program. As of today, the Apple Developer app also supports enrollment in Canada, France, India, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, and Spain.

Developers can start and finish their membership purchase with local payment methods on iPhone or iPad. And since membership is provided as an auto-renewable subscription, keeping it active is easy.

View on the App Store