Apple Developer News and Updates feed provided by Apple, Inc.
October 15, 2020
Now you can let customers pre-order your app up to 180 days before it’s released for download on the App Store. Take advantage of this longer lead time to build more excitement for your app’s features, services, and content, and to encourage more pre-orders. Once your app is released, customers will be notified and it will automatically download to their device within 24 hours.
Discover how you can create unparalleled augmented reality experiences within your apps and games on iOS and iPadOS. We’ll show you how to work with powerful frameworks like ARKit and RealityKit, bring your AR scenes to life with creative tools like Reality Composer and Reality Converter, and take advantage of LiDAR Scanner depth data.
Discover how you can take advantage of the LiDAR Scanner on iPhone and iPad to create AR experiences that interact with real-world objects. When you pair the LiDAR Scanner with the ARKit and RealityKit frameworks in your app, you can instantly place AR objects in the real world without scanning and take advantage of depth information to create experiences with real-world physics, object occlusion, and lighting effects.
ARKit 3.5 and RealityKit provide new capabilities that take full advantage of the LiDAR Scanner on the new iPad Pro. Check out ARKit 3.5 and learn about Scene Geometry, enhanced raycasting, instantaneous virtual object placement, and more. See how RealityKit takes advantage of these features to…
Visualizing and Interacting with a Reconstructed Scene
Creating a Fog Effect Using Scene Depth
Visualizing a Point Cloud Using Scene Depth
Creating a Game with SceneUnderstanding
ARKit 4 enables you to build the next generation of augmented reality apps to transform how people connect with the world around them, while RealityKit is Apple’s rendering, animation, physics, and audio engine built from the ground up for augmented reality. Both frameworks help developers prototype and produce high-quality AR experiences. Explore an overview of each framework to learn more about building a great augmented reality experience for your app or game, including harnessing the LiDAR Scanner on iPhone and iPad, tracking faces for AR, and more.
ARKit 4 enables you to build the next generation of augmented reality apps to transform how people connect with the world around them. We’ll walk you through the latest improvements to Apple’s augmented reality platform, including how to use Location Anchors to connect virtual objects with a…
RealityKit is Apple’s rendering, animation, physics, and audio engine built from the ground up for augmented reality: It reimagines the traditional 3D renderer to make it easy for developers to prototype and produce high-quality AR experiences. Learn how to effectively implement each of the…
Explore the ARKit Developer Forums
Explore the RealityKit Developer Forums
LiDAR is only one aspect of developing for augmented reality. Dive deeper into ARKit and RealityKit to discover how you can add new dimensions to retail experiences, or pair these frameworks with Machine Learning and Computer Vision to create even smarter apps or games.
The HTTP/2-based Apple Push Notification service (APNs) provider API lets you take advantage of great features, such as authentication with a JSON Web Token, improved error messaging, and per-notification feedback. If you send push notifications with the legacy binary protocol, we strongly recommend upgrading to the APNs provider API.
To give you additional time to prepare, the deadline to upgrade to the APNs provider API has been extended to March 31, 2021. APNs will no longer support the legacy binary protocol after this date.
Apple designed WKWebView in 2014 to ensure that you can integrate web content into your app quickly, securely, and consistently across iOS and macOS. Since then, we’ve recommended that you adopt WKWebView instead of UIWebView and WebView — both of which were formally deprecated. New apps containing these frameworks are no longer accepted by the App Store. And last year, we announced that the App Store will no longer accept app updates containing UIWebView as of December 2020.
However, to provide additional time for you to adopt WKWebView and to ensure that it supports the features most often requested by developers, this deadline for app updates has been extended beyond the end of 2020. We’ll let you know when a new deadline is confirmed.
October 8, 2020
Now it’s simpler than ever for developers based in the United Kingdom and Ireland to enroll in the Apple Developer Program. The Apple Developer app now supports enrollment in these regions, allowing developers to 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.
App Store server notifications provide real-time updates on a subscriber’s status, so you can create customized user experiences. The following new notifications are now available in the App Store sandbox environment and you can use them in production later this year:
DID_RENEW lets you know when a subscriber successfully auto-renews.PRICE_INCREASE_CONSENT lets you know when the App Store starts asking users to agree to your subscription’s new price, so you can remind them of your service’s value as encouragement to stay subscribed.In addition, the following will be deprecated in the App Store sandbox environment in November 2020: RENEWAL notifications and these top-level objects: latest_receipt, latest_receipt_info, latest_expired_receipt, and latest_expired_receipt_info. Update your code to continue providing a seamless user experience.
September 29, 2020
Take advantage of new marketing resources to promote your apps around the world. You can now generate 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. Download localized App Store badges, your app icon, and more.
The latest version of Schoolwork, the powerful iPad app for teachers and students that helps them keep track of assignments and student progress, is now available. Make sure your app takes advantage of the latest ClassKit features to provide a great user experience. With the new ClassKit Catalog API, you can declare contexts ahead of time instead of at runtime, include keywords, and support a large number of assignable activities. Teachers can browse your app’s activities in Schoolwork before running your app for the first time on their device. Available in beta, this REST API can be tested with Schoolwork 2.1. And on iPadOS 14, ClassKit supports rich new metadata properties to make your content more discoverable by teachers in Schoolwork.
Make sure your apps are ready when iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 become available to customers worldwide. Give users a quick way to engage with a part of your app at the right moment with App Clips. Let users experience your app right on their iPhone home screen with new widgets. Bring your ideas to life with new features and more realistic augmented reality experiences using ARKit and RealityKit. And much more.
Build your apps using Xcode 12 GM seed, test them on devices running iOS 14 and iPadOS GM seed, and submit them for review. Starting April 2021, all iOS and iPadOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with Xcode 12 and the iOS 14 SDK.
Level up your apps and games with the Game Controller framework and easily build in support for popular console game controllers and MFi accessories on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. The precise control and tactile feedback provided by a game controller can deepen the player’s sense of immersion and enhance their gameplay experience. And now it’s easier than ever to help players discover which games support controllers.
With Xcode 12, you can indicate game controller support right when building your app. By indicating controller support, your App Store product page will display controller badging, and your app will be able to access controller input re-mapping options in Settings.
To indicate controller support, follow a few simple steps:
Note: “Extended Gamepad” refers to game controllers featuring physical buttons, triggers, and thumbsticks such as the Steelseries Nimbus, Sony Dualshock 4 Wireless Controller, Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, and others; and “Micro Gamepad” refers to the controls provided by the Siri Remote for Apple TV.
If you are building your app using an older version of Xcode, you can indicate controller support by editing the info.plist for your app. Set the GCSupportsControllerUserInteraction key to true, then indicate each of the controller profiles your app supports.
<key>GCSupportsControllerUserInteraction</key> <true/> <key>GCSupportedGameControllers</key> <array> <dict> <key>ProfileName</key> <string>ExtendedGamepad</string> </dict> </array>The Game Controller framework offers powerful features for your apps across Apple platforms. And with iOS 14, tvOS 14, and macOS Big Sur, your app will also gain support for the Xbox Adaptive Controller and Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, custom haptics for rumble feedback, and keyboard and mouse input on iPad. For more information, be sure to check out “Advancements in Game Controllers” and “Bring keyboard and mouse gaming to iPad.”
Let’s rumble! Discover how you can bring third-party game controllers and custom haptics into your games on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. We’ll show you how to add support for the latest controllers — including Xbox’s Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 and Adaptive Controller — and map…
Level up your iPad games and add in keyboard, mouse, and trackpad controls. Discover how to use the Game Controller framework to augment your existing titles, bring over games from other platforms, or dream up entirely new interaction experiences. Learn how to integrate keyboard and “delta”…