Tag: News

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Upcoming changes to the App Store receipt signing certificate – Latest News


Starting January 18, 2023, the App Store receipt signing certificate will use a new WWDR intermediate certificate. The existing intermediate certificate expires on February 7, 2023. In most cases, this certificate change won’t require changes to apps. However, we recommend reviewing how you verify the sale of your apps and in-app purchases from the App Store to make sure your apps aren’t impacted.

If you verify App Store transactions using the AppTransaction and Transaction APIs, or the verifyReceipt web service endpoint, no action is required.

If you validate App Store receipts on device using the App Store receipt signing certificate, make sure you haven’t hardcoded the intermediate certificate and verify that the chain of trust for the container’s signature matches the Apple Inc. Root Certificate.

Additional details on App Store receipt validation:

Validating receipts with the App Store

Choosing a receipt validation technique



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Ask Apple Q&As and survey – Latest News


December 20, 2022

Thank you to everyone who joined us during three great weeks of Ask Apple in October, November, and December. Q&As remain available in Slack for Ask Apple participants to review as needed.

If you haven’t already told us about your experience in Q&As, we’d love to get your feedback in our short survey. It only takes a few minutes to complete and your responses will be anonymous.

We’re excited to connect with you again soon.

Take the survey



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A new week of Ask Apple starts December 12 – Latest News


Join us for another exciting week of Ask Apple, where you can connect directly with Apple experts to get your latest technical and design questions answered — or just hang out and learn from the conversation. Ask about using the latest frameworks, improving your app’s UI design, developing with beta OS software and tools, and so much more.

Online one-on-one consultations and group Q&As will run December 12 to 16, with activities in multiple languages and time zones. Registration is open now to current members of the Apple Developer Program and Apple Developer Enterprise Program.

Learn more



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Apple announces biggest upgrade to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points – Latest News


Developers will also gain new flexibility to manage pricing globally

Apple today announced the most comprehensive upgrade to pricing capabilities since the App Store first launched, providing developers with 700 additional price points and new pricing tools that will make it easier to set prices per App Store country or region, manage foreign exchange rate changes, and more.

Since the App Store’s inception, its world-class commerce and payments system has empowered developers to conveniently set up and sell their products and services on a global scale. The App Store’s commerce and payments system offers developers an ever-expanding set of capabilities and tools to grow their businesses, from frictionless checkout and transparent invoicing for users to robust marketing tools, tax and fraud services, and refund management.

Pricing has been foundational to these capabilities, enabling developers to choose from a variety of business models, such as one-time purchases and multiple subscription types. These new pricing enhancements will be available for apps offering auto-renewable subscriptions starting today, and for all other apps and in-app purchases in spring 2023, giving all developers unprecedented flexibility and control to price their products in 45 currencies throughout 175 storefronts.

Under the updated App Store pricing system, all developers will have the ability to select from 900 price points, which is nearly 10 times the number of price points previously available for most apps. This includes 600 new price points to choose from, with an additional 100 higher price points available upon request. To provide developers around the world with even more flexibility, price points — which will start as low as $0.29 and, upon request, go up to $10,000 — will offer an enhanced selection of price points, increasing incrementally across price ranges (for example, every $0.10 up to $10; every $0.50 between $10 and $50; etc.). See the table below for details.

In each of the App Store’s 175 storefronts, developers will be able to leverage additional pricing conventions, including those that begin with two repeating digits (e.g., ₩110,000), and will be able to price products beyond $0.99 or €X.99 endings to incorporate rounded price endings (e.g., x.00 or x.90), which are particularly useful for managing bundles and annual plans.

Starting today, developers of subscription apps will also be able to manage currency and taxes across storefronts more effortlessly by choosing a local storefront they know best as the basis for automatically generating prices across the other 174 storefronts and 44 currencies. Developers will still be able to define prices per storefront if they wish. The pricing capability by storefront will expand to all other apps in spring 2023.

For developers distributing their apps around the world, the App Store’s global equalization tools have given them a simple and convenient way to manage pricing across international markets. Today’s enhancements expand upon these capabilities, allowing developers to keep their local currency constant in any storefront of their choice, even as foreign exchange and taxes fluctuate. This means, for example, a Japanese game developer who gets most of their business from Japanese customers can set their price for the Japan storefront, and have their prices outside of the country update as foreign exchange and tax rates change. All developers will also be able to define availability of in-app purchases by storefront.

Periodically, Apple updates prices in certain regions based on changes in taxes and foreign exchange rates. This is done using publicly available exchange rate information from financial data providers to help ensure prices for in-app purchases stay equalized across all storefronts. Currently, developers can adjust pricing at any time to react to tax and foreign currency adjustments. Coming in 2023, developers with paid apps and in-app purchases will be able to set local territory pricing, which will not be impacted by automatic price adjustments.

These newly announced tools, which will begin rolling out today and continue throughout 2023, will create even more flexibility for developers to price their products while staying approachable to the hundreds of millions of users Apple serves worldwide, and in turn help developers continue to thrive on the App Store.

Learn more about auto-renewable subscriptions

Learn about pricing for auto-renewable subscriptions



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Get your apps ready for the holidays – Latest News


November 30, 2022

The busiest season on the App Store is almost here! Make sure your apps and product pages are up to date and ready in advance of the upcoming holidays. We’re pleased to remain open throughout the season again this year and look forward to accepting your submissions. On average, 90% of submissions are reviewed in less than 24 hours. However, reviews may take a bit longer to complete from December 23 to 27.

Learn about submitting apps

Get tips to prevent review issues



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Apple News presents After the Whistle with Brendan Hunt and Rebecca Lowe podcast





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A new week of Ask Apple starts November 14 – Latest News


Join us for another exciting week of the Ask Apple developer series, where you can connect directly with Apple experts. Ask about integrating the latest technologies into your apps, designing intuitive UIs, testing on the latest software, and so much more.

Online one-on-one consultations and group Q&As will run November 14 to 18, with activities in multiple languages and time zones. Registration is open now to current members of the Apple Developer Program and Apple Developer Enterprise Program.

And stay tuned for details on the next round of the Ask Apple developer series taking place in December.

Learn more



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App Store Review Guideline updates now available – Latest News


October 24, 2022

The App Store Review Guidelines have been updated to support new features in upcoming OS releases, better protect customers, and help your apps go through the review process as smoothly as possible.

  • Revised in Before You Submit: “Provide App Review with full access to your app. If your app includes account-based features, provide either an active demo account or fully-featured demo mode, plus any other hardware or resources that might be needed to review your app (e.g. login credentials or a sample QR code).”
  • Revised 1.1.4: “This includes ‘hookup’ apps and other apps that may include pornography or be used to facilitate prostitution, or human trafficking and exploitation.”
  • Added 1.1.7: “Harmful concepts which capitalize or seek to profit on recent or current events, such as violent conflicts, terrorist attacks, and epidemics.”
  • Added to 2.1: “If you are unable to provide a demo account due to legal or security obligations, you may include a built-in demo mode in lieu of a demo account with prior approval by Apple. Ensure the demo mode exhibits your app’s full features and functionality.”
  • Added 2.5.17: “Apps that support Matter must use Apple’s support framework for Matter to initiate pairing. In addition, if you choose to use any Matter software component in your app other than the Matter SDK provided by Apple, the software component must be certified by the Connectivity Standards Alliance for the platform it runs on.”
  • Moved language from 3.1.7 to 2.5.18: “Display advertising should be limited to your main app binary, and should not be included in extensions, App Clips, widgets, notifications, keyboards, watchOS apps, etc. Ads displayed in an app must be appropriate for the app’s age rating, allow the user to see all information used to target them for that ad (without requiring the user to leave the app), and may not engage in targeted or behavioral advertising based on sensitive user data such as health/medical data (e.g. from the HealthKit APIs), school and classroom data (e.g. from ClassKit), or from kids (e.g. from apps in the Kids Category), etc. Interstitial ads or ads that interrupt or block the user experience must clearly indicate that they are an ad, must not manipulate or trick users into tapping into them, and must provide easily accessible and visible close/skip buttons large enough for people to easily dismiss the ad.”
  • Revised 3.1.1: “Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR codes, cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency wallets, etc.”
  • Added to 3.1.1: “Apps may use in-app purchase to sell and sell services related to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), such as minting, listing, and transferring. Apps may allow users to view their own NFTs, provided that NFT ownership does not unlock features or functionality within the app. Apps may allow users to browse NFT collections owned by others, provided that the apps may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.”
  • Added 3.1.3(g): “Advertising Management Apps: Apps for the sole purpose of allowing advertisers (persons or companies that advertise a product, service, or event) to purchase and manage advertising campaigns across media types (television, outdoor, websites, apps, etc.) do not need to use in-app purchase. These apps are intended for campaign management purposes and do not display the advertisements themselves. Digital purchases for content that is experienced or consumed in an app, including buying advertisements to display in the same app (such as sales of “boosts” for posts in a social media app) must use in-app purchase.”
  • Revised 3.1.5(iii): “Exchanges: Apps may facilitate transactions or transmissions of cryptocurrency on an approved exchange, provided they are offered only in countries or regions where the app has appropriate licensing and permissions to provide a cryptocurrency exchange.”
  • Revised 5.2.5: “Music from iTunes and Apple Music previews may not be used for their entertainment value (e.g. as the background music to a photo collage or the soundtrack to a game) or in any other unauthorized manner. If you provide music previews from iTunes or Apple Music, you must display a link to the corresponding music in iTunes or Apple Music.”

For full details, read the App Store Review Guidelines.