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Announcing the App Store Award Finalists

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For over a decade, the App Store editorial team has taken a moment at the end of the year to celebrate the very best apps and games. As always, we focus on technical innovation, user experience, and design. Then we consider the impact these apps and games have had on our lives. 

iPhone App of the Year Finalists

AllTrails, Duolingo, Flighty

These apps helped us explore a new language, the hiking trails in our community, and the world at large.

iPhone Game of the Year Finalists

Afterplace, Honkai: Star Rail, Vampire Survivors

Our favourite iPhone games sent us on unforgettable intergalactic voyages, into the jaws of monstrous hordes, and to a fantasy land filled with surprises (and wry humour).

iPad App of the Year Finalists

Concepts, DaVinci Resolve, Prêt‑à‑Makeup

This year we learned to express our creativity through multiple mediums—doodles, digital film, and daring makeup looks.

iPad Game of the Year Finalists

Lost in Play, Pocket City 2

Want to build an incredible city? Journey through a child’s imagination? Meet this year’s iPad Game of the Year finalists.

Mac App of the Year Finalists

Linearity Curve, Photomator, Portal

Skillfully designed graphics, state-of-the-art photo editing, and mesmerizing escapes. We were instantly immersed in the worlds these apps transported us to—or inspired us to create.

Mac Game of the Year Finalists

ELEX II, Lies of P, Return to Monkey Island

Whether you’re pointing and clicking through a swashbuckling adventure, duelling deranged puppets, or jetpacking across a post-apocalyptic world, the power of Apple silicon brings these brilliant games to life.

Download these games on the Mac App Store.

Apple Arcade Game of the Year Finalists

Cityscapes, Hello Kitty Island Adventure, Stitch

Apple Arcade delivered endless entertainment this year. We embroidered beautiful patterns, simulated a sprawling metropolis, and made adorable friends on a tropical island.

Apple Watch App of the Year Finalists

Planny, SmartGym, Tide Guide

This year’s finalists had us checking off our to-do lists, checking out the tides, and checking on our gains at the gym.

Apple TV App of the Year Finalists

Bugsnax, FitOn, MUBI

Whether you’re kicking back with a good movie, kicking it up with cardio, or kicking some butt—our Apple TV finalists make it look amazing on the big screen.

Cultural Impact Finalists

Balance, Endling, Finding Hannah, How to Say Goodbye, Pok Pok, Proloquo, Rebel Girls, Too Good To Go, Unpacking

By telling little known stories that deserve to be heard and helping us care for ourselves and loved ones, these apps and games improved the world for us all.

App Store Marketing Tools

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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. You can also create custom marketing assets — such as banners and images — and add preset messages in multiple languages to promote your apps in your advertising efforts.

View the tools

App Analytics: peer group benchmarks

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Put your app’s performance into context using peer group benchmarks, which compare your app’s performance to that of similar apps on the App Store. Peer group benchmarks provide powerful new insights across the customer journey, enabling you to identify what works well in your app and what can be improved. Apps are placed into groups based on their App Store category, business model, and download volume to ensure relevant comparisons. Using industry-leading differential privacy techniques, peer group benchmarks provide relevant and actionable insights — all while keeping the performance of individual apps private.

Custom product pages

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Create additional versions of your App Store product page, each of which highlights a feature or specific content, then share a page’s unique URL in your corresponding marketing efforts.

iPhone showing App Store product page for Mountain Climber app featuring bike trails
iPhone showing App Store product page for Mountain Climber app featuring hiking trails
iPhone showing App Store product page for Mountain Climber app featuring rock climbing

Overview

You can create additional versions of your App Store product page on iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 or later to showcase different features or content within your app — such as a particular sport, character, show, or gameplay feature — and share them with different audiences through unique URLs. You can also use these pages to showcase seasonal or culturally relevant content. Each custom product page can include screenshots, promotional text, and app previews that are different from those on your default product page.

Configuring in App Store Connect

When creating a custom product page in App Store Connect, you can choose to start with a copy of your default product page or a blank page. You can then customize screenshots, promotional text, and app previews for any of your page’s localizations. Any metadata you provide must be submitted for review, which you can do independent of an app update. You can also use the App Store Connect API to automate metadata upload and submission for your custom product pages. You can have up to 35 custom product pages per app published on the App Store at a time. For a smooth review experience, make sure your screenshots and app previews follow the specifications and that all metadata follows the App Store Review Guidelines.

Marketing custom product pages

Once you’ve created a custom product page, you can use its unique URL to share it through your marketing efforts, such as social media advertising or promotional communications. For example, you can promote a sports team in an email campaign and link to the custom product page that highlights that team. The unique URL adds a new product page ID parameter to the default product page URL. For example: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mountain-climber/id12345678?ppid=45812c9b-c296-43d3-c6a0-c5a02f74bf6e

Custom product pages don’t appear when someone searches for your app or game on the App Store (except as a search results ad that you created with Apple Search Ads). However, they may appear in editorially curated selections on the Today, Games, and Apps tabs.

Advertising networks can also use custom product pages in StoreKit-rendered advertisements. They’ll use the custom product page ID as the customProductPageIdentifier when using SKOverlay, or as the SKStoreProductParameterCustomProductPageIdentifier when using SKStoreProductViewController.

Apple Search Ads lets you create Today tab ads and search results ad variations based on your eligible custom product pages. Tailor ad messaging and images for different audiences, feature launches, or seasonal promotions when you set up your campaign. Learn more about Apple Search Ads.

Measuring success

Once your custom product pages are live, you can measure their performance in App Analytics in App Store Connect. Under the Acquisition tab, you’ll see product page impressions, downloads, redownloads, and conversion rates to understand how effective each page is at encouraging app downloads. You can also view retention data and average proceeds per paying user for each custom product page. Additionally, you can compare the performance of your custom product pages against your default product page, and see whether people who downloaded your app from a custom product page stay engaged longer or spend more on in-app purchases.

App Store submissions now open for iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16.1

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iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16.1, the world’s most advanced mobile operating systems, will soon be available to customers worldwide. Take advantage of Live Activities to help people stay on top of what’s happening live in your app, right from the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island on iPhone. Bring desktop-class features, such as an editor-style navigation bar and enhanced text editing menu to your iPad app, and get the most out of the latest advancements in MapKit, Metal, ARKit, Core ML, and more.

Build your app using Xcode 14.1 Release Candidate, then test and submit it for review. Please note, starting April 2023, all iOS and iPadOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with Xcode 14.1 and the iOS 16.1 SDK. https://developer.apple.com/ios/submit/

Updates to Google Play Policies

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Upcoming Policy Changes 

News from the Google Play Store

Effective September 30, 2022
We’re adding new guidelines to our Ads policy to improve the in-app user experience and to prohibit unexpected interstitial ads, inspired by the Better Ads Standards – Mobile Apps Experiences guidelines.


Effective August 31, 2022
We’re updating health misinformation guidelines to state that we don’t allow apps containing misleading health claims that contradict existing medical consensus, or that can cause harm to users.We’re updating our Impersonation policy to clarify that the policy prohibits impersonation of other entities or organizations.  We’ve also added some new examples regarding app titles and icons.

Effective September 30, 2022
We’re updating our Subscriptions policy to state that users must be able to easily cancel their subscriptions from within the app.

Effective November 1, 2022
We’re updating our Families Self-Certified Ads SDK Program to require that self-certified ads SDK providers must submit new policy-compliant, self-certified versions and a test app to remain in the Families Self-Certified Ads SDK Program. Learn more about Families Self-Certified Ads SDKs.We’re updating our existing stalkerware guidance with a monitoring apps flag “IsMonitoringTool” for all legitimate monitoring applications. All apps that use this tool must also disclose monitoring or tracking functionality in their Google Play store description.

New examples and clarifications
Additionally, we’ve added new examples and clarifications to some of our existing policies. Because these policies aren’t new or updated, our enforcement standards and practices for these policies remain the same. 

We’re clarifying our Child Endangerment policy to reinforce that we prohibit the use of apps to endanger children, including the facilitation of child trafficking, grooming, and sextortion.We’re clarifying our Families Data Practices policy to state that apps that solely target children must not transmit Android advertising identifier (AAID), SIM Serial, Build Serial, BSSID, MAC, SSID, IMEI, and/or IMSI. Apps that target both children and older audiences must not transmit AAID, SIM Serial, Build Serial, BSSID, MAC, SSID, IMEI, and/or IMSI from children or users of unknown age.

We’re consolidating health and medical-related policies into an easy-to-navigate page.We’re clarifying our Ads policy to emphasize that ads and their associated offers served in your app must be consistent with your app’s content rating.

We’re clarifying our Ads policy to state that the Ad ID may no longer be connected to a persistent identifier or personally-identifiable information for any purpose including analytics purposes.We’re clarifying the Made For Ads guidelines under our Spam policy to prevent apps from displaying interstitial ads repeatedly to distract users from engaging with an app and performing in-app tasks.

We’re moving country-specific guidelines from our Real-Money Gambling, Games, and Contests policy page to a link on our Gambling Application Form for easier reference.We’re clarifying our sensitive events definition and examples under the Inappropriate Content policy to state that we don’t allow apps that capitalize on or are insensitive toward a sensitive event with significant social, cultural, or political impact (for example, civil emergencies, natural disasters, public health emergencies, conflicts, deaths, or other tragic events).

We’re clarifying Privacy Policy guidelines under our User Data policy to state that all apps must post a privacy policy link in the designated field within Play Console and a privacy policy link or text within the app itself.

We’re also specifying that privacy policies must be publicly accessible and non-geofenced. Learn more about adding a privacy policy.

Unity Mobile Insights 2022: Growth and Monetization

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Important Report for all business owners of mobile applications: Unity Mobile Insights 2022: Growth and Monetization. Enclosed are some of the main points that resonate with today’s app owners:-

Soft Launch

  • Canada is the preferred location for a soft launch
  • January is the preferred month for a soft launch
  • On average, a soft launch takes six and a half weeks to complete

Spend your Budget Wisely

  • Advertising in hypercasual games has 38% higher CTR than other genres
  • Games that are advertised in games of the same genre generally perform better with cannibalization not being a concern
  • D7 retention is much higher for games targeted at casual audiences for word, board, and puzzle games, than hardcore gamers for racing, role-playing, and simulation games

Sharpen your Ad Creatives

  • Ad creatives that showed actual gameplay performed better than any other ad content
  • Voice-over performs better than on-screen text for instructions
  • Showing gameplay of the player losing or failing at the game is effective

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2022

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Call to code #WWDC2022 – Join developers worldwide from June 6 to 10 for an inspiring week of technology and community. Get a first look at Apple’s latest platforms and technologies in sessions, explore the newest tools and tips, and connect with Apple experts in labs and digital lounges

Create additional versions of your App Store product page

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Custom product pages

Create additional versions of your App Store product page, each of which highlights a feature or specific content, then share a page’s unique URL in your corresponding marketing efforts.

Overview

You can create additional versions of your App Store product page on iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 or later to showcase different features or content within your app — such as a particular sport, character, show, or gameplay feature — and share them with different audiences through unique URLs. You can also use these pages to showcase seasonal or culturally relevant content. Each custom product page can include screenshots, promotional text, and app previews that are different from those on your default product page.

Configuring in App Store Connect

When creating a custom product page in App Store Connect, you can choose to start with a copy of your default product page or a blank page. You can then customize screenshots, promotional text, and app previews for any of your page’s localizations. Any metadata you provide must be submitted for review, which you can do independent of an app update. You can have up to 35 custom product pages per app published on the App Store at a time. For a smooth review experience, make sure your screenshots and app previews follow the specifications and that all metadata follows the App Store Review Guidelines.

Marketing custom product pages

Once you’ve created a custom product page, you can use its unique URL to share it through your marketing efforts, such as social media advertising or promotional communications. For example, you can promote a sports team in an email campaign and link to the custom product page that highlights that team. The unique URL adds a new product page ID parameter to the default product page URL. For example: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mountain-climber/id12345678?ppid=45812c9b-c296-43d3-c6a0-c5a02f74bf6e

Advertising networks can also use custom product pages in StoreKit-rendered advertisements. They’ll use the custom product page ID as the customProductPageIdentifier when using SKOverlay, or as the SKStoreProductParameterCustomProductPageIdentifier when using SKStoreProductViewController.

Early next year, you’ll be able to use custom product pages to create ad variations with Apple Search Ads. Custom product pages will be available to select right from your Apple Search Ads account, letting you create more relevant ads for different audiences.

Learn more about Apple Search Ads

Custom product pages don’t appear when someone searches for your app or game on the App Store, but may appear in editorially curated selections on the Today, Games, and Apps tabs.

Measuring success

Once your custom product pages are live, you can measure their performance in App Analytics in App Store Connect. Under the Acquisition tab, you’ll see product page impressions, downloads, redownloads, and conversion rates to understand how effective each page is at encouraging app downloads. You can also view retention data and average proceeds per paying user for each custom product page. Additionally, you can compare the performance of your custom product pages against your default product page, and see whether people who downloaded your app from a custom product page stay engaged longer or spend more on in-app purchases.

App Store Fees Fall Again!

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App Store Fees Fall Again! Check out the recent article from the Developers Appliance

https://www.developersalliance.org/news/app-store-fees-fall-again

It’s awesome to see more price decreases … before the government dismantles our industry.

Kudos to our app store partners for another round of price cuts! While most devs are less fixated on app store fee formulas and more on the services and tools they offer, falling fees are always a welcome surprise. Apple and Google are now taking turns sweetening their deals and fine-tuning what and how apps are treated based on evolving app monetization schemes. We’ll leave it to Google to give the details – see their blog post for more – but this is another clear sign that platforms recognize that developer success is their success too.

For years, app store competition has focused on the “supply-side”; trying to build the best tools, offer the best community experience, engage better or address store mechanics and add new features. More importantly, the underlying platforms are competing for consumers, and that means a growing demand for new features and the apps that capitalize on them. This was exactly what devs needed in a growing industry. Fees have been less of a focus – mostly because those developers most impacted are highly lucrative and successful franchises themselves. This latest round of fee cuts opens up many new monetization strategies and makes it easier for those on the cusp of success to breakthrough. Nothing but good news there!

Contact App Promo today on how we can save your money and make you more money this holiday season 🎄

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