Issue 472

4^th September 2020

Written by Dave Verwer

Comment

There’s been more App Store talk this week after Apple posted news about “App Review process updates” on Monday.

As far as I’m aware, this isn’t anything new. Instead, it’s the execution of the promises made at this year’s WWDC. To summarise the most significant part of the announcement, if you don’t like a guideline for the App Store, you may now officially suggest a change to it.

The critical thing about this form behind that link is that it’s asking for suggestions on specific rules, related to your apps. For example, the text below the field asking for details is very revealing:

Provide specific reasons why you’re requesting a change to the App Store Review Guidelines and explain the specific change you’d like to see.

Notice that they use the word “specific” twice in that sentence. 😂 This form is not the place to suggest wide-ranging changes to the App Store, the revenue split, or to address any issues about huge companies creating weird user experiences in an attempt to avoid App Store fees.

There’s also no guarantee of any response to your suggestions, and I can’t imagine that this form will start a two-way conversation very often. That said, this is still a step in the right direction. I only hope that it doesn’t lead to more one-time exceptions and that instead, this form increases the pace of guideline changes that can be “applied equally” to everyone.

I do still believe that a deeper re-think of the App Store guidelines and revenue model would be a good idea. This form is positive, but it doesn’t start the changes that many people are seeking. It’s also nothing to do with the ongoing Fortnite/Epic drama – This was all decided well in advance of June’s conference.

Is “Suggest a guideline change” the new “File a radar”? 😂

Dave Verwer

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News

I saw this rumoured yesterday, and from the wording of this article it does seem that the IDFA changes are going to be postponed until “early next year”. I suspect we’ll hear more about this in the coming months.

Changes are coming to recurring subscription offers alongside this year’s platform releases, and this is your reminder from Apple to make sure you’re taking advantage of the new ways to win back paying customers.

Code

I’ve not heard many (or, any?) people talk about building App Clips after their announcement at this year’s conference. But here to change that is Gui Rambo who has put a considerable amount of effort not only into adding the feature to his app, but writing about it. It’s a great post and a nice reminder that 10Mb isn’t very much data at all!

I like the look of this library from Fernando Martín Ortiz. It handles the processing, decoding and caching of data from remote APIs. Something that almost every app needs to do! It also has a really, really good README file (I’m a sucker for a great README) that starts with the basics of what it does, before going into significant detail about how to use it. 👍

I love working with view modifiers in SwiftUI. It really fits the way that I think about building up UI, and it’s a good step forward for the platform. Where things break down slightly is when you need to make a view modifier conditional. You’ll need to master a few techniques, depending on what conditions you’re trying to use. Here’s Federico Zanetello to help you through.

It’s been fascinating to watch SwiftUI expand in scope this year. In this post, Natalia Panferova covers two new features that you might not yet have had a chance to look at!

Design

There’s no doubt that SF Symbols have been a resounding success since their introduction in 2019, and this year’s release adds more than 900 new glyphs. It’s not just about the new icons though, and Geoff Hackworth goes into detail about what’s changed in this post. It seems funny to talk about “bugs” in a symbols library, but they existed, and are now fixed, so it works!

Business and Marketing

I’ve loved the idea of this app since the first time I saw it, almost eight years ago. It’s a shame that generating promo codes through App Store Connect is still painful enough to warrant a third-party app, but it is, and so here comes this all-new version! It supports all the new promo code types, and also giveaways where you can stock a single promotion with multiple codes. It’s beautiful, and a pleasure to use.

That said, I recoiled a bit when I saw the pricing. I’m all for creating sustainable businesses, and it’s not at all surprising to see it require a subscription. However, having it be a per-month/year and per-app subscription made me double-take. To give away codes for two apps, you’re in for $80/year. For five apps, it’s $200/year! It feels out of line compared to other subscription software. Then again, don’t they say that if you don’t hear complaints that what you’re selling is too expensive, then it’s too cheap? 😂

For full disclosure, I was a beta tester and provided some feedback on builds as this went through development, but that didn’t affect my choice to link to it.

Up to Speed

If you’re new to developing for iOS, concurrency is something you’ll need to master pretty quickly. I liked this post from Donny Wals that covers the basics, without going into huge detail about aspects of concurrency that you don’t need to worry about until later.

Jobs

Senior iOS Engineer @ WillowTree – As a Senior Software Engineer at WillowTree, you’ll have the opportunity to impact teammates throughout various stages of their careers. You’ll have clear oversight of how engineering runs day-to-day and will influence project outcomes. This is not a remote position and may require some travel. Currently, all team members are working from home until our offices reopen. – Charlottesville VA

Senior Software Developer @ Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian – The Senior Digital Software Developer will work on projects across the spectrum of digital health on API, Web and Mobile platforms. You will take part in the ownership of the product design, implementation, and feature development to build new and exciting experiences around Digital health care. Driving from traditional care models to defining/delivering products within digital health care. – Newport Beach CA

And finally...

What is durian code? 🥭