Issue 688

22^nd November 2024

Written by Dave Verwer

Comment

Every developer, from solo indie devs to giant mega-corporations, has dreamt of Apple choosing them as a featured app on the App Store. There are millions of apps in the store, and when featured, yours is at the top of the heap. At least for a few days.

Before I go further, it’s important to know I know very little about the internal decision-making process by which apps get featured. I know there are editorial teams who make decisions and that there are different teams for different regions, but that’s about it!

When the App Store first launched, I think the apps that got featured were likely sourced by the editorial teams themselves. I imagine they would find apps that they thought were interesting and get recommendations from other Apple employees. There wasn’t any formal external nomination process that I know of.

As time went on, though, that changed. I’m not sure what form the first process took, but if I remember correctly, it started as an email address and then became a form you could fill in. They also started to write great guides on how to increase your chances of them choosing your app. The common perception was that it was a closed and secretive process, but the doors to nominating apps opened up many years ago.

Things changed again last week as the process became even more structured. Here’s the full Developer News announcement, but the gist of it is that you can now submit and track the status of requests to have an app featured. You can select the type of feature you’re nominating yourself for, like if you add new content or enhance your app’s functionality. You can also save draft versions before you submit, and see who in your team last edited a submission. It looks great.

The other thing that this change normalises is that it’s OK, or even encouraged, to submit your app for featuring on a regular basis. I’ve spoken to many people who submitted their apps once when they launched and then never again. No matter whether your app has been featured before or not, every time you do something significant to your app is another opportunity. It’s always worth considering whether your latest update might tip the scales in the eyes of a reviewer.

Of course, none of this makes it any easier to persuade the editorial team that they should choose your app. That job remains with you and remains as challenging as it always was! I love the new changes to App Store Connect, though.

Dave Verwer

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News

Do you have something that Swift developers would like, and that you’re going to put on sale for Black Friday? I’m lending a hand reviewing and merging PRs on Marius Landwehr’s Black Friday deals repository this year, so there’s no better time to submit one. I will, of course, be linking to the repo again on the day.

Code

Sahand Nayebaziz:

The good news is that swift-syntax is quite powerful. The bad news is (also) that swift-syntax is quite powerful.

His post covers the story of adding syntax highlighting to his DetailsPro app. Including overcoming fear of the perceived complexity of swift-syntax and a full code example for if you want to do something similar. Such a great blog post.

I love the idea behind this new package from Finn Voorhees so much. It’s a Final Cut Pro plugin that renders SwiftUI views into a video. I know some of you reading will also have YouTube channels or make other kinds of videos. What are you waiting for? Go and check it out.

I like this quick macOS tip and tutorial from Mario Guzman about dynamic dock icons on macOS. It’s worth noting that:

It is rare to see apps use NSDockTilePlugIn because apps that contain one are not allowed on the Mac App Store.

That’s sad to hear, but the Mac App Store is far from mandatory if you’re writing a Mac app.

What a treasure trove of example projects from Michael Lee! Not only are there plenty of example open-source projects for you to learn from, but each one comes with a video demonstration of the app. I’m confident you’ll see at least one and wonder how he implemented it.

Videos

I’ve been curious about Godot for a long time now. I got even more curious when Miguel de Icaza started working on Swift bindings for it. If you’re also curious then you should watch him giving this presentation from GodotCon 2024. I did, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Jobs

Senior iOS Developer @ komoot – Develop innovative new features from the first idea and concept over to road map planning, implementation, testing, release and monitoring. Team up with six team members to build a state of the art iOS app with more than 5 million installations. – Remote (within European timezones)

Staff Software Engineer - iOS @ NewStore – Join NewStore and be part of a forward-thinking team dedicated to crafting exceptional mobile experiences. We embrace TDD, pairing, and best engineering principles, fostering an environment where you can lead, inspire, and help shape the future of our iOS engineering culture. – Remote (within European timezones) with some on-site work (Germany, Netherlands, or United Kingdom)

Do you have any open positions for Swift or Apple platform developers at your company? Drop a quick message to the hiring manager and let them know they can reach thousands of Swift developers by posting the position on iOS Dev Jobs.

And finally...

iPhone for sale. One previous, careful owner. Some light cosmetic damage. 😂

Seriously, though, I love the look of this. ❤️