Apple updates the App Store review guidelines again!

As the autumn conference is approaching and the official version of iOS 10 is about to be released, Apple has updated the App Store review guidelines. WeiPhone learned from the developer page on Apple's official website that the updated App Store review guidelines are mainly aimed at App Store subscriptions, SiriKit, and iMessages applications. Prior to this, Apple had briefly described the changes to the review guidelines at the WWDC conference in June this year, and this time the page update appears to be more detailed.

Qinggua Media learned from the developer page on Apple’s official website that Apple has once again updated the App Store review guidelines. The main contents of the update include App Store subscriptions, SiriKit, and iMessages applications. Compared with the WWDC2016 review guidelines released in June this year, this update is more detailed and specific.

For the update of SiriKit, Apple hopes that users will solve Siri requests in the most direct way; and do not insert advertisements or other marketing between the request and its implementation process. In addition, the user experience may be displayed in the information background in terms of tags and iMessage extended functions.

At the same time, apps will provide automatic renewal features in purchased subscriptions in the app, including all types of apps in the APP Store. When an auto-renewal subscription is added to your app, it needs to comply with review regulations. Apple Market has also made certain modifications and additions to the design. For example, keyboard extensions are not allowed to include marketing, advertising, or in-app purchases; launch other apps outside of Settings; or repurpose keyboard buttons for other actions (for example, pressing the "Back" key opens the "Camera"). The requirement for labels is that content should not offend users, create a bad experience, or violate the law. In addition, the core application functionality is not associated with a specific social network (e.g., Facebook, WeChat, Weibo, Twitter, etc.), and developers must provide an entry point without logging in or through other mechanisms. Extracting basic file information, sharing to social networks, or inviting friends to use the app are not core functions of the application, and the modifications are as follows:

According to the new review guidelines, App Store subscriptions are no longer applicable to only a certain version, but to every App section, especially games . At the same time, when the section updates information, it must not violate the standards of the review guidelines. The main features of this new subscription model are as follows:

1. The revenue sharing between developers and Apple in the subscription model is 70/30 in the first year, and changes to 85/15 in the second year; and this will be maintained for a long time.

2. Subscriptions are automatically renewed by default;

3. Diversification of subscription model price points;

4. The subscription model was officially launched in the fall of 2016.

The reasons why Apple expands the scope of App Store subscriptions are: first, this will be a future direction for Apple's market development; second, it further demonstrates that Apple's market focuses on user experience. While updating the App Store review guidelines, Apple also announced that it will conduct a "major cleanup" of the App Store. According to Apple's plan, they will start cleaning up zombie and outdated apps in the App Store on September 7, and require app names to be shortened to within 50 characters.