Apple’s updated app store guidelines clarify positions on recent controversies

In an article on its Developer Portal, Apple outlined a number of new changes to its App Store review guidelines, including the requirement for developers to ask the user to register to follow. users with IDFA device identifiers (ID for advertisers).

This specific change is expected soon; Apple has announced that it will come with iOS 14.5 in “early spring” and has released a dedicated support page just for this issue. Apple has developer APIs, called App Tracking Transparency APIs, to handle these required prompts.

That’s not the only change to the App Store review guidelines, of course. Among other things, Apple “clarified the ban on promoting certain substances”. The guidelines state that apps should not “encourage the consumption” of tobacco and vaping products, illegal drugs or “excessive amounts of alcohol”.

In addition, “facilitating the sale” of marijuana or tobacco is not permitted and controlled substances may only be sold through apps owned by licensed pharmacies.

Apple has also included a more explicit requirement that app developers submit a detailed and accurate privacy sheet with app submissions, as well as maintaining and updating app descriptions, screenshots. , privacy information, etc., as well as “new versions” of the application.

Numerous reports have pointed out that the new nutrition label-style privacy sheets that have accompanied App Store apps since the launch of iOS 14 are not always accurate. It is not known to what extent this change will help solve this problem.

The guidelines state that gift cards, certificates, vouchers, coupons, and developer tips must be made through Apple’s payment system.

Apple’s app store policy for streaming game services such as Google’s Stadia or Microsoft’s cloud gaming component of Game Pass also needs to be further clarified. There is, however, no major new information here; Apple has just tweaked the language. As previously known, these services can still exist on the App Store as long as they list each game as its own title on the App Store for review, and they “must be designed to avoid duplicate payment by one. subscriber and must not disadvantage non-subscribers. customers. “

Google and Microsoft have chosen to offer their game streaming services entirely through the mobile web browser on iOS and iPadOS to circumvent these restrictions.

These updates to the App Store review guidelines follow considerable controversy for Apple on this front. The company faced a feud with big game maker and game development tools company Epic Games over its revenue share, as well as a public relations fiasco over the same issue, but with a larger developer. small (but still notable) called Basecamp.

In response to these controversies, Apple has promised more transparency, adjusted its revenue sharing model, tweaked some of its guidelines, and created new feedback channels for developers to raise complaints about those guidelines.

And then there is an ongoing battle between Apple and Facebook over that IDFA tracking change mentioned above. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the change posed a serious threat to Facebook’s business and, by extension, the survival of many small businesses dependent on Facebook. He also claimed that Apple’s policy represented a global issue of anti-competitive behavior, and a report indicated that Zuckerberg could prepare a major lawsuit to challenge Apple over its App Store policies, among other things.

For his part, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave a speech last week criticizing Facebook’s business model (which relies on trackers like IDFA) as a source of division and violence.