Small Ways the App Store Could Be Improved for Developers
There are countless small, practical, mostly uncontroversial ways in which Apple could improve the App Store for developers, yet the App Store has changed relatively little in the 18 years since it was hastily cloned from the iTunes Music Store. […] These changes to the App Store would not require a huge financial investment from Apple. They would simply require Apple to care about the App Store and developers.
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Apple is actually punishing developers for making native apps on each of Apple’s platforms! (In contrast, if I made an “iOS app on Mac,” then there would be only one review.)
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We should be able to edit the metadata after an app has been published. Apple can of course review the edits before the metadata is changed in the App Store.
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Stop using a session cookie for developer website logins!
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App Store Connect is one of the slowest websites I’ve ever used.
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Stop sending a 1.2 MB promo code email—without any actual promo codes!—every time we generate a promo code. […] Several of my apps are a Universal Purchase for iOS and macOS. But for some reason, all promo codes are platform-specific.
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Allow App Store users on older versions of iOS to purchase the last compatible version of an app.
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Show a “contact developer” button when an App Store user leaves a 1 to 3 star rating.
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When an App Store user searches for an app by name, the app should appear first in the results.
Previously:
- Russia Gets Apple to Turn Off App Store Payments
- AppGrid Updates Blocked From App Store
- Updates to Vibe Coding Apps Rejected From the App Store
- Mac App Store Review Times Increasing
- Mac App Store Search Not Showing Mac Apps
- Mac App Store Design in Tahoe
- App Store Comparison Shopping
- More App Store Ad Spots
- Web Version of the App Store
- Downloading Xcode With a Passkey
- WWDC 2025 Wish Lists
- 10th Anniversary of the Mac App Store
- App Store Refunds and Reviews
- Is There Hope for the Mac App Store?
1 Comment RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
Perhaps the most insulting item on the list is the search results. It's an ideal example of Apple knowing something is broken and doesn't work well for users or developers, but that's not what they care about. As long as the ad system works well, their job is done.
I used to be able to (many years ago) tell users to go to the app store and search for an app by name and be reasonably sure it would be correct. I tried that recently and there's no way to safely send a user to the app store anymore. Between the ads and clones and scams, legitimate software is now buried.
The sad fact is most of the changes Jeff wants are for developers who care about doing things well and not just churning out high profit slop that makes Apple a ton of money through IAP and now advertising directly in the App Store.
