{"id":51474,"date":"2026-04-03T14:14:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T18:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=51474"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T18:14:23","slug":"small-ways-the-app-store-could-be-improved-for-developers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/03\/small-ways-the-app-store-could-be-improved-for-developers\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Ways the App Store Could Be Improved for Developers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lapcatsoftware.com\/articles\/2026\/3\/13.html\">Jeff Johnson<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@lapcatsoftware\/116318583217133000\">Mastodon<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/lapcatsoftware.com\/articles\/2026\/3\/13.html\">\n<p>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. [&#8230;] These changes to the App Store would not require a huge financial investment from Apple. They would simply require Apple to <em>care<\/em> about the App Store and developers.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Apple is actually punishing developers for making native apps on each of Apple&rsquo;s platforms! (In contrast, if I made an &ldquo;iOS app on Mac,&rdquo; then there would be only one review.)<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Stop using a session cookie for developer website logins!<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>App Store Connect is one of the <em>slowest<\/em> websites I&rsquo;ve ever used.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Stop sending a 1.2 MB promo code email&mdash;without any actual promo codes!&mdash;every time we generate a promo code. [&#8230;] Several of my apps are a Universal Purchase for iOS and macOS. But for some reason, all promo codes are platform-specific.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Allow App Store users on older versions of iOS to purchase the last compatible version of an app.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Show a &ldquo;contact developer&rdquo; button when an App Store user leaves a 1 to 3 star rating.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>When an App Store user searches for an app by name, the app should appear first in the results.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/02\/russia-gets-apple-to-turn-off-app-store-payments\/\">Russia Gets Apple to Turn Off App Store Payments<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/24\/appgrid-updates-blocked-from-app-store\/\">AppGrid Updates Blocked From App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/20\/updates-to-vibe-coding-apps-rejected-from-the-app-store\/\">Updates to Vibe Coding Apps Rejected From the App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/02\/mac-app-store-review-times-increasing\/\">Mac App Store Review Times Increasing<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/25\/mac-app-store-search-not-showing-mac-apps\/\">Mac App Store Search Not Showing Mac Apps<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/25\/mac-app-store-design-in-tahoe\/\">Mac App Store Design in Tahoe<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/25\/app-store-comparison-shopping\/\">App Store Comparison Shopping<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/24\/more-app-store-ad-spots\/\">More App Store Ad Spots<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/03\/web-version-of-the-app-store\/\">Web Version of the App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/09\/downloading-xcode-with-a-passkey\/\">Downloading Xcode With a Passkey<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/06\/wwdc-2025-wish-lists\/\">WWDC 2025 Wish Lists<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/06\/10th-anniversary-of-the-mac-app-store\/\">10th Anniversary of the Mac App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/23\/app-store-refunds-and-reviews\/\">App Store Refunds and Reviews<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/12\/is-there-hope-for-the-mac-app-store\/\">Is There Hope for the Mac App Store?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeff Johnson (Mastodon): 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. [&#8230;] These changes to the App Store would not require a huge [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-04-03T18:14:26Z","apple_news_api_id":"58ba5bea-fc8a-4a19-b525-10a5ff776eca","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-04-03T18:14:26Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AWLpb6vyKShm1JRCl_3duyg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[91,31,2741,653,30,39,2742],"class_list":["post-51474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-appstore","tag-ios","tag-ios-26","tag-itunes-connect","tag-mac","tag-macappstore","tag-macos-tahoe-26"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51475,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51474\/revisions\/51475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}