I want to link to my own app or other apps store page from inside my app (for example to rate my app). Could be in a way this page is opened inside my app and not directly open the App Store app with app page (it is possible on iOS).
Can't find a way to do that. Methods that works on iOS doesn't work here apparently.
Tried:
itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/id
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id
I know it could be done because I saw apps on the App Store that does exactly that.
Related
I have two versions of my iOS App - FooBarApp for iPAD and FooBarApp for iPhone each with its own Bundle ID (com.foobar.fooBariPad for the iPAD app and com.foobar.fooBar for the Phone App) Both have the same functionality - searching and buying the same products.
I have created a new version of the iPhone FooBarApp which is now a Universal App and can run on both iPhone and iPAD. However I already have a large user base of users who alreadey have the iPAD apps.
I'd like to retire com.foobar.fooBariPad iPAD App, and ask the users to now download the new Universal App version com.foobar.fooBar. To do this I created a new version of com.foobar.fooBariPad, which is a forced update, and which on startup, prompts users to update to the new version of the app. When they accept the hand-coded update button, it redirects them to the appstore to update the App.
Kludgy I know, but I did this because there is no direct way to update the old iPAD app to the new Universal app (as they have different bundle ids)
Unfortunately Apple Rejected this with the message:
"Design Preamble Your app includes an update button or alerts the user to update the app. To avoid user confusion, app version updates
must utilize the iOS built-in update mechanism. ... Next Steps Please remove the update
feature from your app. "
In other words they want this to be a forced upgrade.
We are thinking of just removing the previous iPAD App from the Appstore, but it may cause confusion. Would appreciate any smart solution to this problem, which will prompt users to switch from the old iPAD app to the new Universal App with the least friction. Perhaps push notification is the answer? (but if so then how)?
FOLLOWING onnoweb 's answer below, I got this from a friend who saw the way Dunkin Donut's had implemented this. Just in the messaging (not a tech fix)
Maybe it's a matter of terminology in the foobariPad app?
I've done something similar (EOL-ing one app and asking users to switch to the new one) without any complaint from Apple. We did it by showing an alert to the user saying something like "We are ending support for this app. Please use this new app with the same and better functionality." and then a button that took them to the AppStore if they didn't have the new app installed, or if they did then we did an openURL() to the new app after tapping the button.
Maybe it's not clear to Apple that you're redirecting users to a new and different app rather than a newer version of the app the user is in?
Is it possible to create an app that does not appear in the Home screen, and allows another app to grab its resources (sounds, images, etc)?
I want to create a lightweight app (app #1) and upload it to the app store. Then I would like to be able to direct users to download an add-on (app #2) if they want that contains more images and sounds. Then app #1 would read these resources from app #2.
I'm trying to avoid having my own server to serve these images, and just have the App Store handle this for me. I know I can do this on Android, and was wondering if it's possible in iOS as well.
Is it possible to create an app that does not appear in the Home
screen, and allows another app to grab its resources (sounds, images,
etc)?
Not only can you not create an app that's hidden from the user, you also can't access the resources of one app from another. Each app lives in its own sandbox and cannot read (or write) into the sandbox of another app.
I want to create a lightweight app (app #1) and upload it to the app
store. Then I would like to be able to direct users to download an
add-on (app #2) if they want that contains more images and sounds.
Then app #1 would read these resources from app #2.
The normal way to do something like that would be to host the resources you need on a server or just store them inside your app.
I'm trying to avoid having my own server to serve these images, and
just have the App Store handle this for me. I know I can do this on
Android, and was wondering if it's possible in iOS as well.
No, not possible.
If you are able to use the In-App Purchase system, then Apple will host this for you. From the docs, I'm not clear if this is iOS 6 only or is available for older versions (I haven't seen any reason it wouldn't work for older versions, but I haven't tried it).
Note that most iOS 6 specifics are under NDA, so please do not discuss them here until iOS 6 releases. This particular fact is public, however:
https://developer.apple.com/technologies/ios6/
https://developer.apple.com/appstore/in-app-purchase/index.html
https://itunesconnect.apple.com/docs/iTunesConnect_DeveloperGuide.pdf
No it's not possible. You have to setup an icon and it will be displayed on the iPhone springboard.
No it cannot, why do you need one?
Sadly No in IOS but in android this is possible.
There can exist an app without an icon. But it can still be managed or removed in "Manage Application" under settings.
This is required in scenarios, like say I want this app to alert user when he is going out of region, using GPS in the background. I do not want any icon nor any user interface.
For various reasons I need my iPhone app to include a way to tell the user that a new update for the app is available and prompt them to go update in the App Store.
It looks like there used to be an undocumented way to give an HTML link that would lead the iPhone to open the Upgrade page for app, or something?
How can i make a link to update my iPhone application?
https://devforums.apple.com/message/139548#139548
Unfortunately it appears that iTunes links have changed format from these old "Phobos"-type links (which used "WebObjects") to something new? I'm not very familiar with the old system or the new one...
Can I create a link that will take my users directly to the "upgrade apps" screen on the App Store? Or even better, one that will initiate the upgrade for my app immediately?
Apple provides an iTunes Link Maker tool which you can use: http://itunes.apple.com/linkmaker
Just put the "Media Type" as apps and type in the app name. Apple recommends using an NSURLConnection for opening the link within your app since it will cut out all of the re-directing that goes on and open straight into the AppStore app.
whenever user surf internet form iphone the browser share some space of iphone memory now can i access that memory form my app actually i want to install SQlite on the fly to my app form web and next time it can update its own data
plz help
Thanks
Nope, this isn't possible. Applications on the iPhone are sandboxed. Nothing outside of the app can access the app's data. That includes remotely installing apps or updating apps from Safari or any other method.
If you want to put SQLite into your app, you'll have to update your code and then release an update for your app into the app store.
Say, that i am clicking on one iphone app icon,when launched it will create one .app file.So is it possible to call one more iphone app from that app.Or can we do something in that .app file such that it will call another app.
Yes: you need use URL Schemes:
Essentially, one app registers the fact that it handles a particular URL prefix, and then to launch that app, you have to navigate to that URL.
You can pass parameters through this URL too
If by calling another app, you mean to use other app as a service then No. One iPhone app can not communicate with another iPhone app.
The best you can do is launch another iPhone app from you app. You need to know the URL for that other app. If you want other apps to launch your app then you need to register a URL for your app so that other apps can launch your iphone app using that url.
Please note here the app will only launch if it is already installed on the iPhone. It will not automatically get it from iTunes.