I noticed that WhatsApp Messenger [1] isn't available for iPad anymore.
Apple states that "iPad runs nearly all applications, or apps, designed for iPhone and iPod Touch" [2]
Now, I must have missed a memo since I knew that any iPhone App could be downloaded on iPad too.
So we finally get to my question: How to hide an iPhone App from the iPad's AppStore?
Thanks.
[1] https://itunes.apple.com/it/app/whatsapp-messenger/id310633997?mt=8
[2] http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4082
As far as I know, WhatsApp has never been available for download on the iPad. This is because they listed telephony as one of the Required Device Capabilities in their info.plist.
That's the only way that you can get an iPhone app not to install on an iPad. Apple doesn't provide any other way as they want all (most) of the iPhone apps to be compatible on iPads (if the app is not universal it'll just run in the iPhone scaled mode).
Please note that if you require telephony to achieve this, but that's not an actual requirement for your app, it will most likely be rejected on the App review process as Apple don't allow artificial hardware requirements used for limiting device types.
Related
My app that I submitted yesterday to the App Store had to be compatible only for iPhones because that is how I already set it to like this.
Now I saw that on iTunes on my app it says that is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod and it really should be only iPhone.
I tried to solve the problem with adding the element telephony to the array Required device capabilities in info.plist like this.
Will that make in iTunes to say Compatible with iPhone only and not allow installs on iPads and iPods ? If not how can I solve the problem ?
Yes, that should do it according to this other stack overflow post:
How to Restrict the iOS app only for iPhone excluding iPad?
Essentially there's no way to restrict apps by device unless the device doesn't have a feature you need, in this case, the ability to make calls (telephony).
I have a weird issue where I can see the Simplecue application on my iPad but others in my team cannot see it, we've also had some customers email us saying they cannot find it as well.
All of the users can find the application via their iPhones, iPods, and iTunes. So for a temporary solution, we've asked users to download and sync via iTunes to their iPad.
The only difference between my iPad and others, is my iPad is a 1st generation iPad. Should this matter?
If your app requires features that the iPad 1 does not support (front-facing or indeed any camera, iOS6) then it will not be visible in the App Store on that device.
There may reportedly be bugs with the current (Nov 2012, iOS 6.0.1) App Store app on the iPad, where it won't show, via search, some apps that have been released for sale by the developer.
A 1st gen iPad runs the older iOS 5.1, and thus may have a more reliable version of the App Store app.
But a direct itms URL from your web page (as viewed with an iPad's Safari) to the App Store app may work on both iPads.
I have a rock solid iPhone app and wanted to know how I could get an iPad app out through iTunes Connect.
What steps are required in Xcode (or AppCode) to compile the app iPad friendly?
What features (like gps) should I pull from the iPhone code base to prevent strange crashing on the iPad?
How do I link and publish the iPad app in iTunes Connect so users who search see my app with a + sign in the App Store (assuming this means it's iPhone and iPad friendly)?
And finally, what else should I look out for doing this from a single obj-c codebase?
There are two types of porting possible one is universal app (in which a plus sign is shown with your app in itunes) and the other is two device-specific application (in which two targets are created one for iphone and one for ipad and both get released as complete independent apps). Now it depends on you which modal you choose. Yet I ported my apps using the second option as I want user to buy each time for each of his device :). Anyways, solely depends on you, here's a good tutorial for this http://www.raywenderlich.com/1111/how-to-port-an-iphone-application-to-the-ipad. I haven't came across any such thing which can crash a similar app on the ipad but might there'd be some. Though there are somethings which I came across that the ipad (ipod too) doesn't have any vibrator available, as my iphone app was using vibration to give some indication, so if you're using it you might need to circumvent it with some alternatives plus your app should support the PortraitUpsideDown orientation. It's weird that APPLE rejected my third ipad app due to this after releasing my first two apps with the similar limitation :).
I'm shipping two binaries; one for iPhone/iTouch and the other for iPad. It's the same application.
Will Apple ensure that the user will never receive an iPhone version of the app on the iPad? If YES, then I don't have anything to worry about, but if not then I do have a problem.
The reason I ask is the iPhone application will simply not work correctly on the iPad because the server knows it's an iPad and will deliver the iPad HD content to it and the iPhone cannot handle that. I would rather not hack my application to send the server a fake device type if running the iPhone app on the iPad in order to receive the correct resources.
Suggestions?
I've been looking for this for a while because I couldn't prevent the iPhone app to load on the iPad. Searched a bit to understand why this was happening, followed #hotpaw2 instructions and found this on the official apple store rules:
UPDATE:
2.4.1 To ensure people get the most out of your app, iPhone apps should run on iPad whenever possible. We encourage you to consider
building universal apps so customers can use them on all of their
devices. Learn more about Universal apps.
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/
The SDK and/or App store rules prohibit you from preventing an iPhone app from running on an iPad in 1X or 2X zoom mode, unless there are other requirements listed in the app plist. Apple's app review is known to test iPhone-only app submissions (unless there are other requirements) on an iPad, and reject the app if it doesn't run properly.
Other requirements (as listed under UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities in the app's plist) might include your app requiring telephone capabilities (or healthkit, etc.), which might help you temporarily, but still won't prevent the app from running on some hypothetical future iPad product that includes telephony capabilities (and/or healthkit, etc.).
Actually you can.
Add telephony to UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities in your plist file.
But i really not recommend it and maybe you could get rejected because of gratuitously using this property.
I think you should handle that there are iPad versions and iPhone versions on iPads, use the second one as an iPhone.
Also don't forget that retina iPads will use upscaled applications at retina resolution while none retina ones use the standard resolution. And this behavior can tweaked using jailbreak tweaks like RetinaPad and FullForce.
In the plist settings, add Application requires iPhone environment and set the boolean to YES
My iphone app doesn't run well on the iPhone 3G. Can I make it so users with these models can't download the app? If so, what does a 3G user see when they search for my app in the app store?
Does it appear in the store at all for them? If it does, when are they notified that they can't download the app?
I recommend you use the UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities key in your info.plist. This lets you tell the App Store exactly which capabilities you require instead of which device you require.
If your app "doesn't run well" on a 3G I'll guess it is because of performance and therefore you'd want to require a newer processor. Look into setting arm7 as one of your required device capabilities.
For more info look here:
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/General/Reference/InfoPlistKeyReference/Articles/iPhoneOSKeys.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009252-SW3
Make it run better. Or if it's not completely unusable, just let them use it anyway. People with old devices expect them to be a bit slow.
According to the iTunes Connect Developer Guide (which links to the iOS Application Programming Guide), you can't prohibit certain devices. You can, however, require certain features which are only present on new devices:
armv7 is what I'd recommend (older devices are armv6)
magnetometer, because older devices don't have one. Apple might look at you funny if your app doesn't actually use the compass though.
opengles-2, because older devices only support 1.1. Apple might look at you funny too.
auto-focus-camera, except the iPad and all the iPod Touches don't have one. Probably not what you want.
iPhone 3GS uses iOS 6.1.x so if your app support iOS 7+ it will not be able to install on iPhone 3GS, this is the best possible way to avoid download on that device.