Does anyone know if you can send a user to an app's update in the appstore?
We want to do this from within the app and/or when getting a Push Notification.
Thanks!
Yes, it is possible as long as you have the URL that links to your app.
I'm not 100% sure, but I seem to remember seeing something in the apple rules that means you may not be able to send a push notification advertising new apps. But an update may be ok.
Remember as well that a user may have already updated the app because they had the badge on the AppStore icon and then you push a notification out to all users. Could be annoying.
Related
If I submit a newstand app that does not use push notifications, but instead queries my server for new content each time the user launches the app will apple reject my app?
I.e. Do users expect push on all newsstand apps?
Thanks
No, Apple's guidelines do not mandate the use of push notifications, and your app should not be rejected for not using them. However it may provide a better experience for your users if you implement push notifications. Otherwise the only way for a user to know that updates are available is to manually run your app and check.
Note that the official review guidelines for a Newsstand app are exactly the same as the review guidelines for any other app.
Aroth has answered the question correctly but I want to add few important points to keep in mind for Newsstand apps based on my personal experience.
Apple will reject any Newsstand app without subscription in it.
In case all your content is free still you have to create a Free
subscription.
The content must be a magazine/newspaper/newsletter.No catalog etc
in Newsstand.
The new content must come with frequency of at most a quater.
To answer this question
Do users expect push on all newsstand apps?
YES they will, because it is one of the most important functionality of NS apps and is assumed by default. Every single NS app in App Store has it.
While the technical answer is "no", there is a very good point to implement push notifications. The end user is expecting to see fresh content "magically appearing" in the newsstand applications without actual interaction. For this feature to work, you need to implement background downloading on new issues, data, whatever, which is possible when you have an APNS server informing (and waking up) your application on new content.
I can confirm that a newsstand app with a method for in app purchase of a Free subscription but without automatic content pushing will not be rejected.
Apple just approved an app I've been working on that only has a Dummy "functionality" for subscribing to Free subscription.
User touches "Subscribe now for free", goes through in app purchase and that's it - nothing changes.
Sole purpose of that button is to get the app approved.
Btw. I've implemented that button only 'cause of this thread.
Thanks!
Am developing an iPhone app. In my current iPhone app i want to integrate APNS that we want to send a messages to the user. I gathered information about APNS. But, still i have some doubts on the APNS.
How APN works that means how the push notifications showing to the user?
If our iPhone app get closed from Background, the Apple push notification will work or our app should be in run?
What will happen if we send a notification to the user but,if the user is in offline. The message will deliver to the user once the user gets online (Get network connection) or the message won't show to the user?
Push Notifications will be show the user if the user doesn't open the app in their iPhone?
Can anyone please guide me on these doubts? I hope on you friends. Please help me. Thanks in advance.
I think you did not follow Apple developer library instructions. I have doubts about your understanding of APNS and its working.
When you send the notification to user, and his cell is off or not connected to the internet, he/she will get message/notification when his/her cell will turn on or connect to the network.
And Push Notifications also work when your application is in backGround or user is not using the application.
Hope this information can clear your confusion, you should look in to the apple developer videos and SDK about push notifications.
Also this is SOreadytohelp.
You asked quite a few questions. I'll try to answer some of them as well as I know:
How APN works: You send a message to Apple's servers with the specific device ID. Apple will deliver that message to the iOS device. (You likely want a more specific answer, so please ask.)
If your app has been allowed background app notifications, then they will be delivered in the background. (The user can enable/disable this)
If the particular iOS device is not connected to the network, notifications will be queued. But, identical notifications will get discarded and only the most recent will get delivered. See: Quality of Service
Yes (basically the same answer for 2).
My company has 6 apps in the App Store. I want to know if there is an easy way to be alerted when a new review is posted in the App Store. Is there a program that can do this easily, or will I have to log in to the App Store each time?
I found this AppSales Mobile on github, thanks to futuretap.
This app can download App Store reviews to your iPhone. I think it won't be hard for you to figure out the "Alert" part.
There's also this:
http://www.appannie.com/
Not an app, but still very useful.
Naturally this is programmatically possible (using enabledRemoteNotificationTypes). This is a policy question.
Can I require that a user has push notifications enabled to be allowed to use an app, or will this behaviour cause the app to be rejected by Apple?
The App Store Review Guidelines includes a section on push notifications (ยง 5), but does not cover this.
Sometimes I might not want any notification from any application because I am busy. Therefore I turn Notifications on or off as I choose. All you can do is display an UIAlertView reminding the user that push notification is disable when they enter your app.
Submit and see what happens. First, try it with the app closing itself if the user has push notifications turned off, showing them an alert letting them know why the app won't run and how to fix it (and a button that will take them to the right part of Settings if that's possible). If Apple rejects it, then just take out the app quiting code and let them continue by dismissing the nag screen.
Like you say, there's nothing explicitly forbidding it in the guidelines that you can find, so the only way to get an answer is to submit code and see what happens, since you generally can't get a straight answer out of Apple regarding these issues until you have something specific and real for them to consider.
I want to show the badge of notification on the App Store icon in iPhone after approving the update of application on the App Store.
Does developer has to do any thing for that badge of Notification or App Store will take care of it?
Please suggest me regarding it.
Thanks in advance.
You can't trigger this badge yourself.
The badge is updated once the user opens the App Store and the store checks for updates for all installed apps. If there are updates, the App Store will update this badge itself.
There's no central instance that triggers this badge, especially it is not "attached" to push notifications.
It's automatic, you don't have to do anything.