WWDC Quick Look đź’“ By SwiftGGTeam
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What's new in App Store Connect

What's new in App Store Connect

App StoreDistribution & Marketing
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Highlight

App Store Connect’s focus this year is “let users judge whether an app fits them before downloading”: Accessibility Nutrition Labels, Review Summaries, 5-tier age ratings, and CPP keyword search arrive together.

Core Content

For years, the most painful small thing when a build upload failed: that build number was wasted. Next time you had to increment the version again, breaking CI scripts and release records. Apple finally pulled out the “upload process” separately. The TestFlight section now has a Build Uploads panel, showing build status in real-time during delivery—from creation, processing, to completion or failure. Failed builds are no longer discarded; they stay in the list where you can check error messages and warnings. Most importantly, failed build numbers can be reused (02:38). Combined with the upcoming App Store Connect API upload capability and webhook real-time notifications, the entire delivery pipeline can finally be fully automated.

Another long-complained-about step is “how does the App Store let users find me.” Apple’s answer is App Store Tags: using large language models to scan your app metadata (description, category, screenshots), automatically generating more granular tags, then going through human review. Users click a tag to enter a curated collection page. Developers can see their tag list in ASC’s App information and can disassociate inaccurate ones (09:56). Meanwhile, Custom Product Pages can finally appear in search results—assign keywords to each CPP, and searching that term shows the corresponding CPP instead of the default product page, no review submission needed (11:36).

Details

The session is presented by Chinedu and Michael in four parts, each addressing a specific pain point.

1. Managing Apps (Michael)

The Build Uploads section replaces the old “see nothing after failure” experience. Every step status shows from build delivery creation, processing, to completion; failed records and successful records with the same version number + build number display side by side (03:19). Combined with:

  • App Store Connect API upload capability (later this year)
  • Webhooks pushing build status changes
  • TestFlight Feedback also goes through webhooks and the new feedback API

The App Store Connect iPhone/iPad app can now receive TestFlight feedback push notifications directly (screenshots + crash logs), supports digest mode to avoid notification floods, and can share feedback to team members with one tap from the phone (06:30). Apple-Hosted Background Assets provides up to 200GB of Apple-hosted asset packages, covering Mac/iPhone/iPad/Apple TV/Vision Pro, and can update content outside the app (04:15).

2. Helping Users Discover Your App (Chinedu)

The App Store Tags, CPP keywords, and Offer Codes trio. The CPP keyword configuration path is short—the session demoed it live:

App Store Connect
  └─ App information
       └─ View Tags (can click Edit to remove inaccurate tags)

App Store Connect
  └─ Custom Product Pages
       └─ Select target CPP (e.g., workouttracking)
            └─ Choose one or more keywords from latest App Store version keywords
                 └─ Configure per language
                      └─ Save to take effect, no resubmission for review needed

Key points:

  • Removing an App Store Tag = your app no longer shows on that tag’s curated page, and loses that search result entry.
  • CPP keywords can only be chosen from your submitted App Store version keywords—you can’t write a new term from scratch.
  • When a CPP keyword matches, search results show that CPP’s screenshots and copy, not the default product page.
  • Modifying CPP keywords doesn’t require review, so you can quickly A/B different keyword combinations.

Offer Codes got the biggest expansion: from subscription-only to consumables, non-consumables, and non-renewing subscriptions. Rules:

  • Maximum 10 active offers per IAP
  • Maximum 1 million offer codes per app per quarter (subscriptions + IAP combined)
  • Three eligibility tiers: never purchased / purchased over 30 days ago / purchased within 30 days
  • Sandbox environment can also generate and redeem codes, 10,000 per app per quarter, individual sandbox Apple Accounts have no redemption limit (13:18)

Redemption paths: deep link / QR code / in-app input. Once a user redeems, the App Store automatically installs the app; developers just use StoreKit to identify the transaction and deliver the benefit.

3. Telling Users Whether Your App Fits Them (Chinedu)

Three new things: Review Summaries (LLM generates summaries from reviews, developers can report issues in ASC), age ratings expanded from 3 tiers to 5 tiers (new declaration items for messaging/chat, UGC, advertising, etc.; can declare in-app parental controls; supports manual override, like “our policy requires 16+”), and Accessibility Nutrition Labels.

Accessibility Nutrition Labels is a brand new feature:

  • Displays accessibility features supported by the app on the product page (VoiceOver, Larger Text, etc.)
  • Declared per device independently—the same app might support VoiceOver on iPhone but not on Apple TV, so you can declare separately (19:45)
  • Saved as draft by default, edit repeatedly before publishing; can bind an external explanation page URL
  • Can edit anytime after publishing

4. Other Updates (Michael)

App Analytics adds 100+ metrics, fully expanding subscription and monetization data; Game Center redesigned, introducing Activities and Challenges; App Review submission flow supports submitting Apple-Hosted Background Assets and Game Center types as independent items, or combining multiple items into a draft submission for review together (24:02).

Key Takeaways

  • Check new age ratings immediately: ASC will automatically calculate new ratings from old questionnaire answers, but three new declaration types were added—messaging/chat, UGC, advertising—which weren’t in the old questionnaire. Why it’s worth doing: Misaligned ratings directly affect downloads and parental filtering; How to start: Go to ASC → Age Ratings → walk through the new questionnaire, focus on filling new questions; if your company policy requires higher than the calculated result, use override to raise it.

  • Assign unique keywords to each CPP: CPP keywords let search results show the corresponding CPP instead of the default product page, and changing keywords doesn’t require re-review. Why it’s worth doing: Essentially free additional search entry points; How to start: List 3-5 high-intent search terms for your app, assign each term to the best-matching CPP, configure per language independently, then check each CPP’s search traffic in App Analytics after launch.

  • Layer Offer Codes by purchase status: New IAP offer codes support three eligibility tiers: “never purchased / not purchased in 30 days / purchased within 30 days.” Why it’s worth doing: Giving the same coupon to everyone is wasteful—acquisition, reactivation, and retention have different reasonable price points; How to start: First generate three sets of codes in sandbox to validate the flow, then send different intensity offers to the three user types, compare conversion rates using ASC reports.

  • Make Accessibility Nutrition Labels draft first, then publish: Defaulting to draft prevents mistaken declarations. Why it’s worth doing: Declaring you don’t support something is an implicit commitment; How to start: Have QA test support on each device item-by-item following Apple’s detailed guidance, declare per device independently, then publish after confirming accuracy.

  • Treat Review Summary as product feedback: LLM-generated summaries highly concentrate what users care about. Why it’s worth doing: More efficient than manually reading comments one by one; How to start: Scan Review Summary in ASC weekly, import recurring keywords into your product backlog; if the summary extraction is inaccurate, use ASC’s report concern to give feedback.

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