https://kapps.store/ Apple Developer and Google Play announcements, policy changes and practical guides for app developers, curated by KappS. en Wed, 14 Oct 2026 13:12:21 +0000 KappS static pipeline https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-14.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-14.html Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Version 1 notifications and the App Store Receipts endpoint are deprecated, so every iOS server now has to implement the version 2 endpoint. This tutorial walks the setup in App Store Connect, JWS verification and payload decoding, the full notificationType and subtype catalogue, the 12-hour consumption request window, 200-206 versus 40x/50x retries, and the App Store Server API endpoints that resolve the current state. https://kapps.store/news/updated-apple-developer-program-license-agreement-now-available/ https://kapps.store/news/updated-apple-developer-program-license-agreement-now-available/ Tue, 13 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 TheApple Developer Program License Agreementhas been revised to support new features and updated policies, and to provide clarification. Please review https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-13.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-13.html Tue, 13 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Twelve checks for the 2026 Apple privacy manifest: PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy, the five required reason API categories, approved reason codes, and SDK signatures. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-12.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-12.html Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Google Play's Photo and Video Permissions policy has been enforced since May 2025 - eight questions on the picker, declarations and partial access. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-09.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-09.html Fri, 09 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Withholding tax is deducted from Google Play earnings in Brazil, Egypt, India, Kenya, Kuwait, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Tanzania. A step-by-step guide to each rate, the W-8BEN form versus W-9, tax treaty relief, and how to verify your payments profile before a payout cycle. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-08.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-08.html Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Google's July 15, 2026 policy refresh confirmed that the User Data policy now covers third-party AI integrations explicitly, and that developers remain responsible for limited use, disclosure and consent. Eight questions cover what counts as an AI integration, what limited use requires, what must be disclosed, and how to audit your AI stack before enforcement does. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-07.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-07.html Wed, 07 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Google's white-label best-practices guide now states its preference outright: decentralized accounts beat one central account. The step-by-step workflow for a compliant app matrix: account structure, unique store listings, repetitive-content rules, and review-time guardrails. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-06.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-06.html Tue, 06 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Twelve checks against Google Play's 2026 Ads policy: rating match, deceptive and disruptive ads, the 15-second interstitial rule, Families SDKs and ad ID. https://kapps.store/news/prepare-and-submit-your-apps-for-iphone-duo/ https://kapps.store/news/prepare-and-submit-your-apps-for-iphone-duo/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 iPhone Duo will be available to customers starting October 23, 2026. To get your apps and games ready today, you can:Build or recompile with XcodeReco https://kapps.store/news/showcase-your-apps-with-new-assets-on-the-app-store/ https://kapps.store/news/showcase-your-apps-with-new-assets-on-the-app-store/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Make your apps and games stand out with new creative assets on the App Store and asset management tools in App Store Connect.Market your app or game i https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-05.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-05.html Mon, 05 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 AdMob Mediation lets a single ad unit draw fill from many ad sources, and in 2026 the default setup is hybrid: bidding sources run a real-time auction while waterfall sources catch what the auction leaves. This tutorial walks the five console steps (ad unit, ad sources, ad unit mapping, mediation group, SDK and adapters), explains how group priority decides which group fills a request, and covers the details that decide revenue: the 18.3.0 SDK floor for bidding, the a3p signal that proves a bidder is integrated, eCPM floors that override ad unit floors, bidding's exclusion from child-directed https://kapps.store/news/updates-to-full-disk-access-in-macos/ https://kapps.store/news/updates-to-full-disk-access-in-macos/ Fri, 02 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 We give developers powerful APIs to build incredible capabilities into their apps for Apple products, backed by a set of controls designed to protect https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-02.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-02.html Fri, 02 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 User choice billing is Google Play's opt-in pilot that lets an eligible app offer its own billing system inside the app, next to Play billing. This guide covers the 2026 rules: the eight pilot markets, the business-account requirement, the fee table that took effect on June 30, 2026 (a flat 10% on auto-renewing subscriptions, 10% to 25% on other digital goods depending on whether the buyer is a new or an existing install), the alternative billing APIs, and the 24-hour transaction reporting rule. https://kapps.store/news/upcoming-expiration-of-developer-id-certification-authority-sub-ca/ https://kapps.store/news/upcoming-expiration-of-developer-id-certification-authority-sub-ca/ Thu, 01 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 The original Developer ID Certification Authority (Sub-CA) expires on February 1, 2027. Certificates issued by this authority will stop working on tha https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-01.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-10-01.html Thu, 01 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Real-time developer notifications (RTDN) are Google Play's push mechanism for purchase state: Play publishes a base64-encoded event to a Cloud Pub/Sub topic in your own Google Cloud project, and your server receives it by push or pull. This tutorial walks the full setup - creating the topic, the Pub/Sub Publisher grant for google-play-developer-notifications@system.gserviceaccount.com, choosing push versus pull, and sending the Play Console test message - then decodes the DeveloperNotification payload: all subscription notification types, the one-time product events, and the voided purchase no https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-30.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-30.html Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Apple's age rating questionnaire in App Store Connect now produces 4+, 9+, 13+, 16+ and 18+ ratings, with region-specific values for Australia, Brazil and Korea, and an Unrated category that cannot be published on the App Store. Here is what each tier's descriptors mean, which in-app controls you must declare, how Made for Kids and overrides work, and how to answer a region-specific rating notice from App Review. https://kapps.store/news/play-subscriptions-next-era/ https://kapps.store/news/play-subscriptions-next-era/ Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Google Play rebuilds subscriptions around more flexible offers and clearer billing journeys for developers. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-29.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-29.html Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Google Play began sharing chargeback costs with developers for orders placed after August 3, 2026, so a disputed sale now returns the purchase price less Play's service fee to the buyer and adds the financial institution's chargeback fees to your bill, while Google continues to cover its own service fee. This guide walks the whole money path: how to tell a plain refund from a chargeback in Play Console (the Refunded status variants 'This refund was paid by Google' and 'This refund was a chargeback'), how to wire the Voided Purchases API and its hard constraints (30-day maximum lookback, defaul https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-28.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-28.html Mon, 28 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Google Play retires each major version of the Play Billing Library on a fixed two-year cycle, and version 7's new-app-and-update deadline of August 31, 2026 has already passed: new apps and updates must now use Billing Library version 8 or later, with an extension to November 1, 2026 available from the warning on the Play Console Policy status page. This tutorial walks the whole migration: how to find the version an APK actually ships (build.gradle, the BILLING permission, and the com.google.android.play.billingclient.version manifest attribute that manifest merging can strip), how the depreca https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-25.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-25.html Fri, 25 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Apple's standard App Store commission is 30% of every price an end user pays — Section 3.4(a) of Schedule 2 of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement. Section 3.4(b) of the same schedule reduces it to 15% for developers whose total proceeds stay under $1,000,000 in the prior calendar year, but the test is run across every Associated Developer Account you own or control, app transfers count in the proceeds of every party to the transfer, Apple approves eligible developers within 15 days of the end of each fiscal calendar month, and crossing the threshold mid-year returns you to the stand https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-24.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-24.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 AdMob pays around the 21st of the month, but only if twelve things were already done. This checklist walks the full payment chain with Google's own thresholds and timelines: the $10 verification threshold and $100 payment threshold, the 45-day identity verification deadline, the PIN mailer that takes about 3 weeks and must be entered within 4 months, the six payment holds nobody checks until money is late, app-ads.txt verification, the certified CMP required in the EEA and UK since 16 January 2024 and in Switzerland since 31 July 2024, and why invalid traffic ends in a disabled account that fo https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-23.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-23.html Wed, 23 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Most Google Play developer accounts are not lost to policy enforcement — they are lost to operations: a shared password, an answered phishing email, a change nobody read in the Activity log, a keystore that lived on one laptop, or six months of silence that Google's inactivity policy reads as abandonment. Eight questions answered with Google's own official guidance: 2-Step Verification across every account with Play Console access, why adding users beats sharing a login, what the Activity log records and for how long, how to tell an official enforcement email from a phishing attempt, the corre https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-22.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-22.html Tue, 22 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Core vitals decide whether Google Play quietly reduces your app's visibility or shows shoppers a warning on your listing. This tutorial covers the exact bad behavior thresholds (1.09% user-perceived crash rate, 0.47% ANR rate), where to read your numbers in Play Console, how to automate monitoring with email alerts and the Developer Reporting API, the fix order that actually moves the metrics, and the memory, bitmap and DEX thresholds that start affecting visibility in February 2027. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-backfill-2026-09-21.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-backfill-2026-09-21.html Mon, 21 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Play Integrity API returns server-side verdicts on app, device and account integrity. Enable it, request and verify tokens, then roll out safely. https://kapps.store/news/build-for-iphone-duo-with-new-resources/ https://kapps.store/news/build-for-iphone-duo-with-new-resources/ Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Get Xcode 27.1 beta.View downloadsand release notesGet Figma and Sketch design kits for iPhone Duo from the Apple Design Resources.Download design kit https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-18.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-18.html Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Content ratings on Google Play are issued by IARC member authorities, not Google, and in several regions they decide whether minors can even find your app. Eight answers on the questionnaire, the Summary page, target audience declarations, Families rules, ad suitability, rating overrides, appeals, and the real cost of inaccurate answers. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-17.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-17.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Play App Signing now runs on three keys: your upload key, Google's app signing key, and the quantum-ready pair for Android 17. Here is how to set it up for a new or existing app, register up to three fingerprints with your API providers, upgrade an app signing key, and reset a lost upload key. https://kapps.store/news/get-ready-with-the-latest-beta-releases/ https://kapps.store/news/get-ready-with-the-latest-beta-releases/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 The beta versions of iOS 27.2, iPadOS 27.2, macOS 27.2, tvOS 27.2, visionOS 27.2, and watchOS 27.2 are now available. Get your apps ready by confirmin https://kapps.store/news/get-your-subscriptions-ready-for-ios-27/ https://kapps.store/news/get-your-subscriptions-ready-for-ios-27/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Discover how you can expand the reach of your subscriptions with new features in iOS 27. You can start preparing today by making sure your apps use St https://kapps.store/news/updates-to-app-tracking-transparency-in-the-european-union/ https://kapps.store/news/updates-to-app-tracking-transparency-in-the-european-union/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 As part of agreements with select European competition authorities, Apple is introducing changes to its App Tracking Transparency framework in the Eur https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-16.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-16.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Eight roles decide what your team can do in App Store Connect: Account Holder, Admin, Finance, App Manager, Developer, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Support. Here is how to invite users, restrict app access by role, change or revoke access, and transfer the Account Holder role. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-15.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-15.html Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Ten checks that catch rejections and crashes before your AAB reaches users: target API level, upload key and Play App Signing, a Data safety form that matches every SDK, a live privacy policy, content rating, listing assets, and the pre-launch report Play generates for free. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-14.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-14.html Mon, 14 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Your Play payouts do not travel from the developer account to your bank directly - they run through the payments profile. Here is how to create the right profile, complete tax information, verify a bank account, and keep payouts from being held. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-11.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-11.html Fri, 11 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Play's Location Permissions update, announced April 15, 2026, takes effect January 27, 2027: apps targeting Android 17+ must use the location button as the recommended minimum scope for transactional precise location. Here is how to audit, migrate, and declare in Play Console. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-10.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-10.html Thu, 10 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Play's SMS and Call Log Permissions policy, announced July 15, 2026, takes effect January 27, 2027: the READ_CALL_LOG exception for account verification via phone call is removed. Here is how to detect that use case, pick an alternative, and update Play Console. https://kapps.store/news/get-ready-for-iphone-duo/ https://kapps.store/news/get-ready-for-iphone-duo/ Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Start getting ready for iPhone Duo today. Watch new videos, sign up for Group Labs, and take part in Q&As on the Apple Developer Forums.Explore now https://kapps.store/news/app-store-submissions-now-open-for-the-latest-os-releases/ https://kapps.store/news/app-store-submissions-now-open-for-the-latest-os-releases/ Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, tvOS 27, visionOS 27, and watchOS 27 will soon be available to customers worldwide, which means you can now submit apps a https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-09.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-09.html Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Play's Contacts Permissions policy, announced April 15, 2026, takes effect January 27, 2027: apps targeting Android 17+ that do not need broad contacts access must use the Android Contact Picker. Here is how to decide, migrate, and declare in Play Console. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-08.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-08.html Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 After the July 15, 2026 announcement, three Play updates took effect on August 26: Age-Restricted Content covers anonymous and random chat, Families Policy forbids targeting children, and Child Safety Standards expand. Here is the Play Console walkthrough. https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-07.html https://kapps.store/blog/articles/kapps-daily-2026-09-07.html Mon, 07 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 If your app lets users create an account, Play's User Data policy requires an in-app deletion path plus a working web link in the Data safety / Data deletion questions. Freezing or disabling is not deletion — here is the Play Console walkthrough for 2026.