Developing Perspective

00:00:00 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to Developing Perspective.

00:00:03 ◼   ► Developing Perspective is a podcast discussing news of note in iOS development, Apple, and

00:00:07 ◼   ► the like.

00:00:08 ◼   ► I'm your host, David Smith.

00:00:09 ◼   ► I'm an independent iOS developer based in Herndon, Virginia.

00:00:12 ◼   ► This is show number 104, and today is Monday, January 21st.

00:00:17 ◼   ► Developing Perspective is never longer than 15 minutes, so let's get started.

00:00:20 ◼   ► All right, first, an explanation and apology for last week.

00:00:25 ◼   ► There was no show last week, and the reason for that is my family and I had the flu.

00:00:29 ◼   ► Again, so if then, you know, two months we've had two different flus go around our house,

00:00:34 ◼   ► which is certainly not pleasant.

00:00:35 ◼   ► And then I was traveling a bit in the rest of the week.

00:00:37 ◼   ► So my apologies for that.

00:00:38 ◼   ► I know many of you, you know, it's part of the part of your week and part of the things

00:00:42 ◼   ► you look forward to.

00:00:43 ◼   ► So I apologize for not having a show there.

00:00:45 ◼   ► And that's, that's why but I should be everything's everyone seems healthy.

00:00:49 ◼   ► Everyone seems good this week.

00:00:50 ◼   ► So we should be back to a normal schedule.

00:00:52 ◼   ► And I may even try and squeeze in three this week.

00:00:54 ◼   ► That's why I'm starting on Monday.

00:00:55 ◼   ► All right, so the topic I'm going to talk about today is actually something that came

00:00:59 ◼   ► up, I guess it would be a week and a half ago now,

00:01:03 ◼   ► and I was going to talk about it last week,

00:01:04 ◼   ► but I wasn't able to get to because of illness.

00:01:06 ◼   ► And so I was going to talk a little bit about Apple's change

00:01:09 ◼   ► to the iTunes Connect policy about screenshots

00:01:13 ◼   ► and about whether or not you can-- basically,

00:01:17 ◼   ► Apple changed their policy so that you can no longer change

00:01:20 ◼   ► the screenshots of your application

00:01:22 ◼   ► unless you're doing a binary update, which essentially

00:01:24 ◼   ► means screenshots are now part of app review

00:01:28 ◼   ► in an absolute way.

00:01:29 ◼   ► before I'm sure they were reviewed by app review

00:01:31 ◼   ► whenever you submitted an app, but you

00:01:33 ◼   ► were able to change them after the fact, which allowed

00:01:35 ◼   ► you to do all kinds of funny things.

00:01:38 ◼   ► And I think specifically, Apple, as is typical,

00:01:41 ◼   ► didn't really explain why.

00:01:43 ◼   ► The pretty solid reasoning behind this

00:01:47 ◼   ► would almost certainly be it eliminates

00:01:49 ◼   ► the likelihood of people creating scam apps in the store.

00:01:52 ◼   ► And essentially, it's in a situation

00:01:54 ◼   ► where someone creates an app with a name vaguely

00:01:57 ◼   ► similar to, say, a popular game.

00:02:00 ◼   ► And then they submit it with screenshots

00:02:02 ◼   ► that are related to what the game actually looks like.

00:02:05 ◼   ► Some very simple game.

00:02:08 ◼   ► Apple approves it.

00:02:09 ◼   ► And then they go in and they change the description

00:02:11 ◼   ► in the screenshots to reflect-- to make

00:02:14 ◼   ► it look more and more like the thing

00:02:16 ◼   ► that they're trying to copy.

00:02:18 ◼   ► And then there's no review on that.

00:02:20 ◼   ► Because the way the app review is sort of a gateway,

00:02:23 ◼   ► it's not this constant policing.

00:02:25 ◼   ► And often they'll be reported and pulled back.

00:02:27 ◼   ► but it's not like those changes were reviewed.

00:02:29 ◼   ► And so by requiring screenshot changes

00:02:32 ◼   ► to go through app review, it'll likely mitigate

00:02:35 ◼   ► or at least reduce somewhat the problem of that.

00:02:38 ◼   ► And this is a part of a broader discussion.

00:02:41 ◼   ► That's why I think it's still relevant now.

00:02:43 ◼   ► The story isn't that Apple has made this change of policy

00:02:47 ◼   ► for the screenshots.

00:02:48 ◼   ► That's interesting.

00:02:49 ◼   ► The real part of this that's interesting

00:02:51 ◼   ► is whenever these things happen, there's always this bit of a--

00:02:55 ◼   ► I would say it's not quite a backlash,

00:02:57 ◼   ► but it's sort of that of people who complain and moan, oh, gosh,

00:03:00 ◼   ► you know, it's like these bad apples have ruined it for everybody, and I can't believe I have to do this,

00:03:05 ◼   ► it's going to be really annoying.

00:03:07 ◼   ► My take on this is, you know, when I see Apple make a change like that,

00:03:11 ◼   ► I am, there's like 1% annoyance and 99% happiness.

00:03:15 ◼   ► I am delighted whenever Apple makes policy changes whose goal and purpose is to increase user trust,

00:03:24 ◼   ► increase user safety in the app store.

00:03:28 ◼   ► Because that's how I make my living.

00:03:29 ◼   ► That's what I need are customers who trust that when they see

00:03:33 ◼   ► an app in the store and it looks like it's going to do something,

00:03:36 ◼   ► that they're going to buy it.

00:03:37 ◼   ► And more importantly, that they're

00:03:38 ◼   ► willing to take money out of their pocket

00:03:40 ◼   ► and give it to me or through Apple for that.

00:03:44 ◼   ► Which isn't necessarily an easy thing.

00:03:46 ◼   ► If a user sees an application that they

00:03:49 ◼   ► think they're getting something and it turns out

00:03:51 ◼   ► they get something else, the next time

00:03:52 ◼   ► they go to buy something, they're going to be very skeptical. They're going to be much

00:03:56 ◼   ► more reluctant, and that ultimately is hurtful to me as a developer.

00:04:02 ◼   ► And it's one of those things that I think it's easy to think about people, you know,

00:04:07 ◼   ► it's like that app review is sort of a bad part of the store process and is bad for developers

00:04:15 ◼   ► or is annoying. I would definitely take the opposite of that. I would say that app review

00:04:21 ◼   ► is the single most significant aspect of the iOS App Store

00:04:26 ◼   ► that has made it successful.

00:04:28 ◼   ► And there are many other things that are certainly important

00:04:30 ◼   ► and are contributing factors.

00:04:31 ◼   ► I mean, excellent devices, reasonably large install base,

00:04:36 ◼   ► the demographics of the iOS users,

00:04:39 ◼   ► and those types of things.

00:04:40 ◼   ► They're certainly important.

00:04:40 ◼   ► You know, the way the app model works

00:04:42 ◼   ► in terms of sandboxing so that apps are safe

00:04:44 ◼   ► to install and uninstall, those are all important.

00:04:47 ◼   ► But if I had to list out all the different reasons

00:04:49 ◼   ► and pick the single most important,

00:04:50 ◼   ► say without a doubt it's App Review because App Review has created an environment where

00:04:55 ◼   ► users feel safe and where users know what they're getting. I think about the, you know,

00:05:03 ◼   ► sort of the obvious example, the obvious counter example of somewhere like Google Play where

00:05:08 ◼   ► Google Play is a store on many, many, many more devices than iOS is, and yet it is very

00:05:16 ◼   ► difficult for developers to make paid sales there.

00:05:20 ◼   ► People just typically aren't willing to put money

00:05:22 ◼   ► on the table there.

00:05:24 ◼   ► And that, I think, has far more to do with the fact

00:05:27 ◼   ► that people just-- you never know what you're getting.

00:05:30 ◼   ► I mean, there are-- I mean, I think

00:05:32 ◼   ► it's crazy that Temple Run 2 from Keith and Natalia

00:05:37 ◼   ► was launched last week.

00:05:39 ◼   ► And it seemed like within a day or two,

00:05:42 ◼   ► there were already Google Play clones trying

00:05:44 ◼   ► trying to scam and rip off people on the Google Play Store.

00:05:47 ◼   ► There's no review there.

00:05:48 ◼   ► They'll go in, and eventually Google

00:05:49 ◼   ► will go and find and pull them out.

00:05:51 ◼   ► But all the people who got those apps

00:05:53 ◼   ► are now probably out some money and really annoyed.

00:05:57 ◼   ► And that creates this really negative experience.

00:06:00 ◼   ► App review is one of those necessary evils.

00:06:02 ◼   ► And that's not even to say it's necessarily an evil.

00:06:04 ◼   ► It's just a necessary part of commerce.

00:06:06 ◼   ► It seems kind of-- if you take a step back

00:06:09 ◼   ► and you realize that what you're engaging with your customers

00:06:13 ◼   ► is honest to goodness business.

00:06:16 ◼   ► It's straight up commerce.

00:06:17 ◼   ► There are a lot of things that if you were a normal mom

00:06:20 ◼   ► at a corner store selling things,

00:06:23 ◼   ► the number of regulations and processes

00:06:25 ◼   ► and things that go into the products that you're selling

00:06:27 ◼   ► is fairly high and significant, and that's a good thing.

00:06:30 ◼   ► When I'm buying, it's like when I go to the gas station

00:06:34 ◼   ► and fill up my car with gas,

00:06:35 ◼   ► I'm pretty confident that's gonna be gasoline

00:06:37 ◼   ► and they're not giving me something else

00:06:40 ◼   ► because there is regulation and procedures in place

00:06:43 ◼   ► to protect that, and that's a good thing.

00:06:45 ◼   ► That creates trust, which ultimately helps me as a user.

00:06:48 ◼   ► So it's something that I think is really, really important.

00:06:51 ◼   ► Now, there's some things that it does that certainly

00:06:54 ◼   ► are side effects of that.

00:06:55 ◼   ► And these are where it starts to get

00:06:57 ◼   ► into the more practical part of what

00:06:59 ◼   ► I wanted to talk about today in terms of there

00:07:01 ◼   ► are a couple of side effects of app review.

00:07:04 ◼   ► And probably it's also fair to say app review is not

00:07:06 ◼   ► going anywhere.

00:07:07 ◼   ► It's not something that would ever-- if anything,

00:07:11 ◼   ► it'll get tighter and tighter rather than looser and looser.

00:07:13 ◼   ► And that's, like I was sort of just saying,

00:07:15 ◼   ► that's a good thing.

00:07:16 ◼   ► I'm really, really genuinely happy about that.

00:07:18 ◼   ► I think it's a good thing.

00:07:20 ◼   ► I would rather be slightly annoyed

00:07:22 ◼   ► and be able to make a sustainable business than have

00:07:24 ◼   ► this free-form Wild West where it's

00:07:26 ◼   ► very hard to make a living.

00:07:28 ◼   ► And so there are a couple of things

00:07:29 ◼   ► that are kind of the natural side effects of review.

00:07:32 ◼   ► The most important, which is actually, I think, a big plus,

00:07:35 ◼   ► that's a tertiary benefit, is that it forces a more

00:07:39 ◼   ► thoughtful development approach.

00:07:41 ◼   ► And this is something that I've certainly seen.

00:07:44 ◼   ► In my own experience, say if you compare it to--

00:07:46 ◼   ► you could say developing on something like Google Play,

00:07:48 ◼   ► where updates go out immediately,

00:07:50 ◼   ► or even just to web development or something like that,

00:07:52 ◼   ► where you don't have to live with your mistakes

00:07:55 ◼   ► for very long.

00:07:56 ◼   ► If you push an update to a website and something's wrong,

00:08:00 ◼   ► you can push out another update immediately.

00:08:03 ◼   ► there's no barrier to correcting mistakes,

00:08:07 ◼   ► and so you don't have to live with them hardly at all.

00:08:10 ◼   ► I think that's a very significant difference

00:08:12 ◼   ► compared to what you have on iOS,

00:08:14 ◼   ► where you have to live with your mistakes

00:08:16 ◼   ► for up to a week, two weeks sometimes,

00:08:20 ◼   ► and so you have to be much more thoughtful

00:08:22 ◼   ► about what you're doing.

00:08:23 ◼   ► You have to be more careful.

00:08:24 ◼   ► You have to be much more disciplined in what you're doing

00:08:29 ◼   ► so that you don't end up with that situation,

00:08:32 ◼   ► And that slows down a bit the churns you could do.

00:08:35 ◼   ► And I think overall, that's a good thing.

00:08:37 ◼   ► I think it certainly helps me to be more careful about what

00:08:41 ◼   ► I'm pushing out the door, because I

00:08:42 ◼   ► know that I can't just immediately fix it or go back.

00:08:45 ◼   ► Once an app updates out there, it's going to spread,

00:08:48 ◼   ► and it's going to be what most users are going to get.

00:08:50 ◼   ► And there are a few things that Apple

00:08:51 ◼   ► does to certainly mitigate this.

00:08:52 ◼   ► You can do the expedited review process, which is great.

00:08:56 ◼   ► I had to use it over the Christmas break

00:08:58 ◼   ► or just before the Christmas shutdown,

00:09:01 ◼   ► Because I pushed an update that disabled in-app purchase

00:09:04 ◼   ► accidentally, which was a bit awkward.

00:09:06 ◼   ► And it's like Apple was very responsive.

00:09:09 ◼   ► Even though it was right at the peak of that Christmas app

00:09:12 ◼   ► review, they were turned around within maybe about 12, 18

00:09:15 ◼   ► hours even.

00:09:16 ◼   ► It was a really quick process.

00:09:17 ◼   ► And that was awesome.

00:09:18 ◼   ► And I'm glad that's there.

00:09:20 ◼   ► But that's my one use for probably the next year,

00:09:23 ◼   ► where I could do an expedited review.

00:09:25 ◼   ► And so I have to be very careful now, very thoughtful,

00:09:28 ◼   ► very deliberate about what I push to the store.

00:09:30 ◼   ► And that's a good thing.

00:09:32 ◼   ► So first, I'd say that's the number-- a big advantage

00:09:34 ◼   ► that you can kind of take the app review reality

00:09:37 ◼   ► and turn it into a strategy to help improve your process.

00:09:40 ◼   ► Is you have to look at it as, this is a great opportunity

00:09:44 ◼   ► for me to make sure that I'm building

00:09:46 ◼   ► good quality solid products.

00:09:48 ◼   ► And I'm shipping them only when they're ready,

00:09:51 ◼   ► or ready to see-- when I think that they're at a point

00:09:53 ◼   ► that they're ready for the customer to see.

00:09:56 ◼   ► So use that to your advantage.

00:09:58 ◼   ► Have that discipline.

00:09:58 ◼   ► and have that thoughtfulness, because you have to.

00:10:01 ◼   ► It's not a bad thing for someone to force you

00:10:03 ◼   ► to be a better developer.

00:10:05 ◼   ► And so in that case, just live with that and embrace it.

00:10:09 ◼   ► First, and then another thing that I'd

00:10:10 ◼   ► say that is also great about the review process--

00:10:13 ◼   ► and this is something that I've started doing more and more--

00:10:15 ◼   ► is you just kind of start using it to your advantage

00:10:18 ◼   ► in terms of--

00:10:20 ◼   ► I think most people are familiar with kind of a development

00:10:22 ◼   ► process where you have the concept of a release candidate.

00:10:26 ◼   ► So say if you were starting with a normal development cycle,

00:10:30 ◼   ► you'd have an alpha version of a product.

00:10:32 ◼   ► Let's just say it's a new product.

00:10:34 ◼   ► You have an alpha version, which basically works,

00:10:36 ◼   ► but is nowhere near shipping.

00:10:38 ◼   ► A beta product is feature complete, could be shipped,

00:10:40 ◼   ► but you don't think is ready.

00:10:42 ◼   ► And then you end up with a release candidate, which

00:10:44 ◼   ► is something you're saying, I believe

00:10:46 ◼   ► this is ready to go to the store and to customers

00:10:48 ◼   ► and ready to out the door.

00:10:50 ◼   ► But I want to verify that through some kind of quality

00:10:52 ◼   ► assurance or testing process.

00:10:55 ◼   ► What I've typically started doing is I will release--

00:10:58 ◼   ► or I will submit all of my release candidates

00:11:03 ◼   ► to the app store as soon as I can sort of brand them

00:11:07 ◼   ► as release candidates.

00:11:09 ◼   ► And then I will set the status in the store

00:11:12 ◼   ► so that it won't release immediately to customers

00:11:16 ◼   ► if that app gets approved.

00:11:18 ◼   ► And the reason I do that is, if you say-- recently,

00:11:21 ◼   ► they've been pretty quick.

00:11:22 ◼   ► They've been-- I've seen a lot of reviews coming around

00:11:24 ◼   ► in a couple of days, but typically you

00:11:26 ◼   ► have to plan at least a week, sometimes two,

00:11:28 ◼   ► depending on what time of year it is.

00:11:30 ◼   ► And if you're planning that into your cycle,

00:11:34 ◼   ► then you submit your release date

00:11:35 ◼   ► as soon as you brand it as such.

00:11:38 ◼   ► Then you have a week or two to do your internal testing,

00:11:42 ◼   ► your user testing, all those kinds of things.

00:11:44 ◼   ► If you find a problem before it goes into review,

00:11:46 ◼   ► you can just pull it and resubmit it,

00:11:48 ◼   ► release RC2 or submit RC2 if it's at that point.

00:11:52 ◼   ► If it turns out RC1 was great and you

00:11:54 ◼   ► didn't have any problems, or you didn't have any problems that

00:11:56 ◼   ► were showstopper significance.

00:11:58 ◼   ► You just let it go through review and approve it.

00:12:00 ◼   ► And if you do, by taking that approach,

00:12:03 ◼   ► you actually haven't lost any time from the review process

00:12:07 ◼   ► in terms of you're not actually delaying when

00:12:10 ◼   ► you can ship really at all.

00:12:12 ◼   ► So a lot of people complain about the process of once it's

00:12:14 ◼   ► finally ready to ship, they then have to wait another week.

00:12:17 ◼   ► It's a week without revenue, a week

00:12:18 ◼   ► before it can get to customers, and so on.

00:12:21 ◼   ► I think that's a nice sort of side effect of this approach

00:12:24 ◼   ► is that you don't really lose that time if you submit your RCs

00:12:26 ◼   ► right when they're ready.

00:12:27 ◼   ► And so that's what I do.

00:12:28 ◼   ► I mean, it's like a great example of that

00:12:30 ◼   ► where it was actually really helpful.

00:12:31 ◼   ► I was with Check the Weather where I submitted my first RC.

00:12:36 ◼   ► It was approved pretty quickly before I was even

00:12:38 ◼   ► ready for all of the press and the promotional side of what

00:12:41 ◼   ► I was doing.

00:12:42 ◼   ► And it meant that I had an app approved in the store

00:12:45 ◼   ► that I could generate promo codes for, send to people.

00:12:48 ◼   ► And I talked about this in the old episodes

00:12:50 ◼   ► about how I generated promo codes

00:12:53 ◼   ► and sent them out before the app was actually released,

00:12:54 ◼   ► which meant people didn't have to do ad hoc builds,

00:12:56 ◼   ► and had these great knock-on effects, which were great.

00:13:00 ◼   ► And so that's what I do to take advantage of that.

00:13:03 ◼   ► Another thing I also like that's beneficial about the review

00:13:07 ◼   ► timeline and the time delay, especially,

00:13:09 ◼   ► is that it means that you have this extra time to time shift

00:13:14 ◼   ► your work.

00:13:15 ◼   ► So for example, say you're working

00:13:16 ◼   ► on the website for your application.

00:13:18 ◼   ► It's going to have a promotional site,

00:13:20 ◼   ► or you're going to have those types of,

00:13:21 ◼   ► you know, do press or outreach,

00:13:23 ◼   ► all those kinds of activities.

00:13:25 ◼   ► You can be doing those while the app is in review.

00:13:28 ◼   ► And so you can shift, rather than,

00:13:30 ◼   ► whenever you actually shift the app,

00:13:31 ◼   ► having to have all your ducks in a row,

00:13:34 ◼   ► you can essentially just have only the,

00:13:37 ◼   ► you get the programming done up front,

00:13:39 ◼   ► and then you have a week to do all the other side,

00:13:42 ◼   ► sort of the promotional and marketing activities.

00:13:44 ◼   ► And that's kind of just a nice additional benefit

00:13:47 ◼   ► of having it.

00:13:48 ◼   ► Some people would say, "Oh, it would be better

00:13:49 ◼   ► "if I didn't have to do that,"

00:13:50 ◼   ► but the reality is, it is what it is.

00:13:53 ◼   ► These are some things that I do to make it better

00:13:55 ◼   ► and more useful for my own time.

00:13:58 ◼   ► Anyway, so hopefully that's helpful and thoughtful

00:14:00 ◼   ► and interesting for people.

00:14:02 ◼   ► That's how I view App Review.

00:14:03 ◼   ► I love App Review.

00:14:04 ◼   ► It is what has allowed me to do this independent

00:14:07 ◼   ► and do this full-time.

00:14:08 ◼   ► And I think I say that without any sort of irony.

00:14:11 ◼   ► I really don't think without App Review

00:14:13 ◼   ► I'd be able to be an independent developer

00:14:15 ◼   ► because that's the thing that builds customer confidence,

00:14:17 ◼   ► customer confidence is what makes people comfortable

00:14:19 ◼   ► opening their wallets and giving me money.

00:14:22 ◼   ► So anyway, that's it for today's show.

00:14:24 ◼   ► I'm definitely going to encourage

00:14:26 ◼   ► you to reach out if you have any questions or comments,

00:14:29 ◼   ► just through either emailing me, david@david-smith.org.

00:14:33 ◼   ► You can hit me on Twitter.

00:14:35 ◼   ► I'm @_davidsmith there, or I'm @davidsmith on app.net.

00:14:39 ◼   ► And I'm going through a period now.

00:14:41 ◼   ► It would be great if you have questions or things for me

00:14:44 ◼   ► to address on the show.

00:14:45 ◼   ► I'd love to do that for you.

00:14:47 ◼   ► topics or ideas or things that you have, just let me know.

00:14:50 ◼   ► Otherwise, I hope you have a great week.

00:14:51 ◼   ► Happy coding.

00:14:52 ◼   ► And I will talk to you, hopefully,

00:14:54 ◼   ► a couple more times this week.