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As you are nearing the end of beta testing your iOS app and preparing for its submission to the App Store (and subsequent deployment out into the real world!), it’s easy to forget about a crucial part of your app’s success: the product page. Nothing has a greater impact on driving downloads and acquiring users than your App Store product page. Done correctly, your product page really can set your app up for success in the market. As you’re planning for the launch of your iOS app, make sure the following details are being thought through.

Your App Store Product Page Details

  • App Name: Your app’s name is pretty straightforward and by the time you are planning for its release, the name is likely already established. Besides your keywords, the name of your app has the single biggest impact on discoverability within the App Store. The name should be simple, easy to understand and descriptive of the service you are offering. Apple recommends name lengths should be limited to 23 characters or less (and caps them at 30 characters maximum).
  • App Icon: This is the first visual a user will see of your app in the store, as well as the long-term visual users will search for on their device to launch your app. The icon should be simple, focused and recognizable. More on Apple’s icon requirements.
  • Category: You can assign your app two categories in the App Store, a primary and secondary. Though most apps have an obvious primary category from the get-go, others have the potential to fall into a few different categories. Your primary category is what affects search rankings and discoverability, so choose wisely and think about where your targeted users are most likely to be exploring. More on Apple’s categories, including special cases.
  • Demo/Previews: A video demo or preview of your app’s core functionality is a great way to make a lasting impact on potential users and drive downloads. Videos should be short at 15 to 30 seconds in length and show your app in action. More on Apple’s Preview recommendations here and here.
  • Screenshots: You can (and should) add up to five screenshots of your app to your product page. The first two screenshots are shown automatically in search results if a demo is not present, so it’s important that they capture users’ attention and draw them into your product page for more information. More on Apple’s screenshot properties. First time creating screenshots? We’ve had a lot of success using Launch Kit.
  • Description: The first two to three lines of text are key real estate when describing your app’s functionality and features. Apple only displays this limited amount of text before appending a “more” link, which users are forced to click in order to reveal the entire text. When crafting your description text, bear that in mind and put your most compelling details first. As a whole, your messaging should provide an overview of your app’s functionality as well as a list of key features.
  • Keywords: Besides your app’s name, keywords play the most critical role in search result rankings. Apple limits your keywords to 100 characters total, including commas to separate words. It’s important to be strategic when choosing your keywords. Think through what search terms your target audience will be using when looking for an app like yours. Be specific and focused.
  • “What’s New” section: While not necessarily important for your launch, it’s worth noting that the “What’s New” section will be valuable real estate beginning with your first update. Here you should not only describe the changes, fixes and added features being released, but you should also use the space to strategically communicate with users.
  • Privacy Policy / Terms and Conditions: Apple, and the law, require your app to have a published Privacy Policy and/or Terms and Condition page if a user’s personal information is being “accessed, collected and transmitted” within and/or from your app. You must also gain a user’s permission before “accessing, collecting and transmitting” personal information. It is your responsibility to consult with legal representation to determine when a Privacy Policy is needed and what it should contain. More about Privacy Policies, including examples.

Come back next week as I continue this series on launching your iOS app with part two: Marketing Your App. We’ll be discussing creating a marketing website, social media, press kits and more! Update: the series continues here.

Increase Your App Adoption

Well, that was exciting.

WWDC 2017 wound down last week. It’s been a firehose of information, mostly delightful, a little disappointing and largely overwhelming. I wasn’t a lottery winner this year, so I’m observing from the other coast and I’ve still got about a bajillion hours of video queued up to watch. It’s going to be a fun summer! But the first session I was sure to watch was the venerable “What’s New in HomeKit” to learn the fate of my Hopes and Dreams.

The news is mostly good. Here’s a quick rundown of my wishlist and whether Santa delivered this DubMas.

  • Better automation rules
    • Offset from sunset
      • ? Yes! Now you can create triggers for “significant events” with an offset, so you can turn on lights 45 minutes before sunset. “Significant events” seems to mostly be sunrise and sunset in the current release.
    • Follow up events
      • ? Yes! HomeKit now includes “duration events” which can act as bookends on something like a motion trigger. When there’s motion in the hallway, turn on the hall light and turn it off in five minutes. I’m not clear if you can make this a little more sophisticated and turn the light off if there is no motion for five minutes or if you’re limited to a fixed interval. But even so, definitely an improvement.
    • Limit rules to time ranges or scenes engaged
      • ? Yes! The specific example from the presentation restricts a scene triggered from a motion sensor to only fire after sunset and before sunrise. You can connect these time limits to either “significant events” (with offset) or to specific times. I believe you can also gate them based on an active scene, but my notes are slightly sketchy on that point.
  • Beyond devices
    • Interaction with iOS apps, devices
      • ? Nope. There was no mention of triggering apps or controlling your AppleTV from Siri on your phone. But all is not lost! More on that later.
    • Workflow integration
      • ? Nope. No mention of Workflow at all. I’m still optimistic about Workflow. They could easily integrate HomeKit support in an upcoming release which wouldn’t rate a pre-announcement at DubDub.

Other HomeKit Improvements

There were lots of tantalizing tidbits included in the presentation, all of which bode well for the future of HomeKit. In a lot of ways, they’ve been building a foundation for several years and we’re finally getting to the point of critical mass where we can go beyond a fancier X10 system).

Highlights of the other announcements:

  • Other new events
    • ? Presence based events
      • First person comes home
      • Last person leaves home
      • House is occupied or unoccupied
    • ? Threshold range events
      • Temperature is above 80 degrees
      • Temperature is below 60 degrees
      • Temperature is between 60 and 80 degrees
    • ? Events which recur on a schedule
      • Execute “Good Morning” scene at 7 am, but only on weekdays.
  • Protocol enhancement for bluetooth accessories which improve latency from several seconds to sub-seconds
    • A bluetooth motion sensor used to take three seconds to turn on a light. Now it can do it in less than a second.
    • Should be available as a software upgrade to existing devices — no new hardware needed.
  • Enhanced setup
    • If you’re scanning (or typing) the string of numbers printed on the device, you can do so now before plugging in the device. Personally, I’m not limber enough for the gymnastics required to scan the smart plug after it’s plugged in and powered up.
    • New devices can use QR codes instead of printed numbers. The big benefit of QR codes is that they can be physically much smaller, as small as 10mm x 10mm.
    • And the pièce de résistance — setup via NFC tags. Yup, finally. Tap the device and that’s it. I honestly don’t know why any new device wouldn’t use NFC “tap to configure”.
  • New categories
    • ⛲️Sprinklers! I’m surprised sprinklers are just now getting to the party. They’ve been low hanging fruit for automation geeks for 20 years.
    • ? Faucets! A quick confab at the office and everyone agrees on the killer use case — cooking chicken. Nobody want to smear salmonella all over the sink.
  • Authentication / Certification
    • Software authentication. Previously, all HomeKit devices needed hardware authentication which meant older devices couldn’t be upgraded and new devices had to include an extra chip, adding cost and complexity. For example, I suspect Wemo bailed on HomeKit support because of the hardware authentication requirement. A few weeks ago, they were back on board. Coincidence?
    • Non-commercial products can be certified for free! Hobbyists, students and the like can now access the technical documents and tools to build HomeKit controllable devices for free. Now (in my copious free time), I can build a garage door monitor out of a Raspberry Pi and control it with Siri! This is super exciting because it lowers the bar significantly for building and testing prototypes before taking it to market. I expect this to feed a niche corner of KickStarter very, very soon.

Was there anything on the wish list that we didn’t get? Yes, HomeKit for the Mac. All the discussions were aimed at watchOS, tvOS and iOS, but the Macintosh is left out in the cold. It’s probably a question of resource management. Mac users already mostly have an iPhone in their pocket or a watch strapped to their wrist, so it’s not a desperately necessary feature. And soon, they’ll be a Siri Speaker listening for any request in the house too.

That brings us to the Siri Speaker, now with it’s official given name — HomePod. (I actually love HomePod, but it seems a little more “space cadet” than I’d expect out of Apple Marketing.) The intro at DubDub very much focused on it as a spiritual successor to the iPod HiFi, although they didn’t call that ghost by name. This week, at least, they’re positioning HomePod firmly as a music device that you can talk to. As an aside almost, they confirmed that it would act as a gateway to HomeKit too. HomePod does usher in the next wave of AirPlay — AirPlay 2 — which supports whole home audio streamed from any device to HomePods and/or AppleTVs.

AppleTV and tvOS didn’t get much attention during the keynote, only that Amazon Video is coming this summer (finally). But among the other WWDC technology announcements, Apple signaled a major change from h.264 to h.265 (AKA HEVC) which includes better support for 4K video, a feature currently missing from my beloved AppleTV. In the fall, we’ll see a hardware update for AppleTV taking it into the world of 4K video, along with a 4K upgrade iTunes Store video content. I think we’ll see tighter integration at that point between the AppleTV and HomePod, which only seems natural. (Just watch the demo of Google Home and ChromeCast from I/O this year.) If HomePod can control the AppleTV, this will be the big reveal moment.

Overall, I’m really happy with the HomeKit announcements at WWDC. Apple is pushing forward and seems committed to the platform across (almost) all the platforms. The rules/triggers/scenes system has become more sophisticated and shouldn’t feel like a hindrance in iOS 11. We’ll have to wait another six months for HomePod to land, but at least we know it’s coming. I’m cautiously optimistic that a solid AppleTV update before the holiday shopping season will reinforce that appeal of the whole ecosystem. In the meantime, I guess I’ll start saving up for HomePods. Maybe they’ll come in a six pack.

Increase Your App Adoption

The first weeks of June are upon us and that means one thing — DubDub, Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference — is days away. This has always been Mac Geek Christmas. Back in the “Good Old Days,” DubDub was the High Holiday of summertime. The other was MacWorld, which ushered in the new year in January. But years ago, Steve Jobs withdrew from MacWorld and left us with only DubDub, although the Festival of iPhone has become a traditional event, bookending the summer.

But I digress. It’s DubDub time and the rumors, analyses and readings of tea leaves are dialed up to eleven. We will likely see a nice preview of the new operating systems slated for the fall release. (Remember, there are four now — iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS.) Keep in mind that this is a developer conference which means Apple will showcase new features and new technologies needing developer support, like enabling new SiriKit domains, building extensions for Mail or enabling person-to-person ApplePay transfers in your app. Apple will hold back the flashy new stuff that doesn’t need developer buy-in for the iPhone hardware release in the fall. That might include things like multi-user FaceTime chats, snoozing messages in the email app, or sleep tracking for watch.

There’s lots to talk about that might happen at WWDC, but I’m going to focus on one near and dear to my heart — HomeKit. Three years ago, with the release of iOS 8, Apple introduced HomeKit, a framework to integrate home automation gizmos under one roof. Back then (and still very much today), when you bought a gadget to control your lights, you had to use a gadget specific app. Buy another thermostat doohickey, get another app. HomeKit promised to unify all that under one roof, but because of long hardware cycles and stubborn manufacturers it has taken time to gain real traction. HomeKit didn’t come with a consumer app, although it did allow some plucky, independent developers to build such a thing. (Results ranged from “not bad” to “OMG, my eyes!”) With iOS 10, Apple finally introduced their own “Home” app to provide that universal control panel for every device in your home. Finally, with a first party app and three releases of HomeKit improvements, things are finally starting to come together. But it could be so much better.

Automation

In the Home app now, you can create automation rules, however they’re not quite smart enough to be useful. For example, you can set the Home app to turn on the lights at sundown, but in my house you need lights 45 minutes before sundown. To become really useful, we need modifiers on sunrise/sunset.

Rules can be tagged to only happen after sunset. For instance, if a motion detector downstairs fires, turn on the downstairs lamp. Sounds okay on paper, but between 6 pm and 11 pm, the downstairs lights are already on. What I really need is for a rule to only be active between 11 pm and 7 am, when I go downstairs in the middle of the night. That’s when I need the smart house to light my way. Perhaps an even better option is a scene based conditional — use this rule only when the BedTime scene is set.

And for these motion sensitive events, I usually want to follow that up with “turn the light off” if there’s no motion for five minutes. I don’t have any motion sensors yet (only a few available at the moment), but my research indicates that the “light off” companion event isn’t available yet.

Interactions Beyond Devices

With each version of iOS, HomeKit supports more types of devices — ceiling fans, window shades, humidifiers, door locks, cameras and so on. We now have the ability to build fairly complex scenes. At bedtime, one request to Siri can turn off the lights, turn down the thermostat, lock the doors, close the garage, draw the blinds and enable the security system. (Dads across the world will be in search of new hobbies.) With iOS 11, HomeKit needs to come out of it’s shell and start interacting outside its comfort zone.

What if HomeKit could interact with apps on your phone? On your TV? I like to sleep with the sound of crashing waves in the background (mostly to drown out the loud gulping of a bunny rabbit who needs a drink of water at 2 am). A couple of years ago, I switched from a dedicated sound machine (R.I.P. Squeezebox) to an app. When I tell Siri “BedTime” to shut down the house for the night, she should fire o do it manually. Likewise, when I hit the “Movie Mode” scene that sets the lights just right, why doesn’t the AppleTV automatically fire up and switch to Netflix? I’d be full prepped for Gilmore binging in one tap. (Seriously, what will Rory do?)

One way this could come to pass is via Workflow. Apple recently acquired the iOS automation app and everyone is anxiously waiting to see what Workflow can do now that they’re behind the curtain. The ability for HomeKit to activate a Workflow “workflow” would open the door to a cornucopia of possibilities. How about a ”yoga” scene that dims the lights, brings up the practice video on the TV, plays some new age tunes on the stereo and starts a workout session on your watch. That’s Apple’s big pitch anyway — the magic of a comprehensive and integration ecosystem.

Implied in that last bit is that HomeKit acquires the ability to interact across your devices. If this arrives, it’ll come wrapped up with Siri being able to do the same. This is an absolute must for the fabled Siri Speaker. Google Home’s killer feature is the ability to show information and entertainment on your TV via Chromecast. The Siri Speaker will need to do at least that, letting you use voice to play content on your AppleTV (or start a phone call on your iPhone, etc). Hopefully HomeKit can ride Siri’s coattails and automations can control not only “smart devices” like lights and switches, but iOS devices and Macs too. Picture walking into your office and a motion sensor triggers the “Work” scene. Lights turn on, the Mac wakes up, unlocks via your watch and fires up the morning workflow.

There’s so much more that I want to see from DubDub next week. These wishes for HomeKit are just a deep dive into one narrow area. The keynote is three days away and the rumors are few and far between. Apple has dropped a couple of press releases about material that would normally take up the first quarter of the keynote. We’re basically going in blind to two hours of complete surprise. And. I. Can. Not. Wait.

Waiting is the hardest part…