Apple adds win-back subscription offers and improved search suggestions to the App Store

Apple’s keynote at WWDC 2024 was packed with new platform updates and the release of Apple Intelligence, the company’s generative AI offering. But after all, it’s a developer conference, and Apple is giving developers more tools to increase their app revenues and promote their apps with win-back offers and the release of a new commerce API.

Win-back subscriptions

Apple will let developers reach out to customers who have subscribed to the app to win them back with new offers. Developers can configure which customers they want to reach out to, and based on that, Apple surfaces win-back offers in the App Store. Users can easily redownload the app through this offer card.

“Eligible customers can discover win-back offers across the App Store, including on your product page and in editorial selections on the Today, Games and Apps tabs, as well as within your app,” according to Apple.

Improved search suggestions

Apple said that it is adding Focus State to the App Store later this year for improved search. This includes surfacing recent searches and suggesting personalized recommendations of search terms.

Commerce APIs

Apple will introduce a new kind of in-app purchase later this year: new APIs for “complex monetization” use cases. It gave examples of content creator apps offering subscriptions, apps with large catalogs of content (maybe apps that offer sachet subscriptions to different content), and digital content that spans across different apps managed by one developer.

Developers can nominate their apps to be featured

Developers can now notify Apple’s App Store editorial team when they are launching a new app or update and get a chance to be featured on different pages. The company said developers can highlight content like an in-app event, preorder for an app, or a major update.

Other updates

• Apple will now allow developers to define the criteria for the type of users who can join their TestFlight to try out their apps.
• The company is also revamping the TestFlight invitation design and introducing analytics for public TestFlight links.
• Apple said that later this year, developers could generate one-time or custom-use codes to attract users to their macOS apps.
• The company will allow developers to link their custom product pages on the App Store in Apple Search Ads.