Is hyphen allowed in app name in iTunesConnect?
For example : abcd - efgh
I searched in google found the link https://developer.apple.com/library/content/qa/qa1892/_index.html,
No where they mentioned whether hyphen(-) allowed as app name in itunes?
It is allowed.. You can enter A-Za-z0-9.-_ (those are the only ones I've tried). However, if you abuse it, Apple can reject the app. Example: Foo___Bar can get rejected. I'm not sure if they allow consecutive characters that are not A-Za-z.
It also depends on the AppStore you submit to. They allow Chinese, Japanese, etc.
You can have AppNames like:
"StackOverflow.com", "Foo.ca", "Scotia-Bank", "Meh_Bar", "Food-Noob.ca", etc..
Note: I do not have an official citation for this. This is just from what I have submitted.
Related
I've been reading a few things about shortening URLs to the App Store so instead of having a really long, unattractive url, you can like: AppStore.com/MyAppOrMyCompanyName
I found that type of url here and there are several ways of linking to dev pages directly in older iOS here...
I'm hoping to use the Appstore.com/ or appsto.re/ scheme to make the URL look better and more readable, as well as cutting out the redirect from safari and link straight to the App Store either from my social media (as well as in my games by pressing a button).
There is some discussion here about shortening the URLs but I can't see how to use this to a developers page (so it shows all apps) instead of a single application.
Where can I find this/how can I get my company url?
You can now make short link URLs in the form of apple.co/#####
In September 2020, Apple released new marketing tools:
App Store Marketing Tools
Search for your app, and then you can generate a short link, QR code, and download app artwork.
Here's the info from the Apple Technical Q&A. Make sure you convert all letters to lowercase and remove all spaces.:
There are three types of App Store Short Links, in two forms, one for iOS apps, another for Mac Apps:
Company Name
iOS: http://appstore.com/<companyname> for example, http://appstore.com/apple
Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<companyname> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/apple
App Name
iOS: http://appstore.com/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/keynote
Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/keynote
App by Company
iOS: http://appstore.com/<companyname>/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/apple/keynote
Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<companyname>/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/apple/keynote
My app got rejected due to using other platform names and got the message:
3.1 - Apps or metadata that mentions the name of any other mobile platform will be rejected
The other platform names include Facebook, Skype, iTunes, Google Play, etc. I cannot omit these names as users are buying vouchers for these specific names.
Is there any way around this?
No, there is no way around this. I've seen people try putting the words into their screenshots rather than their description, and try writing lots of description text in the hope Apple don't notice. Both times they got caught. The only thing – that I would really not recommend – is to amend your description after Apple approval.
You say the other platform names "include" Facebook and Skype, which are probably OK. You might find it easiest just to remove the worst offenders, as it were – Android, for example, won't ever get through.
I want to add a rate button to the settings page in my iOS app. The only problem I have is what to use as the link. I have been searching around and apparently you can use:
http://appstore.com/appname
The problem is that I don't know the App Store URL of my app for sure until it gets reviewed and accepted onto the App Store...
Should I take a gamble and use "http://appstore.com/appname" or should I wait for the app to be accepted and then in the next app update add the rate button??
Thanks for your time, Dan.
Once you create your app in ITunes Connect you will get an app ID.
you can use the app ID to refer to your app as follow
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id123456789
where 123456789 is your app ID
or from within your app so it will open the app store app
itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/id123456789
you can refer to this Question for more details
This tech note from the iOS Developer Library contains pretty clear rules about how to arrive at the "app name" portion of the link:
To create an App Store Short Link, apply the following rules to your company or app name:
Remove all whitespace
Convert all characters to lower-case
Remove all copyright (©), trademark (™) and registered mark (®) symbols
Replace ampersands ("&") with "and"
Remove most punctuation (See Listing 2 for the set)
Replace accented and other "decorated" characters (ü, å, etc.) with their elemental character (u, a, etc.)
Leave all other characters as-is.
Punctuation characters that must be removed.
!¡"#$%'()*+,-./:;<=>¿?#[]^_`{|}~
There are also some examples to demonstrate the conversion that takes place.
If you follow the rules, you should be safe in using the link for production.
EDIT:
Having said that, in my app I use this scheme to get real fancy and open the Rate page directly from within the app :)
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewContentsUserReviews?id=<YOURAPPID>&pageNumber=0&sortOrdering=2&type=Purple+Software&mt=8"]];
Disclaimer: Use at your own risk, of course, I don't think there is any guarantee that this type of link won't break in the future.
Recently news are coming out that one can create vanity url for Apple Appstore.
But I cant find any options additionally added in itunes connect to do it.
any help is appreciated :)
It seems we dont have to do anything ...
just we have to add the company name or app name at the end of http://appstore.com/
It seems since all the app names and company names are already unique, apple does the all background job of rerouting the appstore-link to the actual itunes-link..
iOS: http://appstore.com/<.companyname.> for example, http://appstore.com/ikural
Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<.companyname.> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/popcap
apple has provided this Q&A page
You don't create it. It is based on your company or application name. It is not very robust (two applications with the same name can have the same URL). See Apple's Technical Q&A.
In particular, the last paragraph reads:
These App Store Short Links are provided as a convenience and are not
guaranteed to link to a particular app or company. Be sure to test
your URLs before using them in any marketing or other public
materials. If there are naming conflicts, continue using the standard
itunes.apple.com URLs, which contain a unique numerical identifier
within the URL.
I want to open iTunes with list of all the apps by a particular developer or company and in this very case my own applicaitons.
The problem is I don't know how should the URL string be
itms://itunes.com/apps/xxxx
what should I replace this xxx with ? and where would I find this text. Is it the company name? If so, should I look for it in developer account's profile info.
What else could be used? I heard there is some artistId or something like that. If so, how do I find it?
Well if you know the developer or company that you're looking for beforehand, you can use Apple's iTunes Link Maker web utility to generate links for the appstore (or any store really). You just put the developer's / company name in 'Search' field and set 'Media Type' to iOS Apps (or whatever you need). After the search is completed click on the appropriate result link under 'Artists' and you'll be presented with a sheet containing a link like this:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/vasileios-akoinoglou/id339374807?uo=4
Note that you can safely replace http:// with itms:// so to avoid a redirection (if you use http then the link is first opened in Safari and then in Appstore).
As I can see from the link the components after artist is the developer / company name (whitespaces are replaced by dashes) and the id I think is the enrollment id (edit: it's not). I hope that this will be useful to you.
The iTunes lookup API will also help in this case - simply replace the adamID for any app in the following URL:
http://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=524731580
In the results, look for the artistViewUrl to determine the best URL to link to all apps developed by this Seller
Your URL should be in this format for the AppStore app to open it on iOS:
http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?media=software&term=ideal%20development%20aps
This basically performs a search on a term in the appstore. it is the only bulletproof solution we have found, but it might be problematic if your developer name accidentally matches another developer or product. Also note that sometimes the search fails, in which case the AppStore app needs to be closed completely.