Compatibility section for iphone app in Appstore - ios

We have an iPhone only app. It is default compatible with iPod and iPad. We dont want users to stop using our App in iPad and iPod. But, we wanted to be clear showing that in compatibility section in Appstore. I did a few search and found, we can add UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities keys in the info.plist and restrict the compatibility. If we do that, will the app be listed in iPad and iPod appstores? Can the users download and use it?
How exactly can we change the compatibility section in Appstore? What is the right way to do it?

Related

Is there a way to not support my app from iPad or selected iPhone versions?

I had submitted my app as Universal a long time ago and now I need to remove it from the iPad section and few iPhone versions such as 4,5,5S. Is there a way I can achieve this or do I need to show custom not supported screen to user when they install on such devices. Will apple reject my app for this reason?
For restricting your app to only iPhones devices after the app was already published on App Store you should reupload new version of your app to App Store by simply just changing target devices to iPhone only(with different Bundle Identifier of course).
About restricting your app to stop supporting older devices(4,5,5S) you should change your iOS version compatibility. For example iOS 13 is supported on iPhone 6s and newer devices so user won't be able to use it on older devices. Apple should handle this on their own.
There are some alternatives to restrict your app to specific devices with Required device capabilities key which you can find in your Info.plist file. But I don't think apple will accept this, if this features are not actually used in your app.
Here is the documentation about UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities in case you need it.
You can only restrict user from downloading newer versions of your app from App Store ,By changing your apps deployment info in Xcode general tab.
By changing device type from Universal to iPhone only and Deployment target to iOS 13 which in supported by device above 6s. Then user will not be able to download on older versions.
Or you can restrict user access in your app by putting device specific checks and showing your custom ui for unsupported versions. But for this apple may reject your app if it fails in every case for specific device.
But both type of changes you have to upload newer version of app on App Store.

How can I publish an iOS app on the App Store, but disallow iPad compatibility?

I have an app that i specified target devices as iPhone, not iPad, not Universal.
Something strange happened when i look at the app information, on compatibility section, on App Store: it is said that the app is Compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
How can I remove the compatibility with iPad?
Any iPhone app can be run on an iPad in an emulation mode. There is no (official) way to prevent this.
To test that your settings are correct, go to the App Store and search for your app with "iPad apps" set. If it doesn't show up, you're good to go.
You can still download this app on iTunes, or set the App Store to search iPad and iPhone and install it on an iPad, but it runs as an iPhone app on the iPad.
That very unusual. There could be a lot things that could be causing this. You might want to check the provisioning file to see if there's anything a miss there. Also, check the certificate for the app as Well. It might be an idea to created a new certificate for the app. Other than that I don't know what else you could do.

iOS App change universal to iPhone only

We have a app that was submitted as a universal app with support for all devices iPad and iPhone but we no longer want it to show in the store as a iPad app we want it to just be a iPhone only app.
This app was built with Appcelerator so i have changed the app tiapp.xml details to only support iPhone no longer universal, but it will not submitted to the store.
I can't upload the existing app because the family group in the bundle Id. it won't accept removing the iPad.
How can we remove the app from being listed as a iPad app really important as the app was not built with iPad in mind it would be fine if it was just a scaled up version of the app.
Any help please?
Developers who wish to issue updates, but remove device support, have
three choices:
Fix their app so that it can work on the devices they originally set
out to support. Target a newer version of iOS that requires a newer
device. Remove their app from the store, and upload the new app with a
different bundle ID.

Can we restrict download or launch of an universal app in iPad 1 alone?

I have a universal app, it supports both iPad and iPhone. I do not want the app to be downloaded or launched in iPad 1 alone.
When the user downloads the app from App Store, is there a way to disable the download or launch of the app only for the first generation of iPad.
If not, can I add it in "What's new" option during the release of the app to App Store. Since it is a next version of release.
Please help.
Thanks in advance.
You could try to find a restriction with the UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities key in the info.plist. But this key only allows restrictions like armv7, magnetometer, etc. (full list available here). So you can't filter only iPads of the first generation.
Anyway, what you could do is checking at runtime whether it's an iPad 1 or not.
With this Library it's quite simple:
if([[UIDevice currentDevice] platformType] == UIDevice1GiPad){
//it's an iPad 1!
}
I don't believe you can restrict your software to a certain class of devices, but you can impose limits based on iOS version. The newest version of iOS supported by the original iPad is 5.1.1, which is quite dated now, so you might consider requiring iOS6+ on the App Store.
Also, you could require the device to have a camera, which the iPad 1 does not. But beware that Apple could reject your app if it does not actually use the camera.
Best possible way is to give the support for iOS 6+ which will exclude the ipad first generation.

How to unsupport iPad properly in iTunes

We have an app on AppStore for almost 3 years, and we've set Deployment Device Info of this app as "iPhone" (not "Universal").
Earlier it seems iPad users could download our app and used it by enlarging the screen.
Now our uses reported they cannot download our app. (The guy who reported uses iPad Air + iOS7.1.1)
So, my first question is..
Is this new AppStore regulation that does't allow iPad users to download apps with "iPhone" set as deployment device target ?
We are fine if it's the regulation, but more confusing is when seeing the app in AppStore with Mac, we still see our app is compatible with iPads.
So my second question is..
From what info AppStore shows this compatibility information ?
Our aim is not to confuse users, so we want to go either way - tell users we are completely unsupporting iPads, or tell them you can download the app anyway.
That device list suggests that you require cellular access. Does the user in question have a wifi only iPad? The dialogue would be shown if the app required capabilities that the device did not have.
There is no change to the App Store policy - iPad users can still download iPhone apps, and it's pretty clear in the store that you're not getting an iPad-native version.
To answer your second question, the information shown in the App Store comes from what is set in your info plist- the minimum targeted version of iOS, and then device capabilities. Device capabilities are explained here.

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