Is it possible to submit apps to Apple's App Store using an individual account, if the app was developed by a group of people? (we are a group of 4, created the app but we don't have a company, we just agreed to submit it, even if it stays at the name of only one of us at the store)
Yes of course, have a look here for example.
You need to chose an individual App Developer Account for you 4.
Technically speaking yes, but keep in mind you probably should have some in writing agreement about the application. Basically your funds will be deposited into the account of the person who is on the Apple Developers Account, electronically.
Good luck on your new venture!
Related
We have two companies A and B under one group. Can I submit My App to app store for Company B using Company A's Developer/iTunes Connect Account?
Or do I need to create a Different Developer Account using a different DUNS Number. Or can I transfer app in future to company B's Account as it will take time for us to compete all legal procedure.
Will Apple approve that? This app will be Free on the App Store.
You should create a separate Developer Account for the the Company B and use it to submit your Company B application to the App Store (for review).
Otherwise your app might get reject by Apple with a statement similar than the following:
The seller and company names associated with your app do not reflect the name, "Company B" in the app or its metadata, as required by section 1.2 of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement.
The relevant section of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement:
For the sake of clarity, You may authorize contractors to develop Applications on Your behalf, but any such Applications must be owned by You, submitted under Your own developer account, and distributed as Applications only as expressly permitted herein. You are responsible to Apple for Your contractors’ activities under Your account (e.g., adding them to Your team to perform development work for You) and their compliance with this Agreement. Any actions undertaken by Your contractors arising out of this Agreement shall be deemed to have been taken by You, and You (in addition to Your contractors) shall be responsible to Apple for all such actions.
However, if the Company B is not a well known brand, Apple might not notice this violation and might approve the app. I am not advising doing that, but there are many apps violating this.
It is also possible to transfer an app from one developer (company) to another. To learn more see iTunes Connect Developer Guide - Transferring and Deleting Apps. I have never personally done it so don't know how much hassle it is. If you are thinking about transferring the app later, it might easier to release the app under the correct company in the first place.
Also note that if you have not yet released any app under the Company A account, the first time you release an app, you need to pick a seller name that is used for all apps released under this account and cannot be changed (unless you contact iTunes Connect support). So if you pick "Company B" as the seller name, all the future apps will have "Company B" as the seller name.
I have created an application for my customer. We have published the application with my account. Now, they want to change the developer name as their company's name. Is there a way to change the developer name? Can I move my application to their business account so that Developer name changes to their business name?
Yes, you can transfer the app to other since WWDC 2013.
Also, you can call the Apple Support to change the Seller Name.
Here is a video about this: App Transfer Tutorial.
My apps initially appeared in the App Store with the wrong seller name. I don't personally own a credit card, so a family member who did paid my developer subscription. While my correct name appeared elsewhere, under Seller it showed the name from the credit card. I used one of the contact options in iTunes Connect to request a name change, which was applied within a few days.
On the current Contact page, the Contracts and Legal category includes Request Name/Address update. Try that.
You'll certainly find it easier to rename your account than to move the app to a different account. Here's what they say about that.
I sold my app to another developer and can no longer distribute it on the App Store. Can I transfer the app to the new developer's iTunes Connect account?
No, you can’t transfer the app to another developer account on iTunes Connect. To add the app to another account, remove the app from the current account and upload it to the new iTunes Connect account.
Note that uploading the app to a new iTunes Connect account will disable current customers from receiving automatic and free updates of your application. All customer reviews, rating, and ranking information will be reset. You will not be able to reuse the app name and SKU in the old account. If you have uploaded a binary or used the app with the iAd Network, your Bundle ID will not be reusable either.
This is only applicable for the part of the OP's question:
Is there a way to change the developer name?
The most simple way I found to CHANGE the developer name was by filling out a request on this page:
Contact Us Page
Then select from the option:
Enrollment, Membership, and Account -> Account Updates and Renewals
I just told them which names I would like to user, First name and surnaame.
Here is Apple Support email regarding same question;
As an individual you cannot change your first and last name, you can
only have your legal name appear in the App store. I can suggest to
you to enroll as a company, witch would mean you can use your company
name instead of your own name, but first you would need to check that
you meet our initial migration requirements:
You are a founder or cofounder of your company.
Your company does not already hold an active or expired company membership.
Your company does not operate as a sole proprietorship, DBA, fictitious name, trade name, or branch.
If you have paid apps, you have agreed to the latest Paid Applications contract in Agreements, Tax, and Banking in iTunes
Connect.
You are eligible to obtain a DUNS Number for your company: https://developer.apple.com/support/D-U-N-S.
If it is the case and you meet our requirements please feel free to
contact us again so we can migrate your account into a company.
If you need to transfer your app to another developer account, that is now possible. Since WWDC 2013, iTunes Connect now supports transferring apps from one developer to another, keeping exactly this situation in mind. Go to the iTunes Connect homepage for more information. There is also a video tutorial that Apple has provided on this matter.
Personally I wanted to changed my real first & last name to a company/brand name, having an individual account. That's what, as of 2020, Apple's support says:
"Developers enrolled as individuals will sell apps on the App Store using their personal legal name. There are two ways to change your name to a company name:
Have your company enroll in its own Apple Developer Program membership, and then transfer your apps to that membership.
Migrate your membership from an individual to an organization."
I would like to create an iOS App for a limited set of people.
It should be possible to download the app for free from App Store, but in order to use it
the idea is that you are required to be a member of the organization, which in this case is a local sports organization.
To solve the problem I thought of giving away activation keys to members that can be entered when they create an account, and therefore only members will be using the app.
Will the app be rejected by App Store? If so, is it possible to go around this in some away?
Thanks.
No you will not be rejected by the App Store.
During the review you will only need to give the access to demo account.
Your app will be available to anyone but you are free to give the credential to any person you want.
edit
Fyi I have such apps. The AppStore only block 'discriminating' app based on carrier or location (you can choose the countries anyway), but you are perfectly in the rules if you give access only to your clients...
edit edit
2.22 like I said is against arbitrary criterias, not linked to the login mechanism
for 11.1 and so on, I understand the point, but in my case (and I think yours) there is no problem if
you sell your service before, the app is just complimentary
you dont sell anything within the app
you dont charge for the app itself or anything within the app, you charge only the use of the server/back office/whatsoever
I guess that Apple dont care, they just don't want to bypass the applestore but I dont think that it is your case.
You should try Enterprise distribution for such purpose.
Yes your app may be rejected. Check the App Store Review Guidelines. In 2.2 it says
Apps that arbitrarily restrict which users may use the App, such as by location or carrier, may be rejected
There are different alternatives.
You can opt in for the Apple Developer Enterprise Program, this'll cost you 300$ a year and requires you to be a legal entity.
If you want to test it with a limited number of people (<1000) try looking into Testflight it was bought by Apple and is deeply integrated in the development process.
No, there will not. You need to to give some demo account info as test data to review while submitting to app store in the iTunes Connect portal.
Demo use case(worked for me): Implementation is like, there need some userid/unique pin to the registered account holders to start the application. At the time they input this pin, authenticate the user with our server and give the permission to let in to the app.
Otherwise you need to go for enterprise distribution. Find more about enterprise distribution here.
I want to create a social networking ios app which costs money, and when the user buys it they are allowed to create only one account on the app. So the purchase is associated with the account somehow... or the app has a specific id on each device its bought on... would I need to use gamecenter somehow...
How would I approach something like this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
First of all, more than one person may use the device (think a family with an iPad) so what your doing is inherently a bad idea.
That said, you can use an in-app purchase to let them buy account access - check with the server first to make sure a desired username is available, then let them use an in-app purchase to buy access, and on your server tie that purchase ID to the user name. Even if they deleted the app and tried to re-purchase (while logged into the same iTunes store account) it would see a purchase had been made and essentially be the same user. It even does kind of work with multiple users as they could switch iTunes accounts (though that is a pain).
I would also suggest trying to tie it to the users iCloud account in some way, which is easier for users to switch between on an device (a family might use one iTunes account but have separate iCloud accounts).
If you don't want to give Apple 30% of the registration fee, your only option is to have users sign up on the web and pay there, then have a login they can use in your app. Then it's a matter of trying to prevent duplicate logins on you server, although as a last point of thought, I can't remember a business that succeeded by refusing people's money.
You could generate an unique id on the phone, store it in the keychain, and use that to communicate with the server.
Since you are creating your own account management system, just save the user information once they do the account creation bit and never show the option again. Because developers no longer have access to the device id, you may have problems identifying an existing user if they delete and re-install the app, but I am not sure that there is a solution to that problem.
Edit: As a commenter to this question mentioned, you can save things to the keychain. Check out this link for a good lib for modifying the keychain.
i have an individual dev account and a project from some company. would it be possible to develop an app for company (with the company name inside of app) and submit it in AppStore using my individual account? Would Apple allow that?
As long as you have the legal right to publish the app, I very much doubt that Apple will care.
What you need to bear in mind, though, is that it will be your name that appears in the App Store. Worse, it's difficult to transfer an app from developer account to developer account (usually involving removing it from sale and resubmitting as the new owner), so it's pretty important to get it right first time.
For what it's worth, I think the company should have their own developer account and you should submit from there.
If the business (any client) want to control its application(s) (not have the app expire if you stop developing, have other developers work on it in the future, own the copyright, etc.), and have their name as seller of the app, they should enroll as a company in the iOS developer program, and have you submit the app under their account, even if that takes longer. But it shouldn't take longer if they have all their paperwork (corporate documents, trademarks, email/website domains, company bank accounts, etc.) in order.