ASO News October 2019
Here you can find the ASO news digest, updates from the App Store and Google Play that happened in October. We are trying to collect here small news, that are discovered by ASO experts and can help you to better navigate in latest changes in both stores.
App Store News
The App Store fixed an old bug due to which games starting from iOS 11 stopped appearing in the subcategory “Children”. Now, on the Games page in the Top Charts section. There is no subcategory “Children” on the App Store. You can view children’s applications only through Applications => Top Categories => Children.
Update old applications
If the application on the AppStore has not been updated for three years, then you will receive the letter that the application needs to be updated within 30 days. Otherwise, the application will be removed from the App Store.
The App Store Connect shows the data incorrectly
Impressions from the “Search” section go to the “Browse” section, but with installs, everything is okay. The problem is the following — you can see an incorrect conversion rate from impressions to installs. This problem occurred after the release of iOS 13.
An error occurs in displaying the language of the locale
Now you need to specify the language with the locale using the country area. For example, when you want to open the app Aviasales in the UK App Store, using the link: https://apps.apple.com/GB/app/id498958864?l=en
In fact, we will see the metadata for the US. It’s all about the additional parameter l = en, and because of it, the link shows EN-US, not EN-UK. For the metadata to be displayed correctly, you will need to add the language parameter additionally.
For example, for the Canadian App Store, if you want to see the locale correctly, you need to add language to the link:
https://apps.apple.com/CA/app/id498958864?l=fr_ca – French (Canada)
https://apps.apple.com/CA/app/id498958864?l=en_ca – English (Canada)
The conversion rate of the free trial on iOS 13
- 80% of the apps we looked at showed a statistically significant decrease in trial conversion rate for users on iOS 13 vs iOS 12.
- An average drop in absolute conversion rate – 9%
- A median relative drop in conversion rate – 29%
Source: https://www.revenuecat.com/2019/10/09/iOS-13-subscription-management-prompt
Google Play News
Cancellations and recovery report
Cancellations and recovery report has appeared on Google Play. On your Cancellations and recovery report, you can get detailed insights on why users canceled their subscriptions and how well subscription recovery features, such as grace period and account hold, are performing. It was available for some developers, and now it is available for everyone.
Data in Acquisition Reports
Google Play began to calculate data in Acquisition Reports more correct. Previously, if the month was not over and you decided to calculate the conversion rate for the current month, then Google Play considered to add the conversion for the days that had not yet arrived, that is, he added zero! And this significantly reduced the conversion. Now everything works correctly.
Manipulations with reviews on Google Play
We have the official confirmation that Google does not like when developers manipulate reviews. If you have a pop-up inside the app that ask user to give a rating from1 to 5 stars, and when users selects 1-4 stars, you send a person to the form which led him/her to the support, then you may receive a warning from Google Play about violation of the rules.
Even a simple phrase such as “if you like the game, please rate it” the moderation team point with red flag.
They carefully check applications during a manual check. So, games in the Play Pass and, most likely, children’s applications have a higher chance of being affected.
