WWDC25: What Apple announced and what does it mean for app developers?

TL;DR: Apple introduced AI-powered app discovery, 100+ new analytics metrics, ChatGPT in Xcode, improved attribution tools, and major App Store Connect upgrades.

WWDC25 brought substantial updates across app discovery, build management, monetization analytics, and development tools. Whether you’re managing app marketing or building apps, there’s quite a bit to unpack here.

Let’s walk through everything Apple announced together and figure out what it actually means for you.

Note: This article will be updated as Apple releases more WWDC sessions, so check back for the latest info.

App Store Tags and Custom Product Pages

App Store Tags: AI-powered app categorization

Apple introduces App Store Tags to surface relevant features from your app’s metadata, description, category, and screenshots.

How it works: Apple’s large language models generate tags from your app metadata, then human reviewers check all tags for quality. When users tap on a tag, they see a dedicated view with personalized collections of apps sharing similar features.

Tags appear alongside app categories on search pages and with your app in search results.

What this means for you: Users can now discover apps through specific functionality instead of broad category browsing. Your fitness app might appear through “workout tracking” tags rather than just the general “Health & Fitness” category.

You can view your tags on the App Information page in App Store Connect and edit which ones you want to associate with your app. When you deselect a tag, Apple removes it across the App Store. It won’t show on your product page and your app won’t appear in that tag’s collection.

Keywords for Custom Product Pages

Now let’s talk about something that’s been a long time coming – keywords for Custom Product Pages. You can now show different versions of your app’s store listing depending on what users search for.

Key features:

• Assign keywords from your latest App Store version to specific Custom Product Pages.

• When your app appears in search for those keywords, your custom product page shows instead of the default.
• Keyword assignments don’t require review – they go live immediately.
• You can customize keyword selection for each language
• App Analytics will show search traffic per Custom Product Page

How to set up keywords for Custom Product Pages?

Navigate to Custom Product Pages in App Store Connect, click into the page you want to optimize (like a “workout tracking” page), and select the keywords you want to assign.

Note: Apple suggests making your keyword selections unique for each Custom Product Page so users see the right page for different search queries.

Enhanced keyword field

During WWDC demos, Apple showed keyword fields with 107 characters (compared to the current 100-character limit). This suggests Apple either increased the character limit or no longer counts commas toward the total.

This feature isn’t live yet, but it indicates Apple may expand keyword optimization opportunities.

Offer codes expand beyond subscriptions

Apple expands offer codes beyond subscriptions to include all in-app purchase types – consumables, non-consumables, and non-renewing subscriptions.

What you can do now:

• Generate free and discount offer codes for all types of in-app purchases and subscriptions.

• Create up to 10 active offers per in-app purchase at a time.
• Generate codes in batches up to 1 million offer codes per app per quarter.
• Set redemption eligibility based on customer spending history (never spent, spent but not in last 30 days, or spent in last 30 days).

You can now generate offer codes in the sandbox environment for both In-App Purchases and subscriptions. Apple gives you up to 10,000 codes per app per quarter for testing, and sandbox accounts can redeem unlimited codes.

How to distribute offer codes:

You can distribute codes through deep-links, QR codes, or let customers enter them directly in your app. Apple handles the redemption flow – once someone redeems a code, Apple takes care of the rest, including automatic app installation if the person doesn’t have your app yet.

How to set up offer codes:

Start by creating an offer campaign in the in-app purchases details page, specify your eligibility criteria, then generate your codes using the same one-time and custom code types that Apple makes available for subscriptions.

AI-generated review summaries

Apple now generates Review Summaries using large language models that combine key information from individual user reviews into short paragraphs. These summaries appear for apps and games with enough customer reviews and refresh regularly.

In App Store Connect, you can view the summary that appears on your product page, see when Apple last generated it, and report concerns if the summary isn’t accurate.

Enhanced age rating system

Apple expands age ratings from 2 to 5 thresholds, adding three new rating categories (9+, 13+, and 16+) to the existing 4+ and 18+ ratings. This change provides much more granularity for different age groups and regional requirements.

New capabilities you can declare:

• In-app controls (like parental controls or age assurance)
• App capabilities that could bring age-inappropriate content
• New capability types: messaging and chat, user-generated content, and advertising

Apple redesigns the developer experience with a new “learn more” section, clearer descriptions, and helpful examples for each question. You can override calculated ratings to assign higher ones if you need them for policy alignment.

Apple automatically calculates new age ratings using your existing responses, but you should review and answer new questions to ensure accuracy.

Accessibility nutrition labels

Apple introduces Accessibility Nutrition Labels that appear in a new section on your app’s product page. These labels help people understand which accessibility features your app supports, like Larger Text and VoiceOver.

Analytics and monetization: 100+ new metrics

Apple has pushed significant changes to App Store Connect Analytics that are already catching attention from developers who’ve noticed the platform’s new focus on monetization and user segmentation.

Key new features

Custom Product Pages move to center stage

The biggest change you’ll notice is that Custom Product Pages and In-App Events are now right on the main screen instead of hidden in menus. This tells you everything about how important Apple thinks these features are now.

Custom Product Pages let you create different App Store listings for different types of users. Apple putting this front and center means they expect developers to stop using generic app pages and start personalizing their approach.

New Cohorts analytics

Apple added new cohort analytics that finally answer the question every developer wants to know: which parts of my app actually drive revenue? Instead of just seeing how many people use a feature, you can now see which features lead to actual payments.

Apple focuses heavily on Custom Product Pages within these analytics. You can see which types of users have better retention rates and spending patterns based on how they discovered your app.

Though honestly, Adapty has had way more advanced filters for this stuff for years.

→ Check more about Adapty analytics

MRR in App Store Connect

This was a huge request from developers. Apple added Monthly Recurring Revenue tracking directly in App Store Connect. If you have a subscription app, you no longer need separate tools to understand your recurring revenue.

Game Center and Apple Games App

Apple launches a new Games app that comes pre-installed on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, creating a dedicated destination for game discovery and social gaming.

What the Games app offers

The Games app includes four main sections: The Home tab shows game events and friend activity, Play Together handles multiplayer invitations and friend comparisons, Library helps you manage installed games, and Search lets you discover new games.

Setting up your game

Set your Primary or Secondary Category to “Games” in App Store Connect. Apple then creates a dedicated page for your game that showcases achievements, leaderboards, challenges, and multiplayer activities.

Enhanced Game Center features

Achievements help players track their progress through your game.

Leaderboards now include new description fields and support deep-linking to specific game sections.

Challenges transform single-player games into social competitions where friends can compete.

Activities enable deep-linking to specific game experiences, letting players jump directly to particular levels or modes.

In-App Events integration

Apple displays your events throughout the Games app with custom artwork and features them in dedicated Events & Updates sections. These events can even replace regular app previews in search results, giving your game more prominent placement.

Maximizing your game’s visibility

The more Game Center features you implement, the more places Apple showcases your game across the Games app. Each feature creates additional discovery opportunities, so consider implementing multiple Game Center capabilities to maximize your game’s reach.

AdAttributionKit 2.0: Enhanced attribution

Apple makes key improvements to AdAttributionKit that give you more control and better insights.

Enhanced campaign tracking

Multiple re-engagement campaigns can run simultaneously. Your app can now track several re-engagement conversions at once instead of limiting you to just one active conversion at a time.

Customizable attribution windows

You control how long ads remain eligible for attribution. Set custom time windows for when ads can still receive credit for conversions – configure different periods for different ad networks and interaction types (clicks vs views).

Conversion overlap protection

Cooldown periods prevent attribution conflicts. Set waiting periods after conversions during which Apple won’t attribute new conversions to other ads. This prevents later ads from stealing credit for purchases that earlier ads actually drove.

Regional performance insights

Country data helps you optimize regional campaigns. Postbacks now include country codes so you can identify which regions perform best. Apple only shows this data when there’s enough volume to protect user privacy.

Simplified testing

Test attribution directly in device settings. Create test postbacks right from iOS Settings without setting up full ad campaigns, making it much easier to validate your attribution setup.

Note: Your ad networks need to implement these features before you can actually use them.

Development tools & AI integration

StoreKit just got a bit better

Apple made some useful StoreKit improvements this year that clean up common friction points with subscriptions and in-app purchases. Nothing groundbreaking, but the updates tackle practical issues: better transaction context, expanded offer codes, and a few SwiftUI components.

Core API enhancements

Starting with iOS 18.4, StoreKit provides crucial context that was previously impossible to get:

• appTransactionID gives you a unique identifier for every Apple account that downloads your app even across Family Sharing. You can finally link transactions together without building complex backend attribution logic.
• originalPlatform shows where customers first downloaded your app (iOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS). Useful if you’re migrating from paid to freemium or rethinking your entitlement strategy by platform.

let result = try await AppTransaction.shared
switch result {
case .verified(let transaction):
    print(transaction.appTransactionID)
    print(transaction.originalPlatform)
default:
    break
}

Easier entitlement checks

Apple deprecated Transaction.currentEntitlement(for:), replacing it with Transaction.currentEntitlements(for:) which returns all valid transactions for a product. It’s more accurate and works better with Family Sharing.

let productID = "com.example.product"
for await verificationResult in Transaction.currentEntitlements(for: productID) {
    switch verificationResult {
    case .verified(let transaction):
        // Give the customer access to the purchased content.
    }
}

Xcode 26 with AI integration

Apple integrates AI directly into Xcode 26, transforming how you write and debug code.

Xcode 26 with AI integration

ChatGPT works directly in the IDE for coding assistance. Ask general Swift questions or specific questions about your project, and ChatGPT can make changes on your behalf.

Flexible AI model options

Multiple AI providers work with Xcode. Beyond ChatGPT, you can add API keys for other providers like Anthropic (Claude), or use local models running on your Mac with tools like Ollama and LM Studio.

Streamlined coding assistance

The Coding Tools menu provides a lightweight interface that lets you apply changes to selected code with quick actions or custom queries. The AI understands your project context and can generate code, fix errors, or explain existing code.

Smart project understanding

Context-aware AI references specific symbols, files, or issues in your project using the @ character. The AI can even work with images to generate code from UI sketches you provide.

Safe experimentation

Xcode tracks all AI changes by keeping snapshots before each AI-generated modification. You can easily review and undo modifications through the conversation history, giving you confidence to experiment with AI suggestions.

Foundation Models Framework

Apple introduces direct access to the on-device Large Language Model that powers Apple Intelligence through a powerful Swift API. The framework works across macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS.

Core advantages

• On-device processing keeps all data private and works offline without internet connectivity.
• No app size increase because Apple builds the model into the operating system.
• Optimized performance for content generation, text summarization, user input analysis, classification, and extraction tasks.
• Device-scale efficiency with a 3 billion parameter model that Apple optimized for device use. Note that this model focuses on language tasks rather than world knowledge or advanced reasoning.

Structured output generation

• Guided Generation with @Generable macro lets you define Swift types that the model can generate instances of. This ensures structural correctness through constrained decoding, eliminating the need to parse JSON or handle malformed output.
• Streaming with snapshots replaces raw deltas with structured snapshots that integrate perfectly with SwiftUI. Properties fill in progressively as the model generates more content.

Enhanced capabilities

• Tool calling allows the model to execute code you define in your app. Tools conform to the Tool protocol and can access world knowledge, recent events, or personal data to enhance responses and reduce hallucinations.
• Stateful sessions enable multi-turn conversations with context retention. The model remembers previous interactions within a session and can refer back to earlier parts of the conversation.
• Specialized adapters provide built-in use cases like content tagging for topic detection, entity extraction, and tag generation.

Developer tools integration

• Test prompts directly in Xcode using the new #Playground macro for rapid prototyping.
• Instruments profiling template helps you analyze model latency and optimize performance.
• Feedback system lets you help improve Apple’s models by reporting issues or suggestions.

Availability requirements

Apple Intelligence-enabled devices only in supported regions. Always check availability before creating sessions to ensure your app works correctly across all user devices.

Enhanced App Store Connect APIs

Apple expands App Store Connect APIs with new automation capabilities that streamline your development workflow.

Programmatic build uploads

Build Upload API lets you upload builds programmatically using any programming language. Apple provides standardized error handling and well-formatted messages to make integration straightforward.

Real-time workflow updates

Webhook Notifications deliver real-time updates for critical workflow events:

• Build upload state changes notify you when uploads complete or encounter issues
• TestFlight feedback submissions alert you immediately when testers provide feedback
• App version state changes keep you informed about review status updates
• Beta review completion tells you when your TestFlight builds get approved

App review process improvements

Apple streamlines the App Review submission process with flexible new options that give you more control over timing and coordination.

Independent submission items

New submission types work independently from your app version submissions. Apple-Hosted Background Assets and Game Center types can now go through review on their own timeline, letting you update content and features without waiting for full app updates.

Coordinated review submissions

Group related items into draft submissions for review together. This proves particularly useful when you need to coordinate submissions that combine In-App Events and Custom Product Pages, ensuring all related content launches simultaneously.

Conclusion

These updates show Apple doubling down on AI-powered discovery and giving developers the analytics they’ve been asking for. The Foundation Models Framework is particularly exciting – having on-device AI directly in your app opens up possibilities we’re just starting to explore.

Start with whatever solves your biggest headache right now, but keep an eye on the AI features. They’re going to change how we build apps.

References

WWDC25 Developer sessions