Apple Asks Devs to Submit macOS Catalina Apps to Mac App Store, Reminds About Notarization Requirements

Ahead of the launch of macOS Catalina, which Apple says will "soon be available," Apple is asking developers to submit Mac apps compatible with Catalina to the Mac App Store.

Apple encourages developers to take advantage of ‌macOS Catalina‌ technologies like Sign in with Apple, Sidecar, Core ML 3, and Metal. Apple also highlights Mac Catalyst, designed to bring iPad apps to the Mac.

‌macOS Catalina‌ will soon be available to hundreds of millions of users around the world. With ‌macOS Catalina‌, your Mac apps can take advantage of ‌Sign in with Apple‌, ‌Sidecar‌, and the latest advances in Core ML 3, and Metal. And with Mac Catalyst, you can bring your ‌iPad‌ apps to Mac. Build your apps using Xcode 11, test them on a Mac computer running the ‌macOS Catalina‌ GM seed, and submit them for review.

Separately, for apps that are designed to be distributed outside of the ‌Mac App Store‌, Apple has reminded developers of a new notarization requirement.

Apple is requiring apps that are distributed outside of the ‌Mac App Store‌ to be notarized by Apple to run on ‌macOS Catalina‌. First introduced in macOS Mojave, the notarization process is aimed at protecting Mac users from malicious and harmful apps.

To further protect users on ‌macOS Catalina‌, we're working with developers to make sure all software, whether distributed on the App Store or outside of it, is signed or notarized by Apple. This will give users more confidence that the software they download and run, no matter where they get it from, has been checked for known security issues.

In June, we announced that all Mac software distributed outside the ‌Mac App Store‌ must be notarized by Apple in order to run by default on ‌macOS Catalina‌. Make sure to test all versions of your software on the ‌macOS Catalina‌ GM seed and submit it to Apple to be notarized.

For notarization, Apple offers trusted non ‌Mac App Store‌ developers Developer IDs that are required to allow the Gatekeeper function on macOS to install non ‌Mac App Store‌ apps.

Notarization is not required for apps that are distributed through the ‌Mac App Store‌, and Apple recently relaxed its notarization rules, giving developers until January 2020 to comply.

Apple today released the golden master version of ‌macOS Catalina‌ to developers, which represents the final version of the software that will be provided to the public.

It's still not known when ‌macOS Catalina‌ will launch, but it could be as early as tomorrow based on previously leaked info from Apple's Danish site.

Tag: Mac App Store

Top Rated Comments

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Starfia

3 weeks ago

Apple is requiring apps that are distributed outside of the Mac App Store to be notarized by Apple to run on macOS Catalina.

To be clear, that is "to run by default," yes? Users can still bypass Gatekeeper and run Mac apps from any source they like?

Rating: 8 Votes

jinnj

3 weeks ago

I’ve already purchased a laptop and run exclusively Linux on it in anticipation of MacOS jumping the shark soon.

I was exclusively Linux from 2007-2011, when I picked up a MacBook Air and switched to mostly MacOS.

the switchover made sense then. Apple was becoming very developer and geek friendly then.

it’s making a lot less sense lately. They’re way to full of themselves now. Worse than Microsoft ever was

Dude you're full of it. You are not affected by the App signing, if you can easily move to Linux that means your app was never meant OS X. For developers nothing has changed in the MacOS environment. You can still release unsigned apps (like many do). All of the dev tools have gotten better over time.

Rating: 7 Votes

bwillwall

3 weeks ago

I have a feeling Apple won't be bragging about the adoption rate of this release in WWDC 2020. Sure it will eventually catch on, but me and many others are not ready to give up unsigned and 32 bit apps with our current use cases.

Rating: 7 Votes

StellarVixen

3 weeks ago

sudo spctl --master-disable

Sorry, Apple. I am not gonna accept you turning Mac OS into walled garden like iOS. The day that happens, I am moving to some Linux distro, regardless of how much I love the Mac. Enough is enough.

And, another thing. Many developers are not happy with you taking 30 percent of their earnings, plus paying 99 per year to be "registered". Stop milking us like cows! When is it enough for you, if ever???

Rating: 7 Votes

Ritsuka

3 weeks ago

Yes, notarization is required only if the app is signed with a Developer ID certificate. Unsigned app will still run like in 10.14.

Rating: 5 Votes

Spock

3 weeks ago

Yes, notarization is required only if the app is signed with a Developer ID certificate. Unsigned app will still run like in 10.14.

That a good thing, I don’t mind Apple gatekeeping my iOS devices but I like to have full control over what I install on my Mac. I like to have emulators and torrent software on my Mac and I’m sure they won’t sign those kinds of apps.

Rating: 5 Votes

zorinlynx

3 weeks ago

Stop panicking, folks.

- You can still run unsigned apps. Right-click and "Open" when launching it for the first time.
- You can sign and notarize pretty much any app. Apple isn't banning things like emulators and torrent clients from being signed/notarized. These are rules for the App Store, not general distribution.

Remember that Macs are development machines. By definition you can run whatever code you like on a development machine because developers need to run arbitrary code.

The big disappointment with this release is losing 32-bit support. This is going to hurt mostly gaming, and gaming is already weak on MacOS.

Rating: 4 Votes

konqerror

3 weeks ago

And smaller utilities that simply don't need the memory address space also don't really "need" to be 64-bit (well now they do, and use more RAM thanks, Apple).

Percentagewise, small utilities gain the most. My Windows computer has one application, OneDrive, that's 32 bit, taking 66 MB of private code. It's loading 42 MB of shared libraries. So it's got roughly a 60% memory overhead because it's 32 bit.

Additionally, you left out security. ASLR and DEP/NX are features that only work in 64 bit mode.

And, another thing. Many developers are not happy with you taking 30 percent of their earnings, plus paying 99 per year to be "registered". Stop milking us like cows! When is it enough for you, if ever???

Go to Microsoft then. The cheapest developer support package, MSDN, is $540/year, going up to $6,000/year. You want to code sign like Apple lets you? That's a $70/year. You want to write a driver? $400/year for an EV cert, which is non-bypassable, like Apple.

And all of the stores charge 30%. So you're paying the exact same percentage regardless of platform.

Rating: 3 Votes

Heineken

3 weeks ago

You'd be surprised how many games are still 32 bit.
Even fairly new ones.
And smaller utilities that simply don't need the memory address space also don't really "need" to be 64-bit (well now they do, and use more RAM thanks, Apple).

App being 64 bit doesn’t mean it needs twice the memory and when OS doesn’t need to load both 32 and 64 bit libraries you save on ram anyway.

Rating: 2 Votes

Aston441

3 weeks ago