Apple today informed developers that it is making new App Store marketing tools available for use, providing developers with a simple way to create short links, embeddable code with app icon and product page, QR codes, and more.
Take advantage of new marketing resources to promote your apps around the world. You can now generate short links or embeddable code that lead to your App Store product page and display your app icon, a QR code, or an App Store badge. Download localized App Store badges, your app icon, and more.
Developers can enter the URL for their app on the marketing page, with Apple then providing tools to generate the aforementioned links and badges. QR codes in particular may be of interest to developers as these can be used to quickly find an app with a scan with an iPhone camera, and QR codes are also used for the App Clips feature introduced in iOS 14.
QR codes can be generated with different colors and with each app's icon for a unique, personalized look that takes seconds to create.
Tuesday April 21, 2026 12:54 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple recently cracked down on Cal AI, an app owned by MyFitnessPal that tried to skirt Apple's in-app purchase rules. Apple told TechCrunch that it briefly pulled the calorie-counting app last week for violating purchasing guidelines and using a deceptive billing design.
When the app was pulled last week, there was speculation that it was removed for implementing web-based payments,...
Apple today announced the launch of a new subscription option for App Store developers: monthly subscriptions with a 12-month commitment. The new option allows developers to offer subscribers discounted pricing typically associated with an annual subscription but paid on a monthly basis to keep payments more affordable.
This new payment option allows you to offer subscribers more affordable...
Wednesday April 29, 2026 5:05 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple will not be able to delay a district court battle over fee calculations while it waits to hear whether the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on the latest developments in its long-running dispute with Epic Games.
On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed an earlier decision letting Apple keep its current zero-fee link-out commission structure in place while it appeals to...
Sure! At least 0.000001% of it, anyway. In any case, developers can use QR codes or not, it’s optional 🤷♂️
Re: the 15 or 30% revenue share, here’s a partial list of what it pays for:
a secure, customer-trusted payment system; app hosting; APIs, libraries, compilers and other development tools; testing, interface libraries; simulators; security features; developer services, including customer support; and cloud services, including 1 petabyte of CloudKit storage.
Those are some of the things Epic thinks Apple should provide for free 🙄
btw, it’s worth mentioning that more than 80% of all app downloads pay nothing. Not 30%, not 15%—0%. Apple gets $0.00. Not a single penny.
If everyone did what Epic did and Apple App Store revenue went to zero, Apple would replace the ~15 billion they received somewhere else. Like add another $75—the “Epic tax”—onto the price of iPhones. ($100 in a couple years, and it would keep going up every year).
But that way Epic and other devs could get 100% of the revenue instead of only 70 or 85%. Epic might reduce the price of dances and outfits, maybe not.
I’d love to see a progressive model, where for indie developers that are just getting started Apple takes a reduced cut (say 10%) until a certain paid volume is hit. IE 150 app sales or something. Gives newbs a chance to launch something and try to earn their first year Apple Developer fee back.
