Apple App Store Developers: Time to Update Your Apps

A few changes to the App Store could be great for users—but bad for small organizations that don’t update their apps very often.

Apple updated its App Store Review Guidelines this week, targeting developers who focus on macOS or iOS development. A number of changes are about to be implemented, including a limit on the length of app names, meant to discourage the use of search-engine optimization techniques.

But the biggest change, notes Ars Technica  (opens in a new tab), is that apps that haven’t been updated or downloaded in a long time—and so appear to be abandoned—will be put through a review process. Those that don’t load in the current version of iOS will be removed right away. Apple will send a message to developers of apps that are dormant but still work, warning that if the apps aren’t updated within 30 days, they will be removed from the App Store. (The exact parameters of this requirement haven’t been revealed.)

Admittedly, associations with limited resources might get caught off guard and should put in place a plan for updating their apps, if they don’t have one already. But you have to admit that Apple’s move is user-friendly.

“This is a long time coming,” Gizmodo‘s Christina Warren writes  (opens in a new tab). “There are over 2 million apps in the App Store, but many of them haven’t been updated in years. In some cases, that might be OK, but because of various changes to iOS, that means that some apps either don’t work or are extremely buggy.”

The Bureaucracy Challenge

My Association’s Fight to End Bureaucracy @assn_success  (opens in a new tab) https://t.co/2mFEa8IPnF  (opens in a new tab) #assnchat  (opens in a new tab)

— Jamie Notter (@jamienotter) September 2, 2016  (opens in a new tab)

When Mike Moss took over as staff president for the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), he found a big challenge within the organization: Structurally, it was poorly designed to keep up with member needs.

In an Association Success blog post  (opens in a new tab), Moss says he needed to find the answer to this question: “If the environment of our members is shifting constantly and quickly, how could we possibly serve them if we could not keep up?”

That required some big changes, which Moss (of course) implemented. Check out his post  (opens in a new tab) to learn more about SCUP’s operational redesign and how it went over internally.

Other Links of Note

Getting an email to properly display in Outlook is an exercise in frustration, but it can be done. The email firm Litmus breaks down the quirks  (opens in a new tab) of the popular client.

Can blogging help you win over new volunteers? Basil Sadiq of VolunteerMatch thinks so. Check out his latest blog post for ideas  (opens in a new tab).

Own a Samsung Galaxy Note 7? Bad news: Samsung has recalled the devices  (opens in a new tab) over concern that their lithium-ion batteries could easily catch fire.

(App Store screenshot)