Apple overhauls its app developer platform with 100 new metrics, more tools

There’s big news today for app developers. No, it’s not lowered App Store commissions. Instead, Apple on Wednesday announced a significant update to its App Store Connect service, which is where developers publish, manage, and track their apps’ performance across the company’s platforms.

The changes bring more than 100 new metrics to track across areas like monetization and subscription data, as well as others designed to help developers better understand their apps’ in-app purchase performance and how well their offers are getting results.

There are already a number of third-party services that offer glimpses into app performance, including broader app intelligence platforms, like Sensor Tower and Appfigures, as well as those dedicated to subscription app developers, like RevenueCat. However, the advantage of the new App Store Connect metrics is that they’re the only ones based on Apple’s own data — not estimates.

Among the added features are new subscription reports that can also be exported via an API, allowing developers to analyze their apps’ performance when they’re offline, or import Apple’s data into their own systems.

Developers will also be able to learn more about their users by analyzing their behavior around things like the download date, source, offer start date, and more. With this, developers will be able to see how a particular cohort of users engaged with the app during a period of time, like how one regional expansion compared to another, for instance.

There are also new peer group benchmarks that let developers see how they compare with their competition in download-to-paid conversions and proceeds per download.

Apple notes that it uses aggregated cohort data to protect users’ privacy, and it takes advantage of other differential privacy techniques to protect individual developer performance.

As developers view their selected metrics in App Store Connect, they can take advantage of new filters to drill down further into their data. Apple says that developers can apply up to seven filters at the same time.

Plus, the company has published a new App Store Analytics Guide in App Store Connect’s Help section to help developers come up with data-driven strategies and to better understand the App Store’s tools and features.

While arguably, App Store Connect was due for an overhaul, the timing of this rollout is worth noting. As AI is rapidly becoming capable of doing more — particularly among AI agents that can take actions on behalf of users — there’s some talk that the traditional app store model will become a thing of the past. The CEO of the smartphone maker Nothing recently theorized that smartphone apps will eventually disappear, for instance, as the web becomes filled with AI agents.

Apple, however, is trying to carve a path where AI elevates its lucrative App Store ecosystem, instead of destroying it. Per Bloomberg, the company is planning to announce an AI-powered Siri at its upcoming developer conference this June, which can complete tasks inside apps.