Apple rolls out peer group benchmarks for developers

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Apple Developer News:

Starting today, you can put your app’s performance into context using peer group benchmarks, which compare your app’s performance to that of similar apps on the App Store. Now you’ll have even more insights to help you identify growth opportunities.

Peer group benchmarks provide powerful new insights across the customer journey, so you can better understand what works well for your app and find opportunities for improvement. Apps are placed into groups based on their App Store category, business model, and download volume to ensure relevant comparisons. Using industry-leading differential privacy techniques, peer group benchmarks provide relevant and actionable insights — all while keeping the performance of individual apps private.

Having checked out the benchmark data for some of the apps I ship or work on, it’s evident Apple still has a way to go if they want these benchmarks to be on par with the data that’s available for Android developers via the Google Play Console. Where Google allow developers to create peer groups containing specific apps, Apple’s approach is based on your apps category, monetisation strategy and download count.

Google’s approach allows for comparison to your actual market competitors, Apple’s is far more generic and less meaningful. But given Apple’s stance towards privacy, and the clear emphasis on protecting individual app privacy it’s hard to see that changing.

On the flip-side, it’s fascinating to be able to compare some metrics and see how well your app is performing against other apps. It adds a valuable context to some of the metrics already available in App Store Connect.

Google expands Play Store User Choice billing pilot

Google has announced an expansion of the Play Store User Choice billing pilot to additional countries, and is seeking additional feedback about the program from developers. Spotify was the initial partner for the program when it was announced in March.

Google Android Developer Support (via 9to5Google):

This pilot is designed to test offering an alternative billing option next to Google Play’s billing system and to help us explore offering this choice to users. We are looking to gain feedback in different

countries and ensure we can maintain a positive user experience.

Pilot eligibility
In order to be eligible for this pilot:

– Your app must be a non-gaming mobile or tablet app
– Developer must be a registered business

Developers can apply for the program now, with expanded country support including the European Economic Area (EEA) countries and a variety of Asia-Pacific countries including Australia, India, Indonesia and Japan.

Google is offering developers a 4% discount on regular Play Store payment fees, and still expects partners to “pay the applicable service fees”. There will also be “additional user experience” guidelines published in the coming weeks that those added to the pilot program will need to conform to.