How to Game the App Store

I’ve been pestering Apple for years publicly and privately about the manipulation and outright scams going on in the App Store. Apple has made some progress here and there, but overall Apple’s strictness in some areas and hands off approach in others has disproportionately rewarded bad actors while stifling conscientious developers.

As I’ve said many times before, the App Store is not a free market. Apple can and does dramatically shape the App Store economy. Similar to how governments shape economies through tax law and other policies, Apple shapes the App Store economy through App Review policies, App Store implementation details, editorial decisions, the App Store search algorithm, and in so many other subtle (and not so subtle) ways. I’d love to see Apple wield that power to shape the App Store in ways that will sustain and encourage meaningful development instead of continuing to allow the deck to be stacked against it.

I know what you’re thinking… these are just the ramblings of a failed app developer who blames Apple for their own shortcomings. Quite the opposite. While not an “App Store millionaire”, for the past 10 years I’ve provided for my (growing) family solely on revenue from my apps. And 3 of my apps have grossed over $1M. While my net income (I spend a lot on design, share revenue with partners, pay Apple 30% on some of that, pay self employment tax, pay way too much for health insurance, etc) hasn’t made me a millionaire (or anywhere close), I’m still blown away that my apps have been downloaded by millions of people, been featured countless times by Apple, mentioned everywhere from indie blogs to the NY Times, and grossed millions of dollars.

My critique of Apple’s management of the App Store (which began in 2008) has never been about embarassing Apple or denigrating its employees or motives, I want to see this amazing platform Apple created be the best it can possibly be. The App Store is an incredible marketplace that has generated tens of billions in revenue while empowering billions of people around the world to do amazing things with these magical little computers we carry around in our pockets. But I do think the overall success of the App Store has blinded Apple to the need for various course corrections over the years. And as the financial incentive to build and maintain great niche apps dries up, the beautiful and diverse forest of apps that is the App Store will slowly start to look more like the unkempt Play Store.

So, let’s talk about how developers are gaming the App Store and why it matters to the future of the platform. Any one of these tactics might seem somewhat bland individually, but when tens of thousands of apps deploy multiple tactics across many categories of apps, the impact can be measured in hundreds of millions of users and likely billions of dollars.

I’ve been focused on researching the weather category the past couple years as I’ve been working on my weather app, Weather Up, but these tactics apply to pretty much every category on the App Store.

So, here are some of the top ways to game the App Store:

1. Find a keyword that drives a decent amount of organic search traffic. Obvious ones are keywords like “weather”, “calculator”, “solitaire”, etc, but those keywords are so competitive, and the rest of the tactics so powerful, you could get away with 2nd tier keyword targets. Now go to App Store Connect and name your app that exact keyword. “Weather” is already taken, and Apple doesn’t allow duplicate app names, so you’ll need to add a symbol. Let’s go with “Weather ◌”.

Here’s the thing, the App Store search algorithm gives a massive boost for an exact match to what the user searched, and the algorithm ignores symbols, so “Weather ◌” will get a huge search advantage, which will help to drive organic installs of the app. There are lots of other hacks to manipulate the App Store search algorithm. I haven’t kept up on all the “black hat” tactics, so I’m not sure what works and what doesn’t anymore, but here’s a fun one: the App Store search algorithm indexes multiple languages per App Store localization, so you can double your keywords in the US App Store, by stuffing keywords into the Spanish (Mexico) localization of your App Store page.

2. Search for an app template to minimize the amount of code you’ll have to write. The functionality of the app isn’t terribly important as long as it covers the basics a user might expect downloading a app called “Weather ◌”. This one looks perfect and only costs $90: iOS Weather App with AdMob

But weather data costs money, and we’re trying to maximize revenue at all costs, so proxy a few weather apps as they request data and “borrow” any API keys you happen to find. I hear Apple’s weather app might be a good place to start.

3. Implement a tricky subscription page with high priced subscriptions and the price far removed from some sort of “Continue to Trial” button. Also, hide the button used to close this page (bonus points for completely hiding the close button for a few seconds) so that users feel compelled to tap the “Continue” button. Apple is starting to crack down on these things, but it’s tough to enforce so you might get lucky. And watch companies like Apalon for cues on just how user hostile Apple will allow the subscription page to be.

If you need further inspiration for how to trick users, here’s a full list compiled from actual scams on the App Store:

Here’s a list @jmp146 compiled of scams developers have been pulling on the App Store. Many of these techniques are still in use by other apps on the App Store. You can see all the videos in @jmp146’s tweets: https://t.co/ccOnJr91Sb https://t.co/8hXSeaQjop https://t.co/CZGpJcFJpc pic.twitter.com/WZR5V5YTVV — David Barnard (@drbarnard) October 19, 2018

4. Trigger the subscription randomly while the app is running. This one is included in the above list, but is so cunning it’s worth a specific mention. Because the iPhone home button serves as a sort of universal back button, a panicking iPhone user is likely to hit the home button when trying to get out of something. Unfortunately, on iPhones with Touch ID, the home button is also how you confirm a purchase. So if the payment view is randomly triggered, many users will accidentally confirm the purchase while trying to exit.

5. Sign up with Teemo, RevealMobile, Factual, and other firms (you can use as many as you want simultaneously) to sell your users’ precise location data for cold hard cash. I’m still baffled that Apple allows this given their stance on user privacy, but they do for now, so make some hay while the sun is still shining.

6. Display full screen ads every 60 seconds and/or when users tap certain buttons in the app. The user experience is horrible, but it’s shocking how much users will tolerate and the money is great! The eCPM for full screen ads is 3-5X what banner ads and other ads pay.

7. On app launch, randomly promote other apps. Again, terrible user experience, but hey, it works.

8. Once your app is live on the App Store, start buying fake ratings and reviews. This is one of the more blatant violations of Apple’s rules, but they don’t seem to penalize apps that do it so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

4/ Look at these reviews. The developer is clearly buying fake ratings to keep the average up against an onslaught of 1-star reviews from real users. pic.twitter.com/cGoOPhObMa — David Barnard (@drbarnard) October 26, 2018

9. Pay for a “Keyword Boost” campaign. Users are paid to search a specific keyword and download your app, which teaches the App Store search algorithm that your app is a great match for that specific keyword. A few thousand dollars will rocket your app to the top of important keywords which will be further reinforced as you get organic downloads from that keyword.

10. Use a custom review prompt to filter users who are more likely to positively review your app (and beg a bit for good measure). Rule 1.1.7 of the App Store Review Guidelines now forbids custom review prompts, but it’s hard to catch, so you can probably get away with it.

Those are 10 of the more obvious and widely used tactics for gaming the App Store, but there are hundreds more. I experimented with a few of these (the ones not explicitly against the rules) in my Mirror app (which I sold last fall), so I know just how powerful they can be.

Cumulatively, the apps using these tactics are creating billions of terrible experiences for iOS users. But it’s not just that, they are choking out the developers who care about building great experiences and respecting users. By employing these tactics, apps are far more profitable and can afford to pay more to acquire users. Which makes it really tough for apps not employing these tactics to compete in acquiring users. And by gaming App Store search, these apps make it nearly impossible for conscientious developers to get organic search traffic on high volume keywords.

There are absolutely ways to succeed on the App Store despite all of this (I know, I’ve been doing it for 10 years now!), but it’s a heck of a lot harder than it should be. And my bigger point in writing all of this is that Apple should be doing more to shape the App Store economy in ways that reward conscientious developers and punish bad user experiences. Given Apple’s genuine concern for privacy and great user experiences on iOS, I’m shocked they’ve allowed the App Store to fall prey to so much manipulation and outright scamming. But the icing on the cake is that Apple recently featured an app from one of the most notorious App Store abusers of them all, Apalon:

4/ I hadn’t used that app in a while, so I decided to check it out & figure out what Apple saw worth the honor of App of the Day. Alerts promoting other apps. Full screen adds every couple minutes. Subscription page pops up randomly. Sells user location data. “Creedon Republic”?! pic.twitter.com/UOjiuci0vY — David Barnard (@drbarnard) November 19, 2018

Featuring an app is a great carrot, and Apple doesn’t generally feature apps that so blatantly flaunt App Store manipulation and user hostile tactics, but the carrot of getting featured pales in comparison to how much money can be made by gaming the App Store. It’s well past time for Apple to employ more carrots to create great experiences on the App Store, and to use a bigger stick on those manipulating the App Store and creating terrible user experiences for Apple’s customers.

david