Apple Announces Two New iTunes Connect Improvements

When there was some trouble with iTunes Connect at the end of last month, many app publishers were hoping that the problems were because iTunes Connect Analytics was being implemented. In the strange incident, publishers would log into their account, only to discover that they were in someone else's account. After the dust settled however, it was business as usual and there was still no sign of the much anticipated analytics feature.

We are also anxiously awaiting iTunes Connect Analytics, but it looks like we will have to wait a little longer. In the meantime, Apple has launched two new features in iTunes Connect that can help you streamline your beta testing and create a richer user experience. This post will show you how the new features work and how to take advantage of them.

TestFlight Groups Now Available

Beta testing your app before it is launched is the best way to work out any final bugs before you go live. But you may want to test different versions of your app or provide different instructions to different testers.

The implementation of groups in TestFlight now allows you to do this. You can also apply an action to several testers at once.

This will be especially helpful for apps that have different use cases. Segmenting your testers by use case will allow you to manage each group individually, instead of sending the same message out to all of your tests.

Larger Binaries

If you have felt constrained and had to create some workarounds because your app binary is too big, this update will help you out a lot. Apple doubled the maximum binary size from 2GB to 4GB. The cellular transmission limit remains at 100MB however.

As we mentioned in a previous post, it is very beneficial to keep your app under the 100MB limit. This is because you want to make your app as accessible as possible and allow people to download your app on an impulse. Your chances of someone downloading your app decrease significantly if they have to wait to get to a WiFi connection.

But some apps are very graphic intensive and there is no way to stay under that limit, even with just-in-time downloads. So if you have an app with a large binary, take advantage of the higher limit to make your app as rich and interactive as possible. The larger limit will allow you to have more assets immediately available and make for a much better user experience.

Conclusion

These two iTunes Connect improvements may not be as significant as the analytics launch announcement will be, but they will certainly help some app publishers. If your app will benefit from these updates, take advantage of them right now.

Do these improvements help your app? Leave a comment below and let us know if they are useful or not.