According to user-submitted data at appreviewtimes.com, the average review time for iOS apps has decreased from around a week to about two days since this time previous year.
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Although Apple hasn’t announced a policy change, developers report that the approval process for new and updated apps now takes less than two days. Chris Maddern – app developer, cofounder and head of engineering at Button Inc – used to keep at least a week in his schedule when planning for his project’s approval process. In December, the average was more than five days.
According to Bloomberg, the founder of Button Inc. submitted an app on Tuesday and it was approved within 20 hours. “It can now happen within hours of submitting them, which is really awesome because it speeds up the development cycle”. Apple checks apps for security and content before letting them in the app store, while submissions to Google Play are often examined after they’ve been made available to download from the store.
Apple, Google and other software makers are constantly fighting to prevent malware-ridden apps from invading their respective app stores and devices. Currently, services amount to almost 12% of total quarterly sales and Apple wants to boost this growth since it appears as the only thing with room to progress.
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In addition to AppReviewTimes’ crowdsourced data, anecdotal experience from my own conversations with developers indicate that, particularly over the past two weeks, approval times of 2-3 days have become quite common for iPhone and iPad apps. This is especially evident after new versions of iOS launch, as developers discover the ways in which Apple wants them to use new APIs and features. Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr declined to comment. The company’s move to shorten the review time comes just a few weeks before its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). One of the changes includes moving of 100 employees onto a team to improve App Store search. The app has been designed in such a way that’s easy to understand even by the most non-tech savvy users. The concept basically imagines a major iOS 10 upgrade that features friendly Home screen shortcuts, a revamped multitasking UI or App Switcher and a lot more. “It’s becoming a lot more open in its approach to building an ecosystem”.
