iOS 10 – What it means for your Mobile App

At its Worldwide Developer Conference in June, Apple announced several updates in iOS 10 that will have a significant impact on mobile marketing and offer exciting new engagement opportunities to both marketers and app developers. iOS 10 is now available in beta for download which indicates that it will be likely be released by the end of September, along with the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. So how as a dedicated app marketer, can you get ready to you take advantage of this? We’ve provided a brief guide to help you get up to speed quickly:

SiriKit

SiriKit will open Apple’s virtual assistant up to developers, which means that you can build voice controls into your own app. With a simple voice command, Siri will be able to order you a Uber or Deliveroo directly. To take advantage of this, it’s key to integrate your app with Siri as much as possible. When users know they can easily request your product or service through Siri, this will keep your brand top-of-mind for value and utility.

Improved iMessaging features

iMessaging has been radically updated with some very funky new additions for the Snapchat age, which helps give SMS the tone and feel of a much more personal message.The iMessage app store allows users to add third-party functionality to messaging, in the forms of stickers and GIFs.

New powerful iMessage capabilities include full screen messages, hand-written notes, invisible ink messages that are only revealed if swiped by the recipient, and tapback functionality to quickly reply with a pre-set message.

Although SMS marketing has fallen in favour over recent years, marketers should now consider increasing their budget spend for this messaging channel to engage their audience with personalised messaging. Coca-Cola, for example, is reportedly poised to spend 70% of its mobile budget on SMS over the next year.

Expedited App Reviews

Presently, Apple can take anywhere from 4-10 days to review and approve apps – otherwise known as the “black box process” – to make them live in the store. Obviously, this is a frustrating situation for any developer, especially for those with aggressive sprint/product update cycles. With iOS 10, the expectation will be that this timeframe will be considerably shortened to as little as 1-2 days.

All positive news, but what this means is that app developers must ensure they are ready for rollout when they submit their app to the App Store. It’s no longer a two-week waiting game anymore.

Updated Revenue Splits and Subscriptions

Apps that use subscriptions will see a 70 (developers) / 30 (Apple) revenue split in year 1, and then in year 2, it will become 85-15. Subscriptions will now be available across all categories, whereas previously it was limited to only a few.

Does a subscription service work for your app? In order to qualify, you should be delivering content on a regular basis to your subscribers or providing paid access to an ongoing service within your app, such as online multiplayer gaming.

Paid App Search

Paid App Search is a new feature — but unlike Google AdWords, only one ad result will show at the top of keyword searches in the App Store. Mobile marketers can bid on keyword searches, but the competition could be quite high for some categories.

Relevancy is critical here to succeed – it won’t be possible for an irrelevant app ad to be displayed no matter how much higher its publishers is willing to bid than the competition. In one Apple example, a pizza ordering app might outbid a gaming app for a gaming-related search term, but its ad won’t be displayed because it’s not deemed as relevant to the user’s intent. Apple has also mentioned that they will, for the first time, parse app descriptions, along with app names and other factors.

Marketers must ensure app descriptions contain relevant targeted keywords if they want to want to bid for Paid App Search.

Simple Email unsubscribes

iOS 10 Mail will offer simple unsubscribes from marketing list e-mails. Email marketers should now prioritise permission-based subscription now more than ever. Good subject lines, relevant content and offers and personalised approaches that resonate with consumers are absolutely essential to ensure your email marketing campaigns strike the right note.

Conclusion

iOS 10 offers great new features for users and marketers alike. To really take advantage of this advanced functionality, brands should look to further enhance their messaging strategies and see how much they can incorporate Sirikit into their app build.