Under the Radar 77: iTunes Connect, Part II
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welcome to under the radar a show about
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independent iOS app development I'm
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Marco Arment and I'm David Smith under
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the radar is never longer than 30
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minutes so let's get started so today
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we're going to continue from what we did
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last week where we were talking a bit
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about iTunes Connect and we thought it
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would be kind of good to dive into the
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specifics about setting up a app in
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iTunes Connect and I think specifically
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like not the actual like the practical
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part of it setting it up in iTunes
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Connect and like where the boxes are and
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what to set up but there's a lot of
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metadata that you have to set up when
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you're creating a new app that I think
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is something that is often hard it's
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like a I always kind of don't I kind of
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put it off doing it because I enjoy the
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creation of the app part more than I do
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like writing the app store description
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or setting the keywords or creating
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screenshots because that's often a
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nightmare but it's an important part
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like the reality is all of the work we
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do in creating the app is going to be
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completely wasted if we have a bad
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presence in the app store and the way
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that we control our presence in the app
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store is by setting this stuff up and so
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it seemed like maybe a worthwhile
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episode to kind of go through all the
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fields that iTunes Connect gives us to
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set up and then you can kind of talk
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about our experiences in creating in how
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we set the stuff up the considerations
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we have and kind of go from there sure
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I love iTunes Connect yeah and so I
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guess the first place maybe we'll start
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with a prettiest thing is the icon or
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now actually the icons plural for our
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apps when we set them up because I
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believe if you did like we're an app on
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every platform possible you would have
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to create I think it's four icons you'd
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have the idea the iPhone iPad icon and
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then you'd have the watch icon the high
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message icon and I think Apple TV would
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have a different app icon too and so you
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have to create you know an icon that
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works well for all of those they have to
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all of slightly different constraints
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and different sizes and different rules
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like Apple watch icons for example
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cannot have dark backgrounds it's one of
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Apple watch icons also I didn't even
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know about that I've been rejected for
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it two or three times so I've learned
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the hard way to not do that because
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basically because the honeycomb is
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screen on an Apple watch has a black
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background that is always black they
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don't want you to have a a pike on that
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kind of blends into that and so you
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can't have if you know if your icon was
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a you know a white glyph on a black
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background they were you could get
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rejected and so I've had to go in and it
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like for activity plus plus for example
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which is on the iPhone version is
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essentially a black icon with a you know
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colourful glyph on it on the Apple watch
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version it has a dark grey background
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with the same glyph on it and just you
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know but something to keep in mind that
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when you're creating an icon there's
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lots of these sort of little constraints
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and details that you may have to think
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through that it isn't just the you know
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it isn't just the 120 pixel version that
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you're going to show on the iPhone
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screen like there's lots of other places
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that it may show up and including the
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iTunes Connect version like the big
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version of it that you have to submit
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that's you know ten hundred and twenty
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eight hundred and twenty ten ten 1024 by
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1024 I think I think so yeah
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and like you know so you have to have an
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icon that scales well between all those
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different sizes yeah that's it this is
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one of those one of those areas where
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like I think designers who were picky
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about such things used to take great
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care to custom scale every single little
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icon and make sure that the pixels were
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lined up properly in the lestrade ur and
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everything else and custom tweak all the
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different sizes and I think now more and
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more people are just just like having a
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batch script that just runs image magic
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and just takes the big one and resized
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it down to every size you need in a big
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batch automatically because there's so
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many now that doing anything custom is
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kind of ridiculous yeah and I think it's
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it's in reality is there's so many
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different it's like the nature of the
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displays we have a neck surgery is
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probably a good segue into your screen
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shots because screen shots used to be
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something that I like I would go through
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the process of setting up different
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screen shots for every single device and
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then if you localized like you can end
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up you know there are times that I've
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you know it's like hundreds of
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screenshots that I have to get set up in
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iTunes Connect but last year I think it
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was they changed the Meccan mechanism
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and you can now specify you know a if
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you just submit the plus-sized iPhone
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screenshot for example you can then say
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use this for all the other smaller sizes
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which is something that I've definitely
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taken advantage of in a lot of cases
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because you know it get the impression
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that these icons that they're never
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these screenshots they're never
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displayed like at their native
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resolution they're always shrunk down
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there always smooshed and so being too
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precious about them kind of like we're
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saying with icons where you know there's
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some maybe some value if you can if you
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have control over how that icon is going
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to be displayed that being Precious
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about making sure it's lined up
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perfectly and exactly the right size
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maybe is useful but I think the more
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pragmatic solution for a lot of this
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stuff is you know Apple has changes all
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the time to say this you know the shape
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and the size that a screenshot is shown
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in I mean even just the same screenshot
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will probably be shown at least three
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different sizes to a user if they when
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they're in the search area you know the
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first two screenshots show up there and
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they're really small and you tap on it
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and then they get bigger and if you tap
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on them again they'll go essentially
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fullscreen and so there's no way that
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you're going to have sort of pixel
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perfect artwork there and so in the end
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I've just kind of simplified and said
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you know what I'm just going to use the
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the ability to you know just give one
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set of screenshots and then make my
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screenshots yeah it's like spend more
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time making my screenshots good rather
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than spending that time just creating
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dozens and dozens of screenshots for and
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not really a huge payoff oh yeah yeah
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I've found similar benefits of like like
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I recently stopped doing separate screen
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shots for the 4x phones the iPhone se 5s
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because you know once they added the
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ability for me to to have the 4.7 screen
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shots apply to that I said that's fine
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because if I look at my analytics I can
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see like which screen sizes are peep
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actually really using in large numbers
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and yeah it doesn't the numbers aren't
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that great for some of the edge cases
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similarly with iPad because you can't I
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forget you can't have just nine point
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seven and have it show that's what to
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the twelve point nine really will it
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ever scale up or does it only scale down
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it only ever scales down so you you have
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to you have to specify the twelve inch
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one at least yeah that's unfortunate
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I wish they would change the head but uh
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but I kind of understand why they don't
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because it's easier for an app to to
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scale down than up you know with you
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know user expectation so anyway but yeah
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like generally I found that like you
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could now specify so much in you know in
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in screenshots and everything else
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descriptions localizations you can
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specify so much that it in the early
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days the the the standard wisdom was
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well of course why wouldn't you just do
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it all why wouldn't you give as much
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information as many screen chives as
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many assets as you possibly can but
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these days there are just so many that
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it's it's actually fairly prohibitive to
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require that I also don't update them
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unless the underlying interface changes
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noticeably like if I change you know a
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couple of pixels here there I want to
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get the screenshots because it isn't
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worth the time if I you know it has to
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change a lot for me to actually get the
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screenshots like it because it has to
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basically be a change that people would
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actually notice the difference between
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the screenshots in the app and similarly
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like you know I yeah there's all sorts
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of things that you need to maybe do to
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the screenshots cleaning them up if you
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like do things like fishing the status
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bar to make it you know it's a nice even
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you know full battery no carrier you
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know stuff like that basically what you
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get when you when you toggle the when
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you toggle it into QuickTime capture
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mode do people know that you can do that
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like this is a widely known thing I
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don't know it's probably specifying here
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yeah so so basically this is a thing
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when Apple added the ability to do app
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preview videos which will probably also
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discuss they they added to QuickTime on
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the Mac QuickTime Player on the Mac the
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ability to use the iPhone as a screen
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capture device and record screencast
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movies onto the Mac of the iPhone screen
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and so this is very useful for recording
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one of the side effects of this is
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whenever the iPhone is being captured by
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QuickTime the iPhone goes into a special
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mode where its status bar gets replaced
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with this perfect version that's the
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display the time is 942 now 41 I find 41
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yeah 9:41 a.m. and displays its full
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battery full reception no ugly carrier
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name so it basically makes me perfect
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pretty status bar and as long as the as
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long as the phone is connected to
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QuickTime in this way it stays that way
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so what I usually do if I can't easily
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like you know fake them with static
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status bars that I've generated
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elsewhere is I will take all of my
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screenshots with the phone in this mode
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with it connected to QuickTime so I have
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perfect status bars on all of them it's
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a neat little hack that you know you can
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do I wish it was easier to do this there
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are there are some hacks there's
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something called status bar magic that
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that at one time at least would change
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the iOS simulator into this mode which
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made it even easier but I believe that
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that doesn't work anymore or
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occasionally doesn't work with new
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versions or whatever else but that's a
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nice little way to get nice clean
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screenshot satis bars yeah and I think
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it's probably worth of us are just
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talking briefly about what makes a good
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screenshot yeah cuz I feel like there's
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there's like these this this wide
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spectrum of what you can do in a
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screenshot like on the one extreme you
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have the screenshots that are like like
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illustrations or whatever where you have
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like a 3d iPhone in space that's like I
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said a lot of fun recently now where
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they have an iPhone that's like tilted
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to the side that spans two screenshots
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so it's like taking advantage of the
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fact that the first two screenshots are
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shown next to each other in the search
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area and so they'll like take an iPhone
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and like turn it to the side and make it
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sort of almost a landscape you know
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thing across diagonally you can take
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that's the one extreme where you have
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that or you have lots of words in your
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you know in your screenshots will be
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like you know awesome amazing super
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terrific app written in the screenshot
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or on the other extreme you have the
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screenshots that are just screenshots of
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the app I suppose like things that are
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less trying to explicitly tell you a
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story and more just show you what the
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app is like I've tried both I think in
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general I've tended towards doing the
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just screen shots of the app approach I
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find that that I think is I'm better
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able to execute it a in terms of I'm not
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a great designer like coming up with
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pretty clever things is not really my
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you know my forte and I think I try and
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typically in my screenshots I tell it's
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probably like tell a story in the sense
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of having them be consistent with each
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other you know so I try not to have
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showed the app like you know it depends
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on the app but you know if I'm saying
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sleepless Plus if I have a detailed view
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of a night you know that same night will
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also appear in the first screenshot
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where it was like the the roll up view
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and things like that just so that
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there's some consistency across it that
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you could kind of see how someone would
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you be using the app you know but mostly
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I think the purpose of these screenshots
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is just to give someone a sense of what
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the app is like and I think you in
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generally do better doing it that way
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then trying to be too cutesy with it but
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maybe I'm just not artistic enough to
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make a really good cutesy approach yeah
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I feel like I've never actually tried
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the whole like abstract version of
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screenshots where you remove where it is
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it's no longer actually a screenshot of
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the app and you you add text around it
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and you span it across multiple frames
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I've I've never actually done this and
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the main reason why similar to your
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reasons is that a I don't think I would
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be very good at it and be it feels like
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that shouldn't be allowed it's it's one
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of those things kind of like like adding
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keywords after your app title which I
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didn't do but now I do
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in part because when I created overcast
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the the strict name overcast was already
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taken so I had to put something else
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after it but I also not do it because I
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think it benefits me in search we're now
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you know the Anil IMAP officially is
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overcast : podcasts player similarly I
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think I think doing these these like
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fancier non actually screenshot
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I think it it shouldn't be allowed I
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honestly think it it that should be a
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rule in the AppStore those should not be
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allowed but it's so widespread I mean
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almost every app with any budget at all
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does that now it is it is almost
◼
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ridiculous how universal that is and how
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incredibly perverted the concept of
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screenshots have become like it there it
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is nothing like actual screenshots for
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most apps it there now they might as
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well just say marketing image one
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through five like that's because that's
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really what they are now there's there
◼
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is no relevance to screenshots at all
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ultimately I suspect that people like us
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will probably have to do that at some
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point maybe now maybe in the future just
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because it probably does work better to
◼
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get because it does make your app look
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fancier because you're able to show big
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marketing text and and all these like
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fancy things that that a standard screen
◼
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child would not show and again like I
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wish it wasn't allowed but the fact is
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it is allowed and everyone's doing it
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and we might be at a disadvantage by not
◼
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doing it yeah and of course the funny
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thing is it I believe it did use to not
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be allowed you know like the advantage
◼
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of having been in the App Store since it
◼
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began I'm pretty sure it used to be a
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strict rule that you couldn't do that
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and then people started you know getting
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a little bit more clever with it where
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it used to be like some every now and
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then you would have an app where it was
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you wouldn't have any words but you
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would put the a screenshot on an iPhone
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so you just have a little border on the
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outside and then they kind of that
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border got smaller and then you'd pop
◼
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start putting separating words and then
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I remember I think when I knew that like
◼
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whatever the war was over and it was now
◼
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gonna be allowed was when the Apple
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Store app like the official Apple Apple
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Store app for iPad was released and it's
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screenshots included what you know like
◼
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a shrunk down version running on an iPad
◼
►
with we no black text on a white
◼
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background you know on a white
◼
►
background is there screenshot and it's
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like all right well if Apple is doing it
◼
►
in their own apps now I guess that war
◼
►
is done and now it is allowed but yeah
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it's it's a tricky thing because I feel
◼
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like I don't like it too much I mean I
◼
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can see why people use it but
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if one thing anytime you put text in a
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screenshot like that and it gets resized
◼
►
so many different ways like text doesn't
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resize very cleanly and nicely and I
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think you can always look it off and
◼
►
look a bit tricky you know look not as
◼
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nice as you might want it to be and I
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think also it makes it less localized
◼
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murder makes localization much more
◼
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complicated because suddenly you know
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there's a lot of apps the core of the
◼
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app doesn't need localization you know
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it's like if I have a in an app that
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displays your step count like your step
◼
►
count is your step count and I mean
◼
►
there's certainly some countries where
◼
►
you would display you know there's
◼
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different small little texts that are
◼
►
different but you can get a better sense
◼
►
of the amp you know but if I have been
◼
►
big letters above you know step count
◼
►
like that only really works if you're
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looking at the App Store in English and
◼
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so doing something more specific is a
◼
►
little bit problematic in that regard as
◼
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well yeah and it's also interesting that
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that the the watch and app preview
◼
►
videos explicitly prohibit anything
◼
►
beyond screen shot like of the actual
◼
►
app running dim but like I know in
◼
►
previous videos it seemed like that was
◼
►
starts and maybe not get enforced as
◼
►
strictly recently and that's probably
◼
►
over - though it's important to remember
◼
►
that with watch screenshots you want to
◼
►
set the time to 1009 oh yeah that is the
◼
►
official I don't know these things are
◼
►
always kind of funny that they become
◼
►
these these little traditions that you
◼
►
know iPhone screenshots should be set at
◼
►
9:41 watch screenshots should be set at
◼
►
ten or nine well that's that's not
◼
►
because of the unveiling time but that's
◼
►
a watch thing long story I mean because
◼
►
it makes the watch look happy right yeah
◼
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and it shows the logo and it frames it
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for supporting this show so the next
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kind of big area of setting up an app in
◼
►
19 Connect is probably writing the
◼
►
description which is an area that I feel
◼
►
like I have very mixed feelings about
◼
►
because it's displayed very prominently
◼
►
you know these the first two lines of it
◼
►
or the first you know couple sentences
◼
►
interpret displayed very prominently in
◼
►
the app store but I know for myself that
◼
►
I never basically read them
◼
►
for any app that I've ever downloaded
◼
►
like I mostly just look at screenshots
◼
►
and based my decisions of if I want to
◼
►
download the app from that and so I try
◼
►
kind of go back and forth when I'm
◼
►
writing these or how important they are
◼
►
how you know how much information I want
◼
►
to put in there do I want to do it as
◼
►
kind of like a wall of text or should I
◼
►
do a bulleted list I think there's
◼
►
definitely this this weird tension there
◼
►
because it is one of the few
◼
►
opportunities this this this opportunity
◼
►
to reach out to our customers and you
◼
►
know talk to them directly but I think
◼
►
in recent years but I had tended towards
◼
►
is you know the app store description is
◼
►
as short as I can write it like I tend
◼
►
to write one paragraph like maybe four
◼
►
or five sentences at most that describes
◼
►
the app and its core functionality and
◼
►
then below that I tend to do a bulleted
◼
►
list of kind of like the checklist
◼
►
features that someone might be wondering
◼
►
about you know it's like does this
◼
►
integrate with this does this use this
◼
►
that kind of thing and then I just like
◼
►
that is my description so that the
◼
►
top-level thing and especially that
◼
►
first sentence has to be as good as I
◼
►
can make it because for most users
◼
►
that's all they'll ever see and so I
◼
►
want to make like describe the app in
◼
►
it's like the elevator pitch for the app
◼
►
it's like in that first you know maybe
◼
►
120 characters or so like you really
◼
►
need to be able to dial in exactly what
◼
►
the app does and why someone might want
◼
►
it anything beyond that first couple of
◼
►
sentences I find not to have much effect
◼
►
at all and this is yet another field of
◼
►
the app store just like screenshot so
◼
►
we're like you know abuse was pretty
◼
►
rampant from day one and so it stopped
◼
►
very quickly it's not being used for any
◼
►
kind of search relevance as far as we
◼
►
can tell and it's you know most a
◼
►
prescriptions are filled with like you
◼
►
know star star star on sale now star
◼
►
star star or a list of apps that it's
◼
►
similar to or a list of like you know
◼
►
websites that might have said something
◼
►
about it once 10 years ago or something
◼
►
like they're fairly low value as a
◼
►
reader and I find that as far as we can
◼
►
kind of guess or figure it doesn't seem
◼
►
like people read them very closely this
◼
►
is one area though where like and this
◼
►
applies to a lot of these metadata
◼
►
things that if you have a free app
◼
►
you're at a serious advantage because if
◼
►
you have a paid app I feel like people
◼
►
people probably give these things more
◼
►
scrutiny description and screenshots
◼
►
everything else whereas if you have a
◼
►
free app it's so easy to just tap that
◼
►
get button and just try it for yourself
◼
►
looks is way better than trying to spend
◼
►
15 minutes waffling over you know four
◼
►
different app descriptions figuring out
◼
►
which ones like if it's free you can
◼
►
just get it and see and see for yourself
◼
►
whether it's for you or not and so I
◼
►
think for free apps these things matter
◼
►
a lot less but for you know for paid
◼
►
apps it's obviously probably a different
◼
►
story because the buyer behavior is
◼
►
different but this is kind of yet
◼
►
another area where if you have a free
◼
►
app you do have some advantages that
◼
►
like you can put pretty much anything or
◼
►
nothing in the screenshot in description
◼
►
and as long as it's like slightly
◼
►
relevant to get people downloading it
◼
►
yeah and I think it's nicer probably
◼
►
there's some weird things that you may
◼
►
also have to include in your description
◼
►
yeah like I know for myself I do a lot a
◼
►
bunch of apps that integrate with
◼
►
healthkit and I need to include in the
◼
►
app store description a little side
◼
►
little sentence that says you know this
◼
►
app integrates with the health database
◼
►
on your iPhone you know you'll be given
◼
►
the option to grant or deny access to
◼
►
this or something like that like I and
◼
►
if I don't if I don't have that in my
◼
►
app store description my app will be
◼
►
rejected and so it's something to keep
◼
►
in mind that image varies based on the
◼
►
category but like for example that's
◼
►
something that you may need to do and so
◼
►
in a weird way this is the place where
◼
►
you put like the small print you know
◼
►
this is the I feel like the legal
◼
►
disclaimers and things like you may need
◼
►
to also just put those at the bottom of
◼
►
your description field to cover yourself
◼
►
there as well yeah same thing with Auto
◼
►
renewal subscriptions also have one of
◼
►
those required blurbs and this really
◼
►
isn't documented anywhere so you just
◼
►
have to basically submit an app without
◼
►
knowing that get rejected have the
◼
►
rejection tell you what the description
◼
►
needs to include and then resubmit that
◼
►
a lot of people have to go through that
◼
►
thank you very special thanks to Curtis
◼
►
Herbert of Coca love Fame for saving me
◼
►
that rejection loop on overcast
◼
►
subscription last fall he reminded me of
◼
►
it like right before I submit it it was
◼
►
it it was right after I submitted before
◼
►
it was reviewed so I could still go and
◼
►
edit description yeah I mean if the
◼
►
reality is though yeah I don't worry
◼
►
about descriptions as much
◼
►
used to I worry I may be over the first
◼
►
two or three sentences and then beyond
◼
►
that I'm just trying to be plain and
◼
►
simple and like straight forward and I
◼
►
feel like that accomplishes most of what
◼
►
a description is you know trying to do
◼
►
so I think the other areas that are you
◼
►
go through you set the ratings for the
◼
►
app I think that's fairly
◼
►
straightforward like you just kind of
◼
►
think about your app and like does it
◼
►
include this does it include that and
◼
►
you just kind of check the box and you
◼
►
know it's the nice thing about that
◼
►
section is that as you're just you know
◼
►
saying does it do this does it do that
◼
►
you'll the update the rating that your
◼
►
app would get as a result will update in
◼
►
real time and so you can get a sense of
◼
►
you know like why is my app 13 plus or
◼
►
whatever then you can work out we know
◼
►
which of those criteria is doing that
◼
►
and then you know decide I've obviously
◼
►
if for whatever reason that would be
◼
►
problematic for your application then
◼
►
you can make the appropriate changes and
◼
►
the keywords for it I think is the next
◼
►
area that is basically you're just
◼
►
trying this is important like dark magic
◼
►
about this where people go into great
◼
►
did you know Drake depths have tried to
◼
►
work out what the optimum keywords are
◼
►
for an app and I used to go down that
◼
►
road a bit more I mean I try and be
◼
►
thoughtful about it now and I always
◼
►
make sure that I fill out my keywords
◼
►
field because in theory these are the
◼
►
you know these are the keywords that are
◼
►
used in search to determine if your app
◼
►
is going to show up or not but I mean
◼
►
the weird thing about it is unless your
◼
►
app is showing up very highly for one of
◼
►
these terms it doesn't really matter if
◼
►
you show up on the search you know so if
◼
►
you include a term that you're gonna you
◼
►
know be the hundredth search result for
◼
►
it's as though you didn't include that
◼
►
keyword in some ways as well
◼
►
so mostly this is just trying to sort of
◼
►
cover your bases B and just put things
◼
►
in there that will help the app I guess
◼
►
you know whatever the app store search
◼
►
engine understand your app it better you
◼
►
know give it a lot of words and then
◼
►
hopefully you know sometimes it's
◼
►
probably useful like if your app does
◼
►
you know it has a petunia it has a has a
◼
►
couple of you know branches a couple of
◼
►
different genres of app or does a couple
◼
►
of different things then like maybe I
◼
►
to be crazy thoughtful and like dive
◼
►
into it but beyond just that basic stuff
◼
►
I kind of just sit down think for 10
◼
►
minutes and then move on yeah and you
◼
►
know and there are services and stuff
◼
►
that will help you allegedly optimize
◼
►
keyboards and stuff like that and
◼
►
honestly I've never found their high
◼
►
prices worth the risk of even trying
◼
►
them because it's it seems like it's
◼
►
very much like SEO tactics of like this
◼
►
might work but you also are probably
◼
►
just getting ripped off yeah and one
◼
►
thing I will say that's probably worth
◼
►
thinking about is using the new search
◼
►
ads interface in that we got with the
◼
►
search ads stuff you can there you can
◼
►
specify one of the things you can see is
◼
►
what keywords are showing up our shark
◼
►
converting well against your app and
◼
►
these can be ones that Apple is
◼
►
generating not necessarily you're
◼
►
generating yourself and so one thing I
◼
►
have done subsequently this when I'll
◼
►
run in a search campaign for an app and
◼
►
they'll go in and make sure that there
◼
►
aren't any keywords that are doing well
◼
►
in the search ad thing that are for
◼
►
whatever reason not showing up I didn't
◼
►
include in my keywords and so it's just
◼
►
a good little like check to be like huh
◼
►
is there something here that I need to
◼
►
you know that I should include in my
◼
►
keywords or alternatively you can see
◼
►
sometimes there's keywords that seem
◼
►
like they would be good keywords for
◼
►
your app but when I run a search
◼
►
campaign against them they perform
◼
►
really poorly and so it's probably like
◼
►
actually maybe I don't want to show up
◼
►
in that area like there's a better
◼
►
keyword that I can you know that could I
◼
►
could put it in place of that one so
◼
►
that's another little tool that we have
◼
►
is we're trying to hone those in yeah
◼
►
and the last area is probably the app
◼
►
review notes area which in some ways is
◼
►
some that you may not think you know I
◼
►
never really need to use but I will say
◼
►
it's always a good idea to try and think
◼
►
of it is there anything that you want to
◼
►
communicate to the app reviewer about
◼
►
your app and if so put it in that field
◼
►
anything you've been rejected for in the
◼
►
past that have seen that you've since
◼
►
fixed like I have a whole list of these
◼
►
for all my different apps that I'll you
◼
►
know like things that they they you know
◼
►
they I was rejected for and I have since
◼
►
fixed I will indicate that and write
◼
►
that out in the app review notes and
◼
►
just say hey you know I'd like this was
◼
►
in the year there was one there used to
◼
►
be a problem with this
◼
►
it was innocence been resolved because
◼
►
sometimes the a per viewer will miss
◼
►
something and it just saves a bunch of
◼
►
time to just be very upfront and
◼
►
explicit and say like you used to
◼
►
you know there used to not have a
◼
►
restorer purchases button I do now
◼
►
it works it's great and it just has
◼
►
saved me I think time over is pricey
◼
►
saving our viewers time in my time just
◼
►
be clear about these things so you know
◼
►
take advantage of that field if it's
◼
►
something that you can think about and
◼
►
with that route of time this week thanks
◼
►
listening everybody and we'll talk to