Make app appear as iOS 8 Suggested App at lockscreen

Question

As iOS 8 is out, there is a feature that show \"Suggested App\" on lockscreen based on your location.

The question is if I have an app, how can I define the location

Answer 1

I developed a sample app to monitoring Beacon Region, in these case "Lockscreen suggested app" works. It appear when my phone is in the field of beacon region monitored. Then I developed a sample app to monitoring Geographical Region in the same way, but in this case "Lockscreen suggested app" doesn't work! Moreover in case of beacon region monitoring, if app isn't installed, "Lockscreen suggested app" doesn't work. Of course, how could it work? I think this feature could be linked to "Routing App" with use of geographic coverage file instead. Maybe at metadata submission time on iTunesConnect, uploading GeoJSON file. Have some people some feedback? I think I try this way next submission of my app.

Answer 2

So far there is nothing in the App Store submission process to allow you to define locations where your app should be 'promoted' on the lock screen. Using Beacons is the only available option.

It would also appear, based on my own in situ testing, that the Apple App Store App is also doing some 'suggestions' based on apps that are frequently used in your current vicinity. In one example, I was in a grocery store, and the App Store icon appeared. When I slid to open, it took me directly to the Grocery store chain's app. That app wasn't on my phone so there was no beacon interaction. This looks to be using the same "popular nearby" crowdsourced data.

Answer 3

I asked the same question on the Apple developer forums, the user Marlene Zenker quoted the answer to the question posed to the Apple Tech Support.

Here is the answer from Apple Tech Support - read it and weep!

Location relevant Apps are recommended on the lock screen and in the App Store based on a number of factors, including their popularity at the location, and there is no mechanism or process by which an App developer can add their App to the list of recommended Apps. However, if your iOS App is directly related to the location or venue (such as a mall guide iOS App which is published by the mall owner or operator), and you believe your iOS App’s relevance warrants it being included the list of recommended Apps, then you are encouraged to submit an enhancement request via http://bugreport.apple.com/, and request that Apple consider whether your iOS App should be included in the list of recommended Apps for that location. You should provide as much detail in the ’enhancement request' about the App and venue/location as possible, such as the App ID, App Name, URL to the App on the App Store, venue name, venue location (address & lat/lon), the relevance (if any) of your iOS App to the venue/location, and relationship (if any) between you as the developer and the owner/operator of the venue/location. Submission of an enhancement request does not guarantee that a particular iOS App will be added to the list of recommended Apps for a venue or location, and the sole feedback from Apple on the request will come through the http://bugreport.apple.com/ bug report system.

Answer 4

I have a couple of observations that leads me to the conclusion that Apple is curating suggested apps, and some of the location features leads to suggestions.

A couple of weeks ago I was travelling to Poland from Denmark. Starting at the airport in Billund, I saw the first (not installed) suggested app. It was the app for Billund Airport. Of course.

Arriving in Copenhagen to catch a connecting flight, the suggested app here were the app for Copenhagen Airport.

Then in Warsaw airport, the suggested app was Flightradar24. I see that there are probably a lot using that app while at the airport, so it made sense.

Going back home, the trip was via Frankfurt - and there the suggested app were United Airlines, which is strange to me. United Airlines are not that big in Frankfurt. Lufthansa or any other European airlines must be larger.

I live in a rather small town, and today I noticed a suggestion for an app provided by a Danish bank. The app is called Mobile Pay (basically Square Cash/PayPal). In their app you can find stores that support their payment platform. I could only see two nearby. Only two! I don't think a lot of people have opened Mobile Pay in that particular location, compared to other parts of the city since the app started out and got popular for peer-to-peer payments. Surely the two stores nearby that supports Mobile Pay is playing a larger part in the app being suggested.

Anywhere in the city, the number of people using Facebook would be 100x larger than Mobile Pay - so why is Facebook not suggested? Apple must have put Facebook on a do-not suggest list, otherwise it would appear everywhere.

Since there are no documentation to be found on this, I don't think there's a way for us to put our app up for suggestion. But you might be able to earn it, and I was wondering if location based Passbook passed is playing a role here? Could be interessting to test - but maybe not that easy!

Answer 5

The "suggested app" feature works also with iBeacons. When you make your application listen to a CLBeaconRegion with a certain iBeacon UUID, that application will be visible in the lock screen when you're close enough to that type of an iBeacon.

Answer 6

According to this blog post :

All you need to do is set up regular beacon region monitoring (also known as a geofence) - and whenever your users enter the region being monitored by your app, its icon will automatically appear on the lock screen!

I didn't test it myself though.