Apple now offers peer group benchmarks in App Analytics

Apple announced on Wednesday that its App Analytics tool in App Store Connect will now feature peer group benchmarks, allowing developers to better understand what works better for their apps by comparing them with those of their rivals.

‘’Peer group benchmarks provide powerful new insights across the customer journey, so you can better understand what works well for your app and find opportunities for improvement,’’ the company said in its announcement post. ‘’Apps are placed into groups based on their App Store category, business model, and download volume to ensure relevant comparisons. Using industry-leading differential privacy techniques, peer group benchmarks provide relevant and actionable insights — all while keeping the performance of individual apps private.’’

‘’Review your new benchmark data, then leverage other tools in App Store Connect to improve conversion rates, proceeds, crash rates, and user retention.’’

Using the new feature, for example, iOS developers will be able to put different elements of their app product page to test to see which one works better, create various versions of these pages drawing attention to certain features or content, gather feedback from their apps’ beta versions, host in-app events to increase user engagement, etc.

Apple also shared two guidelines to help developers learn how to access benchmark data and how to optimize apps using those data.

The news comes at a time when the iPhone-maker is facing scrutiny over its business practices in different parts of the world. So far this year, the French Data Protection Authority fined it €8 million over personalized App Store ads, the Biden administration said it stifles competition in app ecosystem along with Google,  the Justice Department has reportedly escalated its antitrust investigation, the Japan Fair Trade Commission said it doesn’t face enough competition, it paid $12.1 million fine in Russian antitrust case, and European regulators said its anti-steering obligations are unfair trading conditions under EU laws, while dropping another charge in the case related to its in-app payment system.