Apple will require developers to submit apps to the App Store using Xcode 13 starting April 25

Apple reminded developers on Tuesday that starting April 25, 2022, iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with Xcode 13, which includes SDKs for iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8.

“Make the most of the exciting features in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8 to offer even more intuitive and valuable user experiences. Improve your app’s performance by refactoring your code to take advantage of asynchronous functions in Swift. And with the latest updates to SwiftUI, you can enhance your apps with new features, such as improved list views, better search experiences, and support for control focus areas,” Apple said. 

As developers will now must build their apps using Xcode 13, they can take advantage of new APIs introduced with iOS 15 and macOS Monterey, such as ShazamKit, SwiftUI, Create ML, ARKit 5, Safari web extensions, and SharePlay.

Apple says developers can also publish custom product pages and in-app events, and run product page optimization tests on the App Store on these platforms.

Rolled out in December 2021, “custom product pages” is a feature that allows developers to create additional versions of their App Store product page to highlight specific features or content  — such as a particular sport, character, show, or gameplay feature — ,  discoverable through unique shareable URLs. 

At the end of January, Apple announced that developers can now promote their apps in the App Store with custom product pages via Apple Search Ads.