Apple has announced it will soon support universal purchase for apps on iOS, macOS, iPadOS and tvOS, starting in March of this year.
This means as customers, you’ll be able to purchase an app once and have access to it across all Apple platforms.
As Apple states to developers:
Starting in March 2020, you’ll be able to distribute iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS versions of your app as a universal purchase, allowing customers to enjoy your app and in?app purchases across platforms by purchasing only once. You can choose to create a new app for these platforms using a single app record in App Store Connect or add platforms to your existing app record. Get started by building and testing your apps using a single bundle ID with Xcode 11.4 beta.
Apple also says App Store categories “will be unified across the App Store and Mac App Store,” to support universal purchases and make apps more discoverable.
Developers will be able to choose from the following categories for iOS apps:
…and for macOS apps:
Apple says “Photography” and “Video” categories on the Mac App Store will be unified into “Photo & Video”.
As for the category “Kids”, it will no longer be within the “Games” subcategory on the Mac App Store.
Developers can start using Xcode 11.4 (released earlier today) to build apps to support universal purchase, now enabled by default for new Mac Catalyst apps.
