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A complete overview of October 2025 updates across the Apple App Store, Google Play, and AltStore, covering compliance, keyword optimisation, payment options, and app distribution.
October ushered in yet another round of significant revisions to both Apple's App Store and Google Play.
Whilst certain alterations centred on regulatory adherence and pricing structures, others delved into exploration, tailoring, and leeway for creators.
Here's the full rundown of this month's developments, and their potential impact on your app expansion blueprint.
Apple has overhauled its Developer Programme Licence Agreement this month, bringing it in line with fresh EU data mandates and payment interface protocols.
The revision incorporates provisions on interpreted scripting, elucidates the dissemination of Tap to Pay interfaces, and overhauls the management of promotional and discount codes.
For creators, it's largely a matter of regulatory tidying — though it's prudent to verify if your application employs server-end code, Tap to Pay, or Apple's cloud provisions.
A fresh regional statute in Texas will mandate robust age checks and guardian approval for those below 18 from January 2026.
Apple intends to furnish aiding interfaces and novel approval sequences in App Store Connect.
Creators eyeing the American audience — particularly family-oriented or youth-focused applications — ought to track deployment particulars and anticipate feasible interface tweaks.
From 1 October, numerous ASO specialists have noted a keyword ranking standstill (“lock”) in various territories.
Apple seems to have recalibrated its Search Ads Platform (SAP) and provisionally halted keyword ranking refreshes. On 11 October, select rankings flickered back to life momentarily before locking anew — and by month's end, the majority linger unresolved.
Per our ASO scrutineers, such standstills often coincide with substantial algorithmic or data-handling overhauls, wherein Apple halts ranking recomputations.
Whilst keyword shifts are curtailed, download activity and promotional efficacy persist unabated — the rankings simply fail to mirror visually.
Typically, keyword halts endure 1–2 weeks, yet this instance appears linked to a broader search engine recalibration. Pundits foresee a return to routine updates imminently.
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From January 2026, applications proffering "Sign in with Apple" in South Korea must accommodate a server-to-server alert terminus for profile alterations such as removals or email rerouting notifications.
Should your application serve Korean patrons, it's advisable to ready your server-side setup for this stipulation — all in the name of openness and data uniformity.
Apple encountered a substantial judicial reverse in the UK this month, following the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) deeming the firm guilty of market dominance misuse via App Store levy mechanisms from 2015 to 2020.
The bench determined that Apple's levy framework — ordinarily 15–30% — stifled rivalry and hiked costs for both creators and buyers. The proceedings encompass an approximated 20–36 million UK consumers, with conceivable reparations hitting £1.5 billion (≈ $2 billion). Apple has vowed to contest the decision.
For creators, this affair might sway forthcoming levy setups and remuneration guidelines, notably in the UK and EU spheres where oversight intensifies.
Apple has additionally unveiled novel creator utilities aimed at easing app oversight and promotion.
You may now fashion up to 70 Bespoke Product Pages (twice the erstwhile cap), extend Offer Codes to every IAP category, and even tender select materials whilst a variant undergoes scrutiny.
Collectively, these modifications afford creators amplified ingenuity — and swifter cycles for timely revisions or split-testing.
A further cascade of App Store pricing revisions looms mid-November, touching realms such as Poland, Switzerland, and Türkiye.
Should you lean on Apple's automated pricing strata, your regional tariffs might nudge marginally to mirror exchange and levy fluctuations.
Recurring payments evade impact, yet it's sound practice to scrutinise your pricing display and confirm worth alignment endures across locales.
This October, Google dispatched a suite of Play services, Play Store, and Android system enhancements geared towards refining app operations, gadget linkage, and patron satisfaction over mobiles, slates, Wear OS, Auto, and Chrome OS.
Creators acquired novel interfaces for cross-gadget backing, Maps, Advertisements, and profile oversight, whilst Wallet garnered uplifts for voyage notifications, allegiance tokens, and enterprise badges.
System revisions likewise prioritised safeguards, discretion, and efficacy gains, and the Play Store unveiled amplified bespoke counsel and material unearthing.
These advancements tender creators chances to elevate app sojourns, underpin emergent gadget traits, and hone prominence, whilst patrons reap fluid exchanges and attuned fare.
U.S.-bound apps may now tender alternative remittance avenues or off-platform retrieval bonds, lessening dependence on Google Play Billing.
Permits fee-slashing remittance routes or tailored checkout paths
Adherence to Google's tenets remains obligatory
Fresh Age-Verification interfaces will prove compulsory in select U.S. regions from January 2026.
Creators should weave in guardian approvals and authentication elements betimes to secure seamless conformity.
This October, AltStore proclaimed worldwide broadening and fusion with the decentralised social mesh (Fediverse).
The framework aims to penetrate novel domains encompassing Japan, Brazil, and Australia, whilst empowering patrons to liaise with app revisions athwart grids like Mastodon and Bluesky.
AltStore moreover clinched $6 million in capital to buttress its framework and networked ploy.
For creators, this unlocks untried dissemination conduits and interplay vistas beyond orthodox app repositories, whilst auguring heightened rivalry in the app dominion.
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