Apple has announced that it is officially launching the ability for developers to sell Mac and iOS apps as a single purchase. Apple first detailed these plans back in February, teasing that the functionality would roll out to developers in March.
Apple made the announcement in a post on its developer website this evening:
As we explained last month, the developer simply must change their Mac app to use the same bundle identifier as their iOS app. The App Store will handle the the unification process. In-app purchases can also be shared across iOS and Mac for the first time. Apple explains:
The goal here is clearly to promote more adoption of the Mac Catalyst platform, which allows developers to bring iPad applications to the Mac.
One important thing to note is that despite Apple’s announcement today, there aren’t yet any applications to offer support for universal purchases between Mac and iOS. This is because Apple has not yet made the Xcode 11.4 GM available to developers.
Developers can learn more about offering universal purchases on Apple’s developer website. What do you think about universal purchases for Mac applications? Let us know down in the comments.
