Policy updates regarding mobile-enabled Extensions on iOS

Announcements
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Earlier this year, Apple made changes to their App Review Guidelines in regards to “mini apps,” which applies to Twitch Extensions. Previously, our guidelines required Extension developers to be members of the Apple Developer Program before testing or publishing mobile-enabled Extensions on iOS. However, after the aforementioned changes, this requirement is no longer applicable.

What’s changing?

As of July 9, 2024, developers are no longer required to have an Apple Developer account, or fill out our iOS Allowlist Request form, to test or publish mobile-enabled Extensions on iOS. This change is automatic, and all mobile-enabled Extensions, existing and new, will be available on both iOS and Android without additional requirements in the submission process.

In addition to removing this requirement, we are adding a new policy to our Extension Guidelines & Policies:

3.5 Mobile Extensions must be compliant with section 4.7 of Apple App Review Guidelines.

Our review process will be updated to confirm that an Extension (mobile-enabled or not) includes a reasonable Privacy Policy or Notice if it does one or more of the following:

  • Have an intent to collect user data, including through analytics such as Google Analytics.
  • Make use of the “Identity Linking” feature, also commonly referred to as “Identity Link” or “ID Share”.

Will any action need to be taken?

All mobile-enabled Extensions, existing and new, will be available on iOS and Android without additional requirements in the submission process.

If your Extension collects user data, as mentioned previously, you will need to include a reasonable Privacy Policy or Notice when submitting your Extension for review.

Will this break my Extension?

Because of the minimal difference between the Twitch mobile app’s webview on iOS and Android, it is unlikely that an Extension that previously worked on Android will have issues on iOS.

If there you do notice any errors, we have resumed reviews and expect to review the new version of your Extension within 1-2 weeks.

How do I set the Privacy Policy for my Extension?

In the Twitch Developer Console, access your Extension, choose the latest version, and click on the “Version Details” tab. You will then be able to set a URL for your Privacy Policy under the “Privacy Policy URL” textbox.

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That’s awesome, only wish the extension visibility in-app would be better or allow a different configuration similar to the web, it seems to conflict with the existing leaderboard for bits/subs, so only one extension is visible while it’s not expanded by the user :thinking:

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This is great news! Will we be able to test extensions on iOS before submission? Right now it appears that my extension is not showing up in iOS under “Hosted Test”, but it is working on the Android phone that I purchased for this reason.

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Once the policy goes into effect on July 9th and the relevant updates to the twitch mobile apps go thru. Yes

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I think this differs between phones and OS’es and resolution/etc.

iOS has a seperate “chat title bar” and shows the extension icons side by side.
Android collaspes the chat title bar into the leaderboard (with a +x on the extension tile)

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Forgot to rotate if first… but top/left being droid and bottom/right being iOS

If it’s tied to resolution/zoom level then it’s quick to run out of space from the “primary” function of the “page” (deliver stream chat) but theres certainly room for twitch to improve here.

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And that’s the example of a full chat, I only have an android, but the very first time you open a live you get flooded like this way:

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  • Video controls
  • Tags
  • Actions expanded
  • Leaderboard
  • Pinned message

I’m not really sure if thats all relevant if I already decided to watch the live, but seems okay since they disappear after some seconds, but definitely scary to new users.

Even after disappearing,usually people dont find the extensions in app, at least I had to teach different streamers to educate their viewers where to find, so only sharing feedback as a developer.

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I’d say the +1 icon that gets a dark overlay on top makes it even harder to spot, would be better to show one extension highlight and a second with the +1 if needed

Ps: I truly love twitch and often see you Barry and Xemdo everywhere on discord, github and chats, <3 not being a hater

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The update has been made today! All mobile-enabled Extensions should be now available on our iOS app, and you should be able to test on iOS.

The documentation has also been updated today. See the 2024-07-09 changelog for more information.

1 Like