| Source | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e140TPggkA |
|---|---|
| Readwise URL | https://read.readwise.io/read/01kw1f726narvdxnrh0q6172tq |
| Readwise ID | 01kw1f726narvdxnrh0q6172tq |
| Author | Adam Lyttle |
| Category | video |
| Site | YouTube |
| Published | 2026-01-23 |
| Saved | 2026-06-26T08:02:22.548000+00:00 |
| Tags | adam-lyttle, app-development |
Readwise Summary: The App Store is changing fast in 2026 (and the old ASO playbook can now get your Apple Developer account terminated). In this video I break down the three shifts happening right now and dive into what still works.
Check out my PIANORUN app here: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6449474440
Check out my DRAWPOP app here: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6744515468
Follow my journey here: Website: https://adamlyttleapps.com Twitter: https://x.com/adamlyttleapps Github: https://github.com/adamlyttleapps Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamlyttleapps TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@adamlyttleapps Substack: https://adamlyttleapps.substack.com
Shout out to my amazing video production team at https://clipwing.pro/
#AppDeveloper #Solopreneur #AppGrowth
The app store is changing whether you like it or not. The strategies once used to get ahead no longer work or can get your Apple developer account outright banned. In this video, I’m going to show you what’s changing, what still works, and what you need to stop doing if you want to survive the App Store in 2026. There’s three things happening right now, and they’re changing everything we know about winning on the App Store. Apple cares way more about your account
than you think. Blindly following keyword trends is the fastest way to get your account terminated. And even if you do everything right, some keywords just won’t rank anymore, even when the data says they should. If you don’t adapt to these changes, you can lose years of work overnight. This is my sixth consecutive year building apps on the App Store. I’ve amassed over 2 million downloads and over $1 million in app store revenue. But in the past 9 months,
I’ve seen more changes, more disruption, and more accounts banned than ever before. Building a career around app development means it’s your full-time job to understand what signals Apple is trying to send to developers. Because your Apple developer account is your single most important asset. Keeping in good standing with Apple is my top priority, so it should be yours, too. This has a massive impact not only on App Store rankings, but your downloads
and even your revenue more than you ever realize. I have developers reach out to me all the time who swear their accounts are shadowbanned, that their apps just don’t get displayed on the app store. And every time, every time I look at their portfolio, I see the exact same thing. Copycats of my own apps, copycats of other developer apps, and not a single unique idea anywhere. Don’t do this. And it matters now more than ever.
The App Store is no longer as friendly to new developers as it once was. It takes longer to build trust with Apple, not only for your app, but also on an account level. A year ago, you could get away with launching a new app from a new account and get an instant boost with hundreds of downloads within a day. Now, that organic visibility is mostly gone, especially for new accounts and risky niches. release too many spammy apps or simply target the wrong keyword and you
can get your entire Apple developer account terminated without warning. It’s happening more and more. So, my strategy has shifted from testing lots of small apps, lots of small ideas to building apps that could get featured on the app store. My simple strategy is to increase my standing with Apple by building apps that will get their attention. And it kind of worked. Last year, my app, Piano Run, was featured on the App Store when iOS 26 was launched, and I saw a slight
uptick in my rankings across my entire app portfolio. Let me show you what I mean. Apple is sending us a message. They want to clean up the app store, and to do that, developers must clean up their act. Recently, one of the biggest banhammers came down on developers targeting the keyword Nano Banana when the model first launched. At the time, it wasn’t trademarked. It wasn’t copyrighted. It was just new, a new trend emerging. Developers saw a demand. They moved fast and they built apps to
ride the wave. You might think there’s nothing wrong with that. But then developers who put Nano Banana in their title, in their screenshots, or too aggressively in their metadata started getting their accounts terminated. No warning and no second chances. I had developer after developer reach out to me and they all said the same thing. I didn’t think it through. I saw the opportunity and I moved too fast. How How do I get my account back? And most of the time, you just can’t. In some
cases, it was obvious. These apps were trying to confuse users, trying to look official, and trying to hijack the official keyword, but in other cases, it wasn’t so clear. developers who were careful and only used the keywords in the keywords field and never mentioned nano banana in the title or screenshots still got hit. I call this a mass app store casualty event. Apple changes a policy, then they clean house, and when
they do, they don’t use a scalpel, they use a hammer. If you’re building for an emerging niche, just know you’re taking a little bit of a risk there. Even if you think you’re doing it right, you can still get caught up in the crossfire. Yes, I know being first is exciting. You don’t want to miss out, but being banned is permanent. So, when a new trend shows up, stop and think it through, especially with a brandable name like Nano Banana or Chat GPT. Just slow down.
FOMO is a short-term strategy, but patience will keep you in this business long enough to keep generating revenue. And even if you do everything right, there’s another problem I’ve been spotting. There’s something else happening quietly on the app store that I don’t see many people talking about. Apps that target new popular trends just don’t seem to rank like they should. On paper, everything looks great, high popularity, low competition, perfect timing, but they just don’t rank. And
I’ve seen this firsthand with my own app, Draw Pop. I targeted the keywords AI art and AI art generator. It launched in April 2025, almost a year ago, and it has never ranked for either of those keywords, not once. Same launch strategy I’ve used time and time again. Same process, same playbook. It should have worked. AI art has a difficulty of 51 and AI art generator a difficulty of 49.
In my books, that’s an easy win. it should at least rank in the top 200 spots, but it didn’t. And this isn’t just an AI thing. I’ve seen this with financing apps and budgeting apps as well. When a keyword starts to attract the wrong types of apps, when trends start to attract spammy or scammy apps, they just stop ranking. So, I think Apple has the ability here to throttle visibility for an entire keyword search,
especially for new apps. When I launched Draw Pop, AI art was at its peak. New models were dropping weekly and every developer saw this as the next big opportunity. And clearly Apple spotted this trend too, making the decision to hit the brakes. But how do we even know which keywords will be treated like this? Well, we just don’t. But it’s an important lesson to never blindly trust keyword research, especially with hyped trends. If Apple throttles the keyword
you’re targeting, it doesn’t matter how good your app is, you’re just not going to rank. Either sit some trends out or create a backup plan. Don’t rely on app store optimization as your only marketing channel. Turns out the old strategy of finding a keyword ranking and winning is a bit more complicated than it once was. When a new trend is emerging, it’s your responsibility to slow down, think twice, because in 2026,
speed is not the advantage. It’s all about staying in the game long enough to survive another day.