App companies across the event industry have been preparing for the long-awaited “Appagdeddon,” the controversial new Apple App Store guidelines that started January 1 that threaten to kill the common event app white-label solution. This means that events will now either need to develop an entirely custom app, which many organizations can’t afford, or use a container app solution.
Despite some pushback from developers who say Apple is being too harsh and casting too wide a net, this decision is overall a good thing for both app makers and the people that use them. It encourages developers to make better, more unique apps and fuels innovation in the App Store.
We Need More Innovation
The template solution in question became popular because it gave events the opportunity to have a white-label app at a low cost. However, the apps were often lacking in advanced features that make an app interesting and useful. Plus, the content within each app often didn’t update in real time, meaning event companies needed to have all their event content on the app before it went live.
A good event app should be interactive and be able to keep up with the last-minute nature of a live event. It should have integrated ticketing, games, chat features, and push notifications—features that only an app can give you.
Aggregated or “Picker” Apps
Apple recently published updated guidelines to expand on its recommendation for event apps:
“Another acceptable option for template providers is to create a single binary to host all client content in an aggregated or ‘picker’ model, for example as a restaurant-finder app with separate customized entries or pages for each client restaurant, or as an event app with separate entries for each client event.”
Many have long dreaded this “Appageddon,” but this is an exciting time in the event app industry. The new guidelines mean less redundancy and more quality. It has always been our goal to offer the best solution possible for events and that’s true now more than ever.
Daniel Cocanougher is CEO of Allcal. The company’s Allcal Events app was launched in 2016 with the capability for event planners to customize the in-app experience within the aggregated app, which Cocanougher says makes it compliant with the Apple App Store’s new guidelines.
