There really is a blind spot in the app distribution mechanisms. There is no way to distribute your app only to a selected amount of "customer / partners".
Either you put it on the app store, and everybody can download it, or you use an enterprise certificate but you're now at the mercy of apple having a different definition of what you're allowed to do with it and what constitutes a "member of the company".
> There really is a blind spot in the app distribution mechanisms. There is no way to distribute your app only to a selected amount of "customer / partners".
I have a very radical solution for this. I propose to name it "Login". Only the authorized people will get the holy username and password that will grant access to my App and it's functionality.
Sure, ordinary people can download the app, but what are they going to do without the username/password? Nothing.
You’re able to create custom apps for businesses where you can distribute to selected businesses, although you still need to go through the App Store approval process. You can also require a login to your app to restrict who can use it.
TestFlight doesn't work for b2b. You can't sell or give a private customer a software solution then ask them to register for a test to get the iOS software.
You can distribute it on the App Store and only allow customers to use it via a login. This is a solved problem and what my previous company use to do.
Again. There is an existence proof. I worked for a company in the healthcare space that was strictly business to business it was used for secure HIPAA compliant messages between doctors in a hospital network.
You couldn’t use the app unless you were a doctor who belonged to a clients network.
As far as not understanding what app to pick. There are plenty of companies including FB that have apps for the general public and apps for a subset of users.
That's also a thing with app store : the fact that someone else's app works one way doesn't mean a lot. Your app could get accepted for months and then all of the sudden be rejected after an update makes it go through validation again.
But that was the App store's rules, and people more or less learned to go with it. What worries me a lot with the recent news is that the lottery could now affect enterprise certificates as well.
OT: I'm not familiar with the app store details (I develop on Android) but if an Enterprise Cert is the only way, that's embarrassingly poor and I hope they improve it soon for the sake of other devs.
It's trivially easy to have a closed Beta/Alpha channel on the Play Store and updates are handled like with any other app update.
On Topic: it was only a matter of time until Apple restored the cert but I am still glad they revoked it as a very clear and loud warning. This might all just be grand posturing but it's good to see the big shots get a very public warning
Either you put it on the app store, and everybody can download it, or you use an enterprise certificate but you're now at the mercy of apple having a different definition of what you're allowed to do with it and what constitutes a "member of the company".