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Apple Gives Devs Okay to Submit macOS Catalina Apps to Mac App Store

Just ahead of the launch of macOS 10.15 Catalina to the public, which Apple says is “soon,” Apple is asking developers to submit their Catalina compatible apps to the Mac App Store.

macOS Catalina will soon be available to hundreds of millions of users around the world. With macOS Catalina, your Mac apps can take advantage of Sign in with Apple, Sidecar, and the latest advances in Core ML 3, and Metal. And with Mac Catalyst, you can bring your iPad apps to Mac. Build your apps using Xcode 11, test them on a Mac computer running the macOS Catalina GM seed, and submit them for review.

In the invitation, Apple is encouraging developers to take advantage of the new features in Catalina, including: Sign in with Apple, Sidecar, and the latest advances in Core ML 3, and Metal, as well as Mac Catalyst, which allows developers to easily port iPad apps to the Mac.

Apple also reminded developers that for apps that will be distributed outside of the Mac App Store, of a new notarization requirement.

To further protect users on macOS Catalina, we’re working with developers to make sure all software, whether distributed on the App Store or outside of it, is signed or notarized by Apple. This will give users more confidence that the software they download and run, no matter where they get it from, has been checked for known security issues.

In June, we announced that all Mac software distributed outside the Mac App Store must be notarized by Apple in order to run by default on macOS Catalina. Make sure to test all versions of your software on the macOS Catalina GM seed and submit it to Apple to be notarized.

Apple also today seeded the golden master version of macOS 10.15 Catalina to developers, which represents the final version of the software that will be released to the public. It’s still not known when macOS Catalina will launch, but it could be as early as tomorrow.

Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.