App Tracking Transparency
ELI5 - The Vibe Check
App Tracking Transparency is the popup asking Allow this app to track you across other apps and websites that basically upended an entire advertising industry's business model overnight. If the user says no, apps lose access to the IDFA, the id that let advertisers connect your behavior across different apps. Apple made privacy the default and advertisers had a very bad year.
Real Talk
App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is an Apple privacy framework introduced in iOS 14.5 that requires apps to request explicit user permission before tracking them across apps and websites owned by other companies, primarily by accessing the IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers). Apps must call the AppTrackingTransparency API and display a system permission prompt before any cross-app tracking occurs.
When You'll Hear This
"Our ATT opt-in rate is under 30%, so most of our attribution now relies on probabilistic modeling instead of IDFA." / "You have to show the ATT prompt before calling any tracking SDK, not after."
Related Terms
App Store Connect
App Store Connect is Apple's portal where you submit your app and wait nervously for their review team to approve it.
In-App Purchase
In-app purchases let users buy stuff inside your app — subscriptions, extra lives, premium features.
Push Notification
Push notifications are those little messages that pop up on your phone even when the app is closed.
TestFlight
TestFlight is Apple's way of letting you share beta versions of your app with testers before it goes live.