{"id":20224,"date":"2018-01-17T15:10:23","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T20:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=20224"},"modified":"2018-03-02T10:45:55","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T15:45:55","slug":"app-store-trials-no-more-free-iaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/17\/app-store-trials-no-more-free-iaps\/","title":{"rendered":"App Store Trials: No More Free IAPs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Markus Müller-Simhofer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Apple no longer allows free IAPs? Oh wow. I’m glad we got ours approved before this change. This basically means the option to offer free trials via non-consuming IAPs is dead. It’s also no longer possible to offer upgrades via free IAPs. We use this for recent customers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Drew McCormack<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Huh? I thought Apple were promoting this as a solution for free trials.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Markus Müller-Simhofer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The biggest issues with trials via IAPs are: 1. Users have to click a system Buy button to get a free IAP 2. Users thought they started a subscription 3. No way to reset the trial after eg a year. 4. MAS IAPs have many issues, better to not encounter them right after installation<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Max Seelemann<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This. And no way to help through support. No way to re-trial after major updates. No way to make promotions with extended trials.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Markus Müller-Simhofer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In one WWDC session the presenter mentions that the new iOS DeviceCheck framework can be used to secure a free trial. Now that this framework is available, I can imagine that Apple would prefer it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Apple is currently promoting<\/a> apps with free trials, but these seem to be based on subscriptions (which aren’t allowed for all apps) rather than in-app purchases. It does seem like the DeviceCheck<\/a> framework would make it possible to implement trials, with the tracking handled by your server instead of Apple’s. If this is in fact recommended, it’s a mystery to me why Apple wants trials to be handled out-of-band so that they are inconsistent from app to app.<\/p>\n\n

There doesn’t seem to be a corresponding workaround for offering upgrades, either.<\/p>\n\n

And, as always, it’s disappointing that news about major policy changes arrives through Twitter rather than official channels.<\/p>\n\n

Previously: App Store Introductory Pricing<\/a>, Omni’s IAP Trials and Upgrade Discounts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Update (2018-01-24): Note that DeviceCheck is not available for Mac.<\/p>\n\n

Update (2018-01-28): Markus Müller-Simhofer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

New Year resolution, write more radars:\nFamily Sharing should support non-consumable IAPs (App Store<\/a>, Mac App Store<\/a>) Promoting Family Sharing for Freemium apps is confusing<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

And this is the reply to my request to remove the Family Sharing badge from our store page. So what should I tell customers who see the Supports Family Sharing badge on our store page and than are unable to share the IAP with their family members?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2018-02-19): Ken Case<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I saw those reports last month, but we’ve had no trouble at all in the last year. (We did have to have a lot of conversations before we first introduced this approach in our apps in 2016.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Junjie<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Also, back in September, one of our update was rejected under 3.1.1 for using IAP to activate a 14-day free trial. The reviewer said we should be using non-renewable subscription instead. We appealed and got it approved.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2018-03-02): Junjie<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\nBig fan of upgrade pricing using IAP. By checking the App Store receipt date, @mindnode can even offer customers who recently bought their app free upgrade.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

MindNode<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Glad you like our new business model. (As you are also a developer: It sadly has a few disadvantages like missing Family Sharing and VPP support)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

See also: Core Intuition<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Markus Müller-Simhofer: Apple no longer allows free IAPs? Oh wow. I’m glad we got ours approved before this change. This basically means the option to offer free trials via non-consuming IAPs is dead. It’s also no longer possible to offer upgrades via free IAPs. We use this for recent customers. Drew McCormack: Huh? I thought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[91,1421,1015,522,31,1472,30,39,1529],"class_list":["post-20224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-appstore","tag-app-subscriptions","tag-family-sharing","tag-inapppurchase","tag-ios","tag-ios-11","tag-mac","tag-macappstore","tag-macos-10-13"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20224"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20769,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20224\/revisions\/20769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}