{"id":47874,"date":"2025-05-27T15:24:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T19:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=47874"},"modified":"2025-05-30T16:02:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T20:02:39","slug":"external-payments-from-the-hey-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/27\/external-payments-from-the-hey-app\/","title":{"rendered":"External Payments From the HEY App"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Heinemeier Hansson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Well, we risked everything, but also secured a four-year truce<\/a>, and now near-total victory<\/a> is at hand: HEY is finally for sale on the iPhone in the US!<\/a><\/p>

Credit for this amazing turn of events goes to Epic Games founders Tim Sweeney<\/a> and Mark Rein<\/a>, who did what no small developer like us could ever dream of doing: they spent over $100 million to sue Apple<\/a> in court. And while the first round yielded very little progress, Apple’s (possibly criminal<\/a>) contempt of court<\/a> is what ultimately delivered the resolution<\/a>. Thanks to their fight for Fortnite, app developers everywhere are now allowed to link out of apps to their own web-based payment system in the US store (but, sadly, nowhere else yet).<\/p>

This is all we ever wanted from Apple: to have a way to distribute our iPhone apps and keep the customer relationship by billing directly. The 30% toll gets all the attention, and it is ludicrously egregious, but to us, it’s just as much about retaining that direct customer relationship<\/a>, so we can help folks with refunds, so they don’t tie their billing for a multi-platform email system to a single manufacturer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

This is a win for users, and Apple won’t lose a cent from commissions from any of these apps.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n