we want to develop an iPhone IOS app that will have 3 sections/uses and we would like your opinion if it can all be done and allowed by Apple within the same IOS App, namely:
Section A) Unlocking of Premium software features within the App: This is quite straightforward, as per Apple's guidelines, this has to be through In-App Purchases.
Section B) Selling of an insurance package to end-user:
Section C) And finally, we want to incorporate in the same app, an eStore for the sale of related merchandise:
Question 1) Can In-App Purchase and Apple Pay be used in the same iOS App?
Question 2) For Section B-Insurance. Can ApplePay be used as it is forbidden as an In-App purchase as per Apple’s guidelines?
Question 3) Another requirement would be that pursuant to the sale of the insurance package, we would need to unlock without any charge the Premium features above, can this be done remotely via our back-end or will it be seen by Apple as a way to circumvent the In-App Purchase process if the premium features were paid via ApplePay?
Question 4) For the eStore, I presume that ApplePay or any other payment provider could do the job here?
Any guidance/comments would be greatly appreciated.
Season's greetings!
Richard
Related
Guideline 3.1.1 - Business - Payments - In-App Purchase
Your app unlocks or enables additional functionality with mechanisms other than the App Store, which is not appropriate for the App Store.
We noticed that your app contains a payment mechanism other than in-app purchase for digital content or to unlock features or functionality within your app, which is not appropriate for the App Store. In-app purchase is the only valid in-app payment mechanism for digital content.
Note: Continuing to hide functionality within your app or other dishonest acts may result in the removal of your apps from the App Store and termination of your Apple Developer Program membership and all associated memberships.
Next Steps
To resolve this issue, please remove all external or third-party payment mechanisms and implement in-app purchase to facilitate digital good transactions, including unlocking features or functionality within your app.
If you believe your use of an alternative payment mechanism is a permissible use case, please respond directly to this message in Resolution Center with detailed information.
#sujeet,
First of all, you have not mentioned what type of product you are selling to users? If you are selling digital content i.e. any kind of plan, activation, You must have to use In-App Purchase.
Apple is providing 4 types of In-App Purchases, choose your best on from that and create a In-App Purchase Items in iTunes Connect.
Apple will not allow any kind of third-party payment system in any apps which sells degital content from app.
I have an app which has some purchase option. However, I don't want to make it through the app itself. For that, I already have a website for the purchase.
So can I create a redirection page from my app to the respective webpage?
Will my app get rejected?
or is there a better solution?
It depends on what you are selling, if you are offering "Physical Goods and Services Outside of the App" you cannot use IAP and must use something else as described in the App Store Review Guidelines
3.1.5 (a) Physical Goods and Services Outside of the App: If your app enables people to purchase goods or services that will be consumed outside of the app, you must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase to collect those payments, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry.
If not then you must use IAP and will be charged a 30% fee. However, if you are offering subscriptions this rate will drop down to 15% for users who have been subscribed for over 1 year. Check out Offering Subscriptions for more info if you are interested.
There isn’t any,
According to Apple’s official guidelines
If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access to premium content, or unlocking a full version), you must use in-app purchase. Apps may use in-app purchase currencies to enable customers to “tip” digital content providers in the app. Apps and their metadata may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.
You must use in-app purchases and Apple’s official API’s, if it’s not a physical item
Otherwise your app will be rejected
if you want to sell tokens/credits/gold coins/gems or whatever as consumables in a game they also must be through In App Purchase. Meanwhile for Physical elements that we brought from any e commence app that must should go through your requirement.
hope this work
for more info refer this link blog post describing it
Firstly, let me answer your question based on my experience(bad :( ) with Apple
So can I create a redirection page from my app to the respective webpage? - NO
Will my app get rejected? - YES
or is there a better solution? - Depend on types of app.
The In-App guidelines are recently updated with few more changes so it's depends on what kind of feature you are subscribing. For example:
3.1.4 Hardware-Specific Content: In limited circumstances, such as when features are dependent upon specific hardware to function, the
app may unlock that functionality without using in-app purchase (e.g.
an astronomy app that adds features when synced with a telescope).
To be honest, DON'T trust these exceptions and build your app based on this. In our case, app works exclusively based on a connected physical device device. After rejection from Apple, we appealed with this exception but we didn't hear from Apple for more than a month..!
Using subscription through website
Many thinks that they can get away In-app purchase by offering subscription through website and removing t from app. But Apple will still reject your app and confirmed with Apple team. If you are thinking about Spotify and Netflix cases, there is a category of apps it's only permitted called "Reader app". Please refer 3.1.3(a) of Apple guidelines.
I just want to know if apple forces developers to make the features in the app can be bought only through Apple (which will take 30% of the income) or I can make users buy directly by using paypal or ... ? And what is the programming guide to incluse paypal or credit card in my app(swift)?
May be Not,
There are rules and guideline made by Apple to regulate the In-App Purchase. What you are describing to make a feature available after Purchase is commonly know as In-App purchase.
Here is basic Guide line : https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/2016-06-13/
It have been specified in Point No.11 :Purchasing and currencies
Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to
purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will be
rejected.
Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used
outside of the App will be rejected
Apple is very strict about the payment terms, do choose your method while, Outside payment will lead your app to rejection.
Hope this may help you to consider and go ahead with your decision.
I'd like to integrate payment for subscription to our services. Currently the website offers manually-renewable subscription for 6 or 12 months, and we take the payment by Credit Card (authorize.net payment gateway) or PayPal. As we'd like to offer the users to be able to renew subscriptions from our iOS app, too, I was thinking if I could integrate the Paypal and Authorize.net SDKs in our app instead of using in-app purchases.
Here are the points related to my question from the App Store Review Guidelines:
11.2. Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will be rejected
11.12. Apps offering subscriptions must do so using IAP, Apple will share the same 70/30 revenue split with developers for these purchases, as set forth in the Program License Agreement.
11.13. Apps that link to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the App, such as a "buy" button that goes to a web site to purchase a digital book, will be rejected.
The above points don't exactly answer my following question:
If I must use in-app purchases for subscription renewals, can I also provide users the options to pay via Paypal and Credit Card through my iOS app besides in-app purchases? Note that the "buy" button won't go to a website to purchase the subscription - I'll be integrating PayPal and Authorize.net SDKs to receive purchases from the app.
Apple handles the payment options for you, you cannot offer your "own" payment providers for In-App Purchases. (You can, but your app will be rejected)
The official payment options vary on the user's country: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202631
Please note that there are things happening in this space.
According to recent news, apple is forced to allow external payments.
I don't know if it is already in effect in the guidelines of apple but I suspect it will be coming.
I have a confusion regarding subscription in the app. I want to upload my app to the app store with some price tier. I want user to pay every month some subscription fee to use complete functionality of the app. I have seen apps that are available as free with subscription but my app will be paid with subscription.
Will Apple reject my app?
I have already asked this question on Apple developer forum. Here is the link:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5134928
Looking at the App Store Review Guidelines, the only rule I see that could affect you is:
11.15 Apps may only use auto renewing subscriptions for periodicals (newspapers, magazines), business Apps (enterprise, productivity,
professional creative, cloud storage) and media Apps (video, audio,
voice), or the App will be rejected.
I guess you have to determine if you app fits in one of these categories. I always say that Apple can do whatever they want, so the only 100% way to know if you'll be rejected is to submit it. The review process is much faster than it used to be, so it shouldn't set you back more than a week.
Other subscription-related rules
11.6 Content subscriptions using IAP must last a minimum of 7 days and be available to the user from all of their iOS devices
That's a straightforward rule.
11.12 Apps offering subscriptions must do so using IAP, Apple will share the same 70/30 revenue split with developers for these
purchases, as set forth in the Developer Program License Agreement.
If you want someone to subscribe within the app, you have to give Apple their cut by using IAP. Otherwise, you need your own website for sign-up, à la Netflix.
11.13 Apps that link to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the App, such as a “buy” button that goes
to a web site to purchase a digital book, will be rejected
When you set up your own website for sign-ups, you can't even link to it. People have to know about it before using your app.