Apple rejected my app with an :
Guideline 2.1 - Information Needed
We have started the review of your app, but we are not able to continue because we need an expired demo account to fully assess the subscription feature.
Next Steps
To help us proceed with the review of your app, please provide us with a link to a demo account in the App Review Information section of App Store Connect and reply to this message in Resolution Center.
I really don’t understand what kind of demo account they want from me. There are no any login screens in the application. Active subscription needed to access pdf share function.
Should I give them a test sandbox account with which we tested the subscriptions or something else?
TL;DR
You have your premium feature (features that can be accessed only with your subscription) available for non subscripted users, so they are asking you for expired account to check what happens if they don't have subscription.
Long story
We had subscription which was giving access to training videos for our users inside app. Someday we realized that we want to make this feature free and did it through our backend without releasing the app. So, the next review we've got the same reject:
Guideline 2.1 - Information Needed
We have started the review of your app, but we are not able to
continue because we need an expired demo account to fully assess the
subscription feature.
Next Steps
To help us proceed with the review of your app, please provide us with
a link to a demo account in the App Review Information section of App
Store Connect and reply to this message in Resolution Center.
After struggling around we've revealed that the problem is that Apple App Review team couldn't test the case where a user DOESN'T have subscription and CAN'T access our premium online training videos. I guess they get confused and asked as to share with them an expired demo account, so they can test this case.
At the end of the day, we've removed our subscription properly from App Store Connect and got our app passed through review. Therefore, I think you have your premium feature (features that can be accessed only with your subscription) available for non subscripted users, so they are asking you for an expired account to check what happens if they don't have subscription.
Related
I have developed an app like money wallet (e.g. paytm), where user can request money to each other and transfer money to each others account. with every transaction of user, Admin will get some fixed percent commission.
As app is for one small town only,right now user will have to manually contact admin to load money in his wallet or to withdraw it.
I want to submit my app on iTunes store. I know to use any digital content, services, unlock features we need to use In App Purchase. And for any physical good we need to go with any other third party payment gateway.
So I am confused that will apple approve my app or not. Please help.
Thanks,
First, you never know if Apple will approve or not. The only way to know for sure is to submit and see what happens.
Your description of features sounds like you are probably taking the correct approach.
Its important to use In app purchase for unlocking content/features:
Apps that unlock or enable additional features or functionality
with mechanisms other than the App Store will be rejected
And equally for real world purchases to use something else:
Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used
outside of the App will be rejected
The complete guidelines can be found here https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#purchasing-currencies
And again, its Apples own words:
This is a living document, and new Apps presenting new questions may
result in new rules at any time. Perhaps your App will trigger this.
I tried to submit using paytm integration sdk, and after that my app got rejected
following is reply from App Store
Guideline 3.1.1 - Business - Payments - In-App Purchase
We noticed that your app or its metadata enables the purchase of content, services, or functionality in the app by means other than the in-app purchase API, which is not appropriate for the App Store.
Next Steps
While the payment system that you have included may conduct the transaction outside of the app, if the purchasable content, functionality, or services are intended to be used in the app, they must be purchased using in-app purchase, within the app - unless it is of the type referenced in guideline 3.1.3 of the App Store Review Guidelines.
Please see attached screenshots for details.
Since your App Store Connect status is Rejected, a new binary will be required.
I am developing an app for a client, where he wishes the app to be able to have users to sign up and try out the app for 14 days, after which they have to make a purchase to continue using the app.
My client does not want to absorb Apple's 30% cut for using Apple's in-app purchase mechanism. Initially I suggested implementing a 3rd party payment gateway, but it seems that Apple does not allow app that unlocks app functionalities via a 3rd party payment gateway.
My question is this: if we submit the app that allows users to sign up and login, but only use the app for 14 days without any form of payment mechanisms in the app to allow the user to continue using the app, will the app be rejected? As I was thinking to just have the payment gateway on a website, and during user sign-up, send the user an email informing them that they can go to the website to make a payment.
I know that Apple rejects trial/demo apps, but this is technically a full fledged app where users that purchased via the website will be able to login and perform full functionality. I will also provide Apple with a test account that is fully functional.
Thanks!
Short answer: Apple will reject you if you allow signups and block functionality after a trial period without allowing IAP. Period.
I have first hand knowledge of this, shameless plug in 3..2..1.., Simple In/Out offers a 45 day free trial, after which users are blocked from using the app. In the early days, we escaped Apple's ban hammer by being small and using a blessed trial account that never expired. Apple would review using test account, never see rejection or blocked alerts and prompts to sign up on our website. That did change one day after requesting an expedited review. We got a lot more scrutiny and they rejected us for essentially steering users to our website for subscribing.
The IAP for trials and subscriptions other than magazines is pretty terrible. It is essentially designed for magazines, and that's it. So beware going in. What we eventually did was allow users to subscribe in the app using IAP. Our server manages who is subscribed and who isn't. It also manages which subscription they have (IAP or our own). There is a lot of weird receipt checks you need to do to manage the subscription from Apple. The user is also stuck if they want to change to a bigger/lower subscription plan. Which kinda works for us because the only way to do it is email us, in which we can convert from IAP (-30%) to our own (-2.5% for card processing).
The moral of this story is that if you plan on allowing users to create accounts inside your app, then you will most likely be obligated to offer subscriptions via IAP. If you want to avoid IAP, then you will also need to strip any references to your website from your app and description. They will bust you on meta if you try and steer them around the IAP process. Once we added IAP, we were allowed to point everyone to our website for "more information" in which we are able to convert more users to our own subscription rather than IAP. Right now, our number of our own subscribers vs. Apple is about 75:1. So we don't lose much over the signups we get from Apple.
I believe this should be perfectly fine as long as the 14 day "trial" is a fully functional version of the app.
Your model seems similar to Spotify. Pay for subscription on their website, but use the service in the app.
These resources may help:
https://news.layervault.com/stories/9695-how-do-apps-like-lyft-uber-airbnb-skirt-apples-30-cut-on-each-transaction
http://www.quora.com/How-does-Apple-define-digital-content-when-taking-its-30-cut
I see some Phonegap or Native apps in App store which has no user registration inside the app but it has login. Once I had an app rejected stating My app does not have registration and I am having membership payment on the website. So, we included an registration inside the app.
Is there any specific process to have apps in appstore without registration, because I see few without registration and has login. Is is legal as per Apple guidelines.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
This is a difficult question, especifically taking into account your comments.
If your app lets paid users login, Apple could reject it since you are providing digital goods without their having any part on them.
However, it is also normal that you could have a community of users, and it's not necessary you told Apple all about them (e.g. whether they paid or not). You should give them a demo account though. Even if you have guest access, you should give Apple a demo account so you help them in their review process.
After all, the most important thing is they are human reviewers, so they can say yes or no when they are not sure about approving an app.
As an example, it wouldn't help you cite other apps that have been approved and which have the same characteristics. It's better to focus on explaining your app.
Registration may or may not be required inside the app. It depends on the reviewer. Many apps have been approved without in-app registration, but the guidelines encourage the opposite.
If you're not in a hurry about the review process, I suggest you send the app with the aforementioned tips. If you need it to be approved at the first review step, then I would recommend you following he guidelines as strictly as possible: registration inside the app, in-app payment for subscription.
I am looking to start selling an app on the Apple app store however currently the app uses our own servers to generate a license to the customer once they have purchased it. How can our existing licensing system which uses our own servers be implemented if a customer purchases the app from the App Store instead?
The application license will be a yearly renewable one. Therefore, so far, from what I have read, the app on the App Store could just come with an auto-renewal option (opt-out of course) so that would take care of the subscription cycle but how can our own server issue the customer the one year license which they could then renew from iTunes using the auto-renew function of the App Store?
I am sorry if this is not clear but it would go like this:
Customer downloads application from app store with a one year auto
renewal subscription.
Customer pays.
The app store verifies the
payment.
Once payment is verified it contacts our server to create a
license for that purchase and for one year.
That license is sent back
from our server to the purchased app to unlock the subscription.
Please correct me if my understanding on how this works is wrong but if anyone can point me in the right direction or give examples of how an application on the app store can successfully issue licenses from their own server then I would be very grateful.
As an example, look at "Aviation Exam". They let you buy subscriptions on-device as in-app purchases, or on their own website. In each case the details are synced to a user's account on their own server, so the same exam can be used from any device.
Look at the Apple documentation for how in-app purchase subscriptions work on iOS. Then your app can send details of a purchase to your servers, and download further information.
Edit; after discussion in comments:
If you want payment to go via Apple then it has to be via App Purchase or In-App Purchase. In-App Purchase specifically supports the idea of buying a subscription for a limited time. This is explained at the second link above.
If you want the user to create an account on your server you can either have a page in the app for them to input their details, or you can bring up a web page served from your website. Either way, the info can go to your server and it can create an account.
The key thing is, if payment went via Apple then inside the app is the only place you know this. The app can send this info to your server. You need some common identifier (i.e. a user-name) that is known to your server and to your user, then the user keys it in to your app and it can all be matched up.
There is nothing complicated here, to a decent software developer. All they need is an existence proof such as I gave at the top, and they can figure out how to link the info together.
Edit 2
Some tutorials for in-app purchase listed at: In-App purchase server model
Lots of low-level detail at: Verify receipt for in App purchase
If you prefer to handle payment yourself, not via Apple, then the situation is very different. Now, your own systems have to keep track of what has been bought, when subscriptions run out, etc. To begin with, the app won't know this at all. However, once you identify the user by having them enter credentials (username/password), you can fetch all the details from your back-end system to the app and proceed as above. Again, this is all visible in the example I gave at the beginning, which supports both Apple and non-Apple payments.
One thing to note: if you handle payment yourself then Apple isn't getting its 30% cut, which is the usual App Store commission, so they may not like this. The guidelines say:
11.1 Apps that unlock or enable additional features or functionality with mechanisms other than the App Store will be rejected
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
That's pretty clear-cut, but since there are apps that rely on subscriptions or content purchased elsewhere, they don't seem to follow these rules in every case. Even the Amazon Kindle app was allowed back, once they took the 'buy' button off.
I am stuck with one of the in-app purchase rejection issue in my app and need some help on this.
What this in-app for?
In our app we have options for user to become premium user. A user can become premium user to enjoy some benefits and it is tied to time. There are two in-app products which defines them
One month premium service.
One year premium service.
Since these are time based service, user expects these service should be made available for that user once he/she purchase the product for the specified time, from all his/her other devices. In order to track whether the user is premium service user or not, once the purchase is done, the app writes a entry in server about premium service. So when user uses other device and logs in, he/she can enjoy the premium service without any issues. For this reason I created the above mentioned products as "consumable", thinking that it is controlled by our server there will be no issues. But apple came back with rejection and asked me to change the products to "non-renewing subscription".
Here is what apple says about this
We found that the Purchasability Type for one or more of your In App Purchase products was inappropriately set, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.
"Premium account service for 1 month and 1 year" IAPs are set to Consumable.
However, based on product functionality, it would be more appropriate to use the Non-Renewable Subscription In App Purchase type because the service offered by your application requires the user to make an advance payment to access the content or receive the service.
The Purchasability type cannot be changed once an In App Purchase product has been created. Therefore, you will need to create a new In App Purchase product with the correct Purchasability Type. To create a new In App Purchase in iTunes Connect, go to Manage Your In App Purchases, select your app, and click "Create New". The current product will show in iTunes Connect as "Rejected".
Non-Renewable Subscription content must be made available to all iOS devices owned by a single user, as indicated in Guideline 11.6 of the App Store Review Guidelines:
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
If you choose to use user registration to meet this requirement, please keep in mind that it is not appropriate to require user registration. Such user registration must be made optional. It would be appropriate to make it clear to the user that only by registering will they be able to access the content from all of their iOS devices; and to provide them a way to register later, if they wish to access the content on their other iOS devices at a future time.
For more information about Purchasability Type, please to refer to the iTunes Connect Developer Guide.
Now I have created new in-app products which are non-renewing. But this works the same way as I mentioned earlier, i.e. the server keeps track of whether user is premium user or not, expiry date. When user goes to other device and does login, the app comes to know whether user is premium or not and based on that app works.
But I have couple of questions on this,
Should I need to provide the "Restore" button in the app? If so what is the purpose and how it works?
Since the user can access this service only after doing login to the app (it is different from app store account). Will these two logins make any issue?
Please share your valuable inputs.
It is highly unlikely that the user will end up in a situation where they won't be able to use your app unless they restore their purchases, however it is still possible. Imagine your server goes down for a day and during that day some user purchases a subscription, gets a new iPhone, installs your app on the new device and then wipes their old iPhone. I can think of a couple of other, equally unlikely, but still possible situations (Apple receipt validation server going down, etc) in which the purchase receipt will get lost in transit. It's best to provide the button, and if Apple thinks that you need it in your app, you will have a hard time convincing them otherwise.
If by "two logins" you mean user having to log in to your system and then log in to the App Store to purchase the subscription, that should not be a problem.
I recommend you make the changes Apple requested to the Purchasability Type and then re-submit. If you need to clarify a lack of a restore button put it in the notes for the reviewer