I'm wondering, if a user cancels a subscription and are trying to resubscribe am I supposed to present the management portal from within the App Store to this user and let them resubscribe from within the App Store or am I supposed to allow them to purchase a new subscription from within the App itself? It seems as if once a user has purchased the initial subscription from within the app itself Apple wants all other management to be done using the App Store.
I'm not exactly sure how this works and because I cannot access the 'Manage Subscriptions' portal for a sandbox App Store account I can't tell exactly how subscriptions are handled when they expire.
Thank you!
From the App Store subscription management page a user will be able to:
Change their auto-renew status
Upgrade or downgrade to a different subscription in the same group (e.g. change from a monthly to yearly subscription)
Resubscibe to an expired subscription
Paulw11’s comment is correct that you handle a re-subscribe exactly as a purchase in your app (the user won't receive a free trial if they had before). The purchase will go through as a normal subscription and it will be less confusing to your users.
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Let's assume we are Netflix. The user created an account on our webpage and then downloaded the iOS app. Within the app he started a payed subscription by purchasing an auto-renewable iOS subscription.
The subscription is added to the user account on our webpage. Thus the user can access the paid content not only within the iOS App but also on our webpage from his SmartTV, etc.
The user can mange his account not only from within the iOS app but also directly on our webpage.
The iOS Subscription is not linked to the iOS app but the users Apple ID account. Deleting just the iOS app does not has any effect on the subscription at all. At the end of the subscription period the subscription would sill be auto-renewed and our server. Our server does not need an installed iOS to recognize the renewal (e.g. using Status Update Notifications or by polling the /verifyReceipt endpoint). Thus the user could still continue to access the payed content even if he does not use/install the iOS App any more. Is this correct?
But what happens if the users decides to delete his user account on our webpage and forgets to cancel the iOS subscription?
In assume the subscription would simple do the same as before and would auto-renew at the end of each subscription period. Since the user account on our server has been deleted the server does not recognize the renewal any more and the user simply pays for nothing. Is this correct?
Or is there any way the server can notify Apple to cancel the subscription?
Question 1: The iOS Subscription is not linked to the iOS app but the users Apple ID account. Deleting just the iOS app does not has any effect on the subscription at all. At the end of the subscription period the subscription would sill be auto-renewed and our server. Our server does not need an installed iOS to recognize the renewal (e.g. using Status Update Notifications or by polling the /verifyReceipt endpoint). Thus the user could still continue to access the payed content even if he does not use/install the iOS App any more. Is this correct?
Ans: Yeah You are right. When you had send receipt to server first time, then receipt will be verify with apple by verifyReceipt, after that your server validate this receipt time to time.
Question 2: But what happens if the users decides to delete his user account on our webpage and forgets to cancel the iOS subscription?
Ans: If user has deleted his user account on webpage then user account will be auto-renew at the end of each subscription period. There is only the way to manage i.e. if a user request for refund after deleting the account, then you can check form server(for deleting his account) and refund his money.
Question 3: In assume the subscription would simple do the same as before and would auto-renew at the end of each subscription period. Since the user account on our server has been deleted the server does not recognise the renewal any more and the user simply pays for nothing. Is this correct?
Ans: No this is not correct. Subscription will only be managed by Apple , not your server. Only your server can hit the request for verify subscription status time to time nothing than else.
Question 4: Or is there any way the server can notify Apple to cancel the subscription?
Ans: No, there is no way. Because of apple security. Server has not any authority to do anything in users account(Apple account). That is the reason apple will never approve your app with auto renew if you will not clearly see the below information to user before his purchasing(Subscription). Please refer attached screenshot.
There is no automatic API for this flow it seems within IAP ecosystem.
Here is what you can do.
Upon (before / after, depending upon how you want it) account deletion from within iOS app, you are obligated to route the user to the following page to remove his / her subscriptions, by visiting the following page:
https://buy.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/manageSubscriptions
Opening this URL launches iTunes or iTunes Store and displays the
Manage Subscription page.
If account deletion was initiated from web UI, you should show an instructional page for canceling subscriptions from all possible devices (iOS, Android, TV apps, Web). It is then user's responsibility to ensure he / she cancels it.
Since Apple is the marketplace, this is not different from you buying a grocery product from a supermarket. As it is mentioned on Apple docs pages, it is iOS user's responsibility to get in touch with Apple Customer Care for subscription cancellation.
As a service provider, you are obligated to demonstrate to the user how to do it.
I am implementing In-App Purchases first time in my application and new to In-app purchases Store Kit.
I have few doubts regarding In-app purchases:
What happens if a user purchased a subscription and logged out from the application and another user logs in and trying to purchase the same?
Does iTunes allow the second user to use the First user's purchased product?
If it allows how can we handle the second user's subscription?
What details we will get post Successful/Failed transactions from itunes to save in my database?
For a non-renewing subscription then it is entirely up to you to track expiration and determine what content a user has access to and when.
For example, say your subscription gave access to "the word of the day". If the subscription was active for the month of January, then the user would receive access to new words each day in January. The user should continue to be able to see January's words even after the subscription expires, but no new words.
If they resubscribe in March then they would now get new words throughout March.
You need to track all of this on your server against the user account.
Non-renewable subscription IAPs act much like consumable IAPs. The "Restore purchases" Store Kit function does not restore non-renewable IAP items.
To answer your specific questions:
If a new user logs in to your account system in the app (but the same iTunes account is still active on the device) then a second purchase will succeed and you need to update the subscription start and end dates for the new active account on your server.
You also need to cater for the following:
- The original account logs back in; In this case the original subscription entitlements need to be available
- The original or second account log in to another device; Again, the accounts subscription entitlements need to be available.
No, since non-renewing subscriptions are not restorable, the second user cannot "use" the first user's subscription.
You handle each account in your system independently.
Information about the mechanics of the purchase process are described in the In App Purchase Programming Guide
I just run into a problem with in-app auto-renewable subscription. The app contains this kind of subscription and the app can be used by multiple users but the subscription is bind to the apple id is used on the device. So if a different user log in to the app than the system say he has a valid subscription. If I log the subscribed users on my backend server than if a user without subscription log into the app can not make a new subscription according to the Apple's response because the apple id used on the device. An other problem if a keep track of the subscriptions on my backend server if the user unsubscribe on the apple's webpage I can't notify the server about if.
What do I do wrong? What is the right workflow for this case?
I hope do you understand my dilemma.
Thanks!
Your use case is absolutely valid and that's exactly how the subscriptions In-App purchase work with any platform (Apple/Google).
In case of Subscriptions in-app purchase the content delivery is entirely the responsibility of the app provider and not the platform. You have no direct way of identifying if the app user has been switched to a different user as you can't access the current logged in user on iTunes account on the device.
You need to manage this use case on your own by keeping some data locally on the device and maintain user purchase history but still that wouldn't solve the purpose 100%. When user will go for purchase of the subscription it will show the service as already subscribed unless the iTunes user account is also switched on the device.
You can keep track of the unsubscribed state from the backend as when the subscription is successful you will get a receipt from iTunes which you can use to save in your DB. You need to run a backend job on the server side to validate the saved receipt to check the updated receipt which will give you details if the subscription has been expired or not.
I am implementing auto-renewable subscriptions in iOS and want to be able to test the scenario where the user cancels the subscription but I am unable to do so because when I try to manage subscriptions with the sandbox account the app store wants me to associate a payment method with the sandbox account but in my experience once I do that the sandbox account is no longer valid.
Is it even possible to test cancellations or do I just blindly code for cancellations? I have search high and low and have not found anyone who has been able to manage subscriptions in a sandboxed environment.
I realized today that I was thinking about this all wrong and I can see why its not as necessary to be able to manage subscriptions. I was thinking that the 'Cancellation Date' field would reflect when a user cancel's (or really just opts out of auto-renewing) their subscription. But I was mistaken this field is only for the times when a user contacts Apple Support and requests to cancel early and receive some sort of a refund, and this is not something that is managed directly by a user.
Have you tried using a TestFlight build? You can do sandbox IAP testing via TestFlight with a "normal" iTunes account that has a payment method. I would assume that means you could try out canceling the subscription.
I need to build an app for a system, which already has a subscription on its website. It looks like Apple doesn't allow to use any own subscriptions and forces to integrate any app with iOS in-app subscriptions.
Is it any way to integrate two subscription systems? The main problem is that users can manage iOS subscriptions via iTunes and I can't find whether it's possible to get information about this and to stop subscription in the existing system if it's stopped via iTunes.
So is it possible to get notifications about unsubscribed iTunes users?
Using third party subscriptions
First off, it is possible to support an existing subscription system in your app, but it must be in addition to the App Store subscriptions. Also you have to be very careful about the UI you use. You can't prompt users to bypass the App Store and purchase through your server, but you can offer existing subscribers the ability to sign in with credentials they may have previously obtained through your website.
That said, Apple can be fairly capricious in their rulings on what is and isn't allowed in the App Store. I have worked on apps that have done this sort of thing, but they have been for fairly well known magazine publications. There's no guarantee that they will allow it for everyone.
Detecting unsubscribed App Store subscriptions
As for using App Store subscriptions, when a user purchases a subscription in your app, they will receive a receipt in the SKPaymentTransaction object. This receipt should be posted to your backend server to make sure it is valid before you give the user access to anything. See the In-App Purchase Programming Guide for more details.
When you setup a subscription type, you specify how long that subscription lasts. So if you log the transaction date in the SKPaymentTransaction when you receive a receipt, you can determine exactly when that subscription should expire by adding the duration of the subscription to the transaction date.
If it's an auto-renewing subscription, you will receive a new receipt when the subscription is renewed. So once you have validated that with your backend server, you can update your expiry date based on the new transaction date. If you don't receive a new receipt before the first one expires, it's likely the user has cancelled their subscription.
On the backend, your server can also tell when a particular subscription will expire based on the response from the verification server. First there is the status code which will tell you whether the subscription has already expired, but there is also an expiry date returned in the decoded receipt which will tell you when it is expected to expire if it hasn't already.
For more details, see the Auto-Renewable Subscriptions documentation.
Testing auto-renewing subscriptions
It's worth noting that when you are testing auto-renewing subscriptions in the App Store sandbox environment, the length of the various subscription types is dramatically shortened to make it easier to test. For example a 1 week subscription lasts only 3 minutes in the sandbox environment. You can see the full list of times in the iTunes Connect Developer Guide.
So you want the people that have bought the service from the website to be able to use the app, exactly like if they had purchased it from in App Purchases and in App Purchases people to be able to join the service just like people that joined through the site? As far as I know, Apple doesn't allow you to pay through other services as you said, but let's say someone buys the service from the app. What should happen would be that the money will be transferred to the company. Then after the payment you should include some code doing what the site does after a new person has payed for the service, so create his account as a paid account. Then, the app should also have a login screen where the registered users (no matter where they registered from) will be able to login into the app and use the service. Now the problem is indeed that if the subscription is stopped through iTunes you would never know, though a way around this would be to make a check in the server of this company which should monitor the income coming from one account. Then if this user has stopped paying (or stopped the subscription) you would be able to stop the service from the app. And you should recheck the server for payment after the duration of the subscription has passed, let's say a weekly subscription should be checked every week. (Sorry I would do this a comment but I haven't got enough reputation for this)