I am writing iOS client-server game.
Client side:
- server comunication,
- game user interface etc.
Server side:
- logic for game
- responsible for delivering some data and logic for iOS client
- manage payments
- manage user privilages
In my system I have my own virtual currency. User can buy virtual money via payment system.
User can spent virtual money in game. For spending money he builds his own reputation in my own loyalty program. For some level of loyalty he will have some privilages, for example access for other functionality of app.
As I mentioned, server will responsible for payments, using variety of payments system (paypal, sms, etc.)
And now...
I have a question: Can I use in this case any other payment systems without Apple's IAP?
I don't want to use it, because my server manages payments for all platforms.
I would like to make payments in iOS app using WebViews. Is it possible?
Thanks for replies :)
You must use IAP, since you payments are providing functionalities to your game.
From apple review 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 not include buttons, external links, or other calls
to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than
IAP. Any credits or in-game currencies purchased via IAP must be
consumed within the app and may not expire, and you should make sure
you have a restore mechanism for any restorable in-app purchases.
Remember to assign the correct purchasability type or your app will be
rejected. Apps should not directly or indirectly enable gifting of IAP
content, features, or consumable items to others. Apps distributed via
the Mac App Store may host plug-ins or extensions that are enabled
with mechanisms other than the App Store.
Related
I am developing an app for PDF and downloading PDF, I am using using Paytm - Third party payment gateway for payments on web view. Without using an "In-App purchase", will it affect the Apple review guidelines?
In-app currency is only used inside of your app.
3.1.1 In-App Purchase: 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 not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than IAP.
For third party payment.
3.1.5 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 IAP to collect those payments, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry. Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies (e.g. Bitcoin, DogeCoin) provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions.
Apple has no issue implementing payment process in UIWebView but you have to provide very clear explanation of your payment process to get your app approved without any objection.
As per Apple guide lines given below, If you are purchasing physical goods which can be consumed out side of the App, then you can go for other payment gateway, else your App will be rejected.
3.1.5 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 IAP to collect those payments, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry. Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies (e.g. Bitcoin, DogeCoin) provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions.
We are a website based service. We do not charge for accounts. We charge for services the user selects to do (such as exporting data). We collect money through our website and store that as credits in our system.
We have built a free app app and have been updating the app.
We would like to provide a user sign up in our app. We are having troubles figuring out if Apple will take issue with that. We understand if we sign up a new account in the app, Apple will take a 30% cut (ala Spotify).
The question is how do they handle free accounts?
EDIT:
Our app currently lets the user charge for services against their current credit balance (such as exporting a file) and have not had an issue with that in 4 years we have been doing it.
EDIT 2:
At one point, they did reject our App for hot linking to our website. That was 3 years ago and I forget if it was because they could create a new accout or could add credits to their account. I can't find a way to go back and look up the rejection notification.
Accounts are unrelated to purchases. Purchases and accounts are often used together, but this is a convenience and not strict requirement.
In your case:
The user may access the app with an account.
No payment is asked for the account.
Through this account, the user may receive content which has been paid for by credit card.
Credit card details have been submitted through your web site.
This is ok, as long as you do not take credit card payments in the app, or provide any buttons or links to credit card payments, from in the app.
According to the App Store Review guide.
3.1.1 In-App Purchase: 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 not include
buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct
customers to purchasing mechanisms other than IAP. Any credits or
in-game currencies purchased via IAP must be consumed within the app
and may not expire, and you should make sure you have a restore
mechanism for any restorable in-app purchases. Please remember to
assign the correct purchasability type or your app will be rejected.
Apps should not directly or indirectly enable gifting of IAP content,
features, or consumable items to others. Apps distributed via the Mac
App Store may host plug-ins or extensions that are enabled with
mechanisms other than the App Store.
And
3.1.3 Content-based “Reader” Apps: Apps may allow a user to access previously purchased content or subscriptions (specifically:
magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, video, access to
professional databases, VoIP, cloud storage, and approved services
such as educational apps that manage student grades and schedules),
provided the app does not direct users to a purchasing mechanism other
than IAP.
In other words, users may access content that has been paid for outside of the app.
If the user is directed by the app to pay for something, then you may not use external payment services, and you must use In App Purchase.
So, hot linking to your web site from your app to accept payments is not allowed, whereas downloading content which has already been paid for through your web site outside of the app is allowed.
If in doubt, contact Apple directly through their support form, or the Apple developer program technical support.
I'm developing an application and I'm looking which tool should I use for adding priced features in it.
Before answering, there are some things to take in account, that's what blocking me:
1 - We have a web application which already manage purchases for the web, and we would prefer going through our API to manage purchases as it's already here.
2 - We have 2 differents type for purchasable items : a subscription (for now we have 3 months or 12 months subscription, but we're working on making only one kind of subscription) and a virtual currency in a virtual wallet that the user can fill as he wants.
3 - Last but not the less, when a user subscribes or add currencies to his virtual wallet, those items are also available on the web application.
I've troubles choosing IAP or Braintree/Tribe, because it's seems to me that some Apple's guidelines are contradicting each others in my situation :
"11.1
Apps that unlock or enable additional features or functionality with mechanisms other than the App Store will be rejected
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"
Those first rules are saying that I just cannot use any third-party API to add priced content in my application.
"11.3
Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the App will be rejected"
In my case, I feel like the subscription and our virtual currency are concidered "goods and services" used outside of the app, because the user can use it on our web application
"11.4
Apps that use IAP to purchase credits or other currencies must consume those credits within the App"
Here, Apple seems to tell you "Ok, go for the virtual currency, BUT we prevent you from using it outside of your iOS application"
So what should we do ? Can we add our purchases inside of our application, or are we forced to say to the user for buying them on our web application ? And if we can add them in our application, does it go to the In-App purchase or to the "third party payment API" because it's used on our web app too ?
Thank you in advance for your help
Bilkix
I'm no expert, but my understanding is that you have to use Apple's In-App Purchase to unlock content within your own app (for instance, if your app is a game and you want to sell additional content such as new levels, you should use IAP).
For selling goods that aren't relevant to the app (i.e. the app is merely a storefront), then you must use an external processor.
For reference, here is the support article from Stripe that covers this topic: https://support.stripe.com/questions/apple-and-stripe-tos-and-fees
(Disclaimer: I work for Stripe.)
I'm about to develop an app (for iOS and Android) that allows users to create a collection of digital content from their phone (e.g. some videos and pictures), and send that content to other users who can consume that collection on the same iOS/Android app. I'd like to bill users for sending a collection, because this process involves uploading and processing the collection to the cloud (which I pay for) and the recipient's app downloading it again (causing traffic costs). Note that I don't want to charge any money from the recipient!
The way I see it, producing such an iOS app is not possible (because Apple will reject it, see App store guidelines and In App Purchase Guidelines) for the following reasons:
Setting a fixed price for the app ("paid app") is not reasonable, because I want to charge the user each time he sends a collection, so IAP (In-App-Purchases) would be more reasonable
The IAP-logic/flow would be that a user can create the collection in the app for free and then, when he clicks the "send collection" button, he is asked to approve a purchase, in return he gets the link that he can send to his friend. The logic would essentially be the same in the Android app, using Google's "In App Billing"
Such an app could be rejected by Apple because of rule "11.3. Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the App will be rejected" - because the user essentially paid for hosting the collection, and that collection can be used outside of the app (by an Android app user for example)
OTOH it's also impossible to use external means of payment. For example, I was thinking about forcing users to first create an account on my website, where they can pay for a voucher (with Paypal, say) that enables users to send collections. They'd first need to log into their account in the iOS app and then they might see a warning that they have not yet purchased (or no longer have) any credits for sending a collection. The IAP guidelines forbid me to directly link to my website with a note saying that users can pay for additional credits by other means. When Apple engineers sees that message during review (assuming they aren't putting very bright people in charge) the app might be rejected, too. Even if it were not, this work flow is very uncomfortable for the user, I'd prefer IAP as this also makes accounting (taxes and earnings for my company) a lot easier.
I'd like to get your opinions on this. Please note that I might be "too hard" on myself. As a matter of fact, I do know apps that have been approved to the store that do exactly that, see e.g. here and here. Maybe they have been approved because paragraph 11.3 actually just forbids the ability to purchase the functionality of uploading (converting a collection to a link) and then use this functionality somewhere else - effectively that would mean "to buy credits for an external service" mechanism. My app wouldn't do this. You'd have to do the purchase and the upload/convert-to-link functionality would only work on that device where you did the purchase.
Any thoughts?
I have similar experience with an app i worked on. It was a GPS device showing tracking data in the app. The device uses cellular data to send tracking information and we need to collect a fee to pay the SIM provider which is an external service. We did this using Stripe payment but Apple rejected the app and asked to implement In-App purchase. Because we were blocking the user and asking to pay in the app that looks like we are asking payment for app digital content.
Based on my experience, to answer your question :
Yes you have to use In-App purchase and it can be Consumable type. When user try to send a collection, show a consumable purchase type. Keep track of the purchase in the server using purchase receipt, collection id etc.
Even though the amount collected is used for hosting and web traffic, you can term this as a service fee for managing/sending the collection. Behind the seen, you use this fee to pay your hosting provider or anyone else, that's up to you. Apple won't reject the app for this reason. Because you are charging a fee for digital service you are provided in the app. In apple guidelines, external physical service means, for example taxi charge in Uber, shopping goods price in amazon etc.
This is very common mistake developer often doing while choosing the payment options for any Payment related feature into application. Specifically in iOS there are new rules defined by the Apple for choosing the payment model for your application.
Here are some important points :
If your application having some points system or coins system for which you needs user to pay for than you must use the inApp purchase. And inApp purchase must be of type Consumable. So it will be purchasable multiple times
If your application offering any pro features or facility inside the application you must use inApp purchase. Type will be non consumable. (Note : For Non Consumable inApp purchase you must give Restore Purchase option into your application other wise your application will get rejected.)
If your application is providing any feature or any internal content access for limited time than you must use the subscription based inApp Purchase.
If your application is selling any physical goods than you must use any third party payment options. You can't use inApp purchase for it.
If your application is selling external services or any donation related feature then you can't use inApp purchase for it. This will be a complicated case & in this case according to the apple guidelines you should use the Payment gate way with Webview redirection. So the user will do the payment from the Webview redirected component.
Hope this helps to everyone.
We are in the process of developing a Cordova iPhone/iPad application, our plan is to release the app in the store as a free app.
We initially thought we would be able to offer full and free use of the app for 30 days, after which we would ask the user to pay to access the app.
The payment would be managed outside of the app (i.e. Not an in-app purchase), circumventing Apple's mechanism and the revenue split.
However from all the reading we've done around in-app subscriptions and taking payment outside of the app store it appears this may not be possible and we will struggle to get the app approved.
In an ideal world we would:
Publish the app
User download the app
User uses the app for 30 days
On day 31 we ask the user to pay for continued access
User taps a button and pays via our payment gateway
User returns to the app and can continue to use the app forever
We will also be releasing a web app, same functionality and same payment process required.
Im almost 100% sure that Apple will turn us down for this, we are essentially offering a trial of the app and then asking for payment simply to circumvent the revenue split - at least thats how it can be interpreted.
I'm trying to find a workflow (user journey) that would work in our case but also with the app store process.
Thinking something potentially like the Spotify model, where a subscription is required (Username/Password) and then the app is downloaded?
Your original idea is going to get you rejected for sure. What's wrong with offering some of the features through IAP?
From the submission guidelines:
2.9 Apps that are "beta", "demo", "trial", or "test" versions will be rejected
11.1 Apps that unlock or enable additional features or functionality with mechanisms other than the App Store will be rejected
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
Additionally, you can do the subscription model, but beware of this as well:
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
11.14 Apps can read or play approved content (specifically magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, video and cloud storage) that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the App, as long as there is no button or external link in the App to purchase the approved content. Apple will only receive a portion of revenues for content purchased inside the App
Seems like Apple become less strict to that rule. I can't find any mentions like this: "Apps that unlock or enable additional features or functionality with mechanisms other than the App Store will be rejected" in current docs.
Here is a new one:
3.1.1 In-App Purchase: 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.
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#in-app-purchase
Also, Netflix has launched the app with the ability to buy a subscription outside of the Appstore:
https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/276066-netflix-experiments-with-bypassing-apple-app-store-subscription-fees