Im building an app with in app payments. My user base is likely to use bitcoin so my question is, am I allowed to add a bitcoin payment additionally to the normal in app method from apple ?
I know about 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
But im not sure if this means that im only allowed to use their system or if I could add other methods if the user doesnt want to use theirs.
Does anybody have experience with this or already asked Apple about this ? I would also like to hear about how Google is handling this.
Thanks!
You cannot use something else than IAP to buy digital products.
For non-digital products you must not use IAP.
Nicolas
Related
We have an ecommerce platform that allows user to create their online store. The app offers 14 day free trial, with the option to purchase any of the three packages depending on their requirement. Now, I don't want to use in-app purchase functionality of iOS, instead I would like to collect payments using third party payment gateway like Stripe etc. What is the best possible way to achieve this? We already tried collecting payment using the web view and asking the permission before accessing the web but it's still not getting approved. However, a similar app Shopify using the same method, can anyone suggest the way out.
I am building digital content selling app for ios using flutter like music etc. I have used stripe payment gayeway but app store has rejected it. It says we can only use IN APP PURCHASE for it. Is there any solution for this?
Digital content purchases for both Google and Apple are controlled by them. You have to use Google Play Billing and Storekit. Both companies will then facilitate the payment from the client and take their cut, remitting the balance to you. There is no way around this if you want to use their app stores.
Physical or services purchases can use eg. Stripe because the app stores allow that.
The package referred to by the other answer simply makes it easier to implement the necessary code in your app. There are others such as the one from Revenuecat.
Case:
Our iOS app offers selling of custom made recipe packages that would be created for each user specifically. For example - user buys package of recipes, but for each user this package would be created individually, based on users preferences and needs, by someone from the app team. This package should be created in 5 days for example. If app team fails to create this package and deliver to end user in 5 days, automatic refund should be triggered and end user should receive money back that he spent on this in app purchase, thus invalidating purchased custom package.
Problem:
Is this kind of scenario even possible in Apple / iOS world? Can app developer trigger refund process of one specific purchase that end user made? If user isn't satisfied with specific purchase, could app developer trigger this is refund process if he has reference to transaction receipt?
P.S. We aren't really selling custom recipe packages, this was just an example scenario to help to understand this refund scenario case. ;)
EDIT:
If such scenario isn't possible via Apple refund, are there some examples of this kind of purchase model, implemented in some other way? It's hard to wrap my mind that only way for end user to get refund for something is to write Apple and that also needs to be done by user itself.
If you get paid using Apple services (in-app purchases) then NO, it isn't possible for an Apple Developer (business or individual) to refund App Store customers.
The only option is to direct customers to iTunes Store Customer Support as officially stated in the iTunes Connect screenshot below:
To increase the chances for your customers in getting refunded you could provide them with an e-mail stating that you would like them to receive a refund which they could show to the iTunes Support employee.
As a colleague stated, an option would be to use an external payment processor like PayPal which would allow you to manage refunds, but I think this will greatly increase the work needed since you will need to manage almost everything regarding payments on your own.
Also note that this option is highly restricted by Apple to only physical services or goods and sometimes Apple does not approve apps providing services through third-party payment processors. So.. you should be very careful what path you choose to take.
If the recipes you're providing to your customers are in digital format and users receive them in your app, you can be 100% sure that Apple will force you to use the in-app purchase system.
If such scenario isn't possible via Apple refund, are there some
examples of this kind of purchase model, implemented in some other
way?
In some cases you can use payment through PayPal (for example). We did it in our application where we had to take money of users and return it after a certain period. Check if you case is suitable for using third-party payment systems. Because (for example) Apple will restrict your app if you want to sell in-game content via Paypal, not with in-app purchase.
One very simple alternative would be to have your users buy virtual currency in your app that they can then spend on their recipe-package-orders. Since you are managing their virtual currency account balance, you can easily refund, give volume-discounts, etc. as you please. The only thing that will still be hard then is to have users return their virtual currency to get back their actual money.
There is no api for allowing users to refund a purchase (otherwise guess what can happen).
More info here
I need to make iphone application that use payment gateway (using visa ... etc).
Is that doable ? Does Apple accept that kind of app? or should Apple apps use in-app-purchase criteria?
That is perfectly acceptable to do.
There are several apps which do this. The first example that springs to mind is tickets for public transportation.
But you can't use it to replace in-app purchases for products in your app, and you can't use it to bypass the App Store structure to trick Apple out of their 30% for app sales. It has to be something which exists/has value outside the app.
I've heard there are some precautions to take to develop a market in an application.
I'm developing an application for a football club. I would like to integrate a kind of market to sell stadium seats.
Someone told me Apple will refuse the application if I integrate it directly inside the app (using Obj-C, communicating with PHP pages).
According to him, I should redirect the user to an external web page (using Safari app for example) to realize the transaction.
Apple does not really communicate about that kind of information.
Do you know anything about it?
You can't use In App Purchase to buy "real life things" such as stadium seats : http://developer.apple.com/news/ios/pdf/in_app_purchase.pdf
The only solution is to use an external payment solution.
The Movies Now app implements such a thing : http://moviesnowapp.com/
Yes, you can use only in-app purchases to sell anything in your app, otherwise Apple will reject your app.
I'm not so sure if Apple will reject your app on these grounds. How can they know what your php pages are doing if you put them in a WebView? Also, think about services like Sky or Spotify that require a subscription. Apple do not take a cut on this, so you could set up a similar thing whereby your users have an account online that they can purchase tickets from and the iPhone is simply a thin client for your online services...
Yes you have to use InApp purchase only to apply unlock functionality,and to use In App purchase there are certain scenarios which can be implemented.
You can find in detail about In App functionality on
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/StoreKitGuide/AddingaStoretoYourApplication/AddingaStoretoYourApplication.html
Secondly if you want to implement In App purchase,there is a very good tutorial which i found very helpful and was easily able to integrate inApp in my application and it was also later on approved by apple.
http://troybrant.net/blog/2010/01/in-app-purchases-a-full-walkthrough/
Cheers
You cannot use Apple in app purchase to purchase non digital goods, if you have an existing payment provider or user account you could use that, take a look at the eBay app which has Paypal integration