I intend my app to gain access to my server after the in-app purchase is complete. This access requires real work, and data & traffic ($$).
A typical client might own anywhere up to a couple of hundred devices (and I assume on one account, for their simplicity).
Thus I only get the one payment across many, many devices interacting with the server.
I'm not trying to be stingy - but can I prevent multiple devices sharing the same purchase (in my case server access)?
Or do I implement another method for selling access?
You'll have to implement another method. Apple's guide explicitly states that:
Users can restore products that they previously purchased—for example, to bring content they’ve already paid for onto their new phone.
If the same iTunes account is associated with more than one device then Apple requires any purchases to be available on all those devices.
#Tommy is correct - regarding non-consumable IAPs. However, you could implement a non-recurring subscription in-app purchase instead and give each device a unique identifier. When the user attempts to access the server, you could see if that identifier is in your database (if the user has purchased the IAP), and determine whether or not they need to purchase a subscription. Even though you may not want a subscription-based service, you could probably make a membership for a very long period of time like 10 years (it's not required to be selected in iTunes Connect) and handle it that way. Only issue is that you need to figure out a way to give each device a unique ID that won't change.
Further to the #Tommy answer, in the February 3, 2014 version of Apple's Getting Started with In-App Purchase on iOS and OS X it says:
There are a handful of important guidelines to keep in mind as you design your application:
- You must make your In-App Purchase items available to all of the devices registered to a user
and
Users view the items they purchase as theirs to keep and permanent. Therefore be sure
purchased items are available in all instances of your app running on all the devices the user
owns, even after your app is deleted from a device, reinstalled, or downloaded to a new device.
and
For Non-Renewing Subscriptions, [blah, blah, blah]..
Additionally, your application must include a mechanism to deliver the purchased Non-
Renewing Subscription In App Purchase to all iOS devices owned by a single user.
Looks like there is no way to restrict items to a single device :(
Related
I have used consumable virtual currency purchases in my game.
The user can use that currency to unlock different types of jetpacks.
Apple rejected the game saying it requires a restore purchase button.
But apple's documentation says that consumable products does not require restore.
Why is apple considering the unlocked jetpacks as non-consumable products?
Following is the message that i have received in iTunes connect.
From Apple
10.6 - Apple and our customers place a high value on simple, refined, creative, well thought through interfaces. They take more work but are
worth it. Apple sets a high bar. If your user interface is complex or
less than very good, it may be rejected
10.6 Details Your app uses intermediary currency to purchase items that function as non-consumable products but does not include a
restore mechanism. Users restore transactions to maintain access to
content that they’ve already purchased. Next Steps Please modify
your app to include an optional user registration feature that allows
users to restore their purchases to all of their iOS devices. We
recommend indicating that account registration is necessary to restore
previously purchased In-App Purchase products, and providing a way for
users to register later if they wish to access this content in the
future.
Should i make a restore mechanism for the jetpacks ?
I am using Soomla and unity3d for iap.
In summary, what Apple are saying is that you must include some kind of user registration / account feature where you are storing the users items on your server.
When they sign in on a new device, they should still have everything they have bought in your game.
It seems that Apple considers these purchases as non-consumable products because they are non-consumable products, no matter how you try to handle them in your app. If you define them as consumables, that means a customer loses them when they uninstall and reinstall the app, buy a new phone and restore their old phone to the new one, use the app on several phones, and so on. In other words, Apple considers your use of a consumable purchase to be cheating.
Your customers would feel exactly the same. If your marketing people try to maximise the flow of money from customers to your company, they should consider methods that Apple and your customers don't consider to be cheating.
I am implementing In-App Purchase in my app and test around the existing apps to get some ideas. But I found a scenario which I am quite confused on it.
I have installed an iOS app and purchased the particular levels. Later I uninstall this app, sign out from existing iTunes store account and sign in again with another apple id, then reinstall that app again (same app). Here i can again i need to purchase the particular levels.But my doubt is In-App purchase method we can use based on the purchase Apple ID or Device token ?
If the user can purchased with Apple ID ,then the user can login with another device they no need to purchased again but one user can purchase app and user can login to another users Devices is the one problem..!why because another users no need to purchase.
And if we set the Device token, based on the in-app purchase user can only login that device only ,they can't login another devices with same Apple ID,here it is a problem.
I am quite confused on it... so is the purchased items tied on device if we use multiple apple ids on same device?
I understand that I can restore my purchased items on different devices using same apple id. But how about multiple apple id on multiple devices? If I have 2 apple id associated on an device, I use one of them purchased item, but later I use these 2 apple id login to another device, am I still need to pay again to download items I have purchased on previous device?
Please let me know if my questions are not clear... I hope someone can give some idea on sharing purchased items against different devices and apple ids.And which one use the in-app purchase.
Any suggestions and comments are welcome. Thanks a lot.
IAPs fall into two categories - consumable, and non-consumable.
Non-consumable purchases (purchase level 10-15 of a game, upgrade to pro, etc) are synced across devices by the system, and are restored by the system. They are tied to the Apple ID.
Consumable purchases (purchase 5 gold coins) are NOT synced or restored. Your application needs to remember that the purchase has been made, and store information about that so that a backup and restore correctly restores the user's state. If the user uninstalls and then reinstalls, they have lost any previous consumable purchases (but they will retain all non-consumable purchases, and your application can query for these). You can, of course, sync all information about consumable purchases to your own server, but you would then need to have the user create an account with you. This would allow you to sync consumables between devices.
The Device ID (which you can't get, anyway) has no relevance.
See https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/StoreKitGuide/Chapters/Products.html for more discussion.
If the IAPs are non-consumables (or autorenewables) they can be 'restored' by the user (i.e. the app would execute a restoreCompletedTransactions or refreshReceipt). I believe that the username/password log-in required to restoreCompletedTransactions (or refreshReceipt) must be the same username/password as the person who downloaded the app onto the device. Given that requirement, I still believe that a single 'purchaser' can share their single purchase of a non-consumable IAP on many devices.
The IAP never expires. It is linked to a UUID in a KeyChain. The UUID is used in a database and other places as an identifer, and is critical to functionality.
If they upgrade to a newer iPhone and reuse the Apple ID, then the IAP follows them. The UUID shouldn't be changing in this case. Everything is cool so far.
But I don't want the IAP to be shared across multiple devices sharing the same Apple ID. I want them to pay for the IAP because every new device with the IAP represents a cost to me.
So I'm at a dilemma on how to classify it:
It isn't a consumable because you never need more than one and you don't use it up.
It could be a non-consumable, however, those need to be restored based on Apple ID. Here I get screwed with the Restore Purchases requirement. Basically, any Joe Schmoe can give out his Apple ID to his friends, and everybody gets the IAP for free. I don't want the IAP transferred to multiple devices.
It could be a non-renewing subscription, but it never expires, so they never need to add additional subscriptions. Can I specify the subscription lasts for a very long time (like 20 years) and limit them to purchasing one? The Apple guidelines aren't very specific on this.
It's not an auto-renewable subscription for multiple reasons detailed above.
It is a non-consumable. If you expect the Apple ID will be used across multiple devices, just price your IAP accordingly to account for this.
To be honest, I'm not sure this question is a great fit here because it's not a programming question and nobody but Apple's app review team will be able to give you a definite answer. I do know that subscriptions need to be restorable across multiple devices, so I don't know if that helps you out. The only non-restorable purchase type you can have is a consumable.
I am also not sure that your logic quite works - let's say you store the UUID in the keychain. How are you deriving it so that it's locked to the SIM? You don't have access to the IMEI or anything that uniquely identifies the SIM card on iOS.
You want to restrict the use to one device. That means it must be a "consumable IAP" according to Apple guidelines (note - non-renewing subscriptions won't work - they need to be copied to all devices owned by the user). So make it consumable but make it easy - sell the product as "5000 uses". Each time the user uses the function or the App, charge them one 'use'. This also has the advantage that a heavy user may willingly pay you twice.
And…you can use bluetooth (MKSession) or iCloud to transfer all remaining uses from one device to another device to solve the problem of a user purchasing a new device.
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
I am implementing an App with in app purchase of type:non-renewing subscriptions.
according to apple documents:
If your app uses non-renewing subscriptions, your app is responsible for the restoration process.
FROM HERE
My question is, if the restoring is mandatory by apple, how to prevent thousands of users sharing one apple account with only one description?
For example, if in my app, you pay $0.99 that can use this app for 10 days, from apple's requirements, the user must be able to use app within 10 days on any his/her devices, with simply enter the credentials. However, if the user set a simple account credentials and share it with 100 people, then, the 100 people don't have to buy the subscription anymore and can use the app free during the 10 days.
Some people keep assert that people won't share their account... how do you know that? i saw people register some apple id exclusive for sharing apps and games, and only need to pay once.
Besides, i don't implement my own server and my App don't need one. Is there a way to prevent this?
Thanks in advance
Since non-renewing subscriptions seem to require the app (developer) to use a separate (non-Apple) server to deal with the restore process (for example, see How to support multiple devices with non-renewing In-App Purchase?), why not have that server keep track of the number of restores per "user"? Then you could impose a maximum number of restores per "user". Each installed app that has made a purchase could have its own unique_token (for example, see app rejected.how to track user non-renewing subscription). The user would then have to have a username/password, which would be associated with the unique_token, in order to do a restore (for example, see Restore transactions for Non-renewing subscriptions without registration; and see Registration should be always optional on non-renewing subscription?).