Is there a way to offer a purchase free of charge for in-app purchases? I'd like to give a free download as a promotional item and not charge the normal price that is listed in iTunes.
You have to code for this in your app. In my app all purchases are registered on parse.com and sync'd between user's devices. I can add a purchase to the class on parse.com for a user and then they get the IAP for free when the data sync's to their device.
Apple don't have any mechanism for this like they do with app purchases unfortunately. The best way I've found is a custom URL scheme, so you can generated a code/string of your custom URL type ://myApp/123456promoCodeFooBar12999 etc, then your app, in response can connect to your server and check this code off against your database (confirming that it has not been used before, and can't be used again on a diff device) before unlocking the feature. This circumvents needing to get UUID's off people etc (which you can't do in code anymore to check against anyway), you just need an email address, send link, user clicks in it, your app opens and away you go :)
edit addition 28 Feb 2014..
an alternate approach might be to submit an separate paid version of the application in which all upgrades are unlocked because they are paid for upfront at purchase time. You may choose to keep this off the iTunes shelf but occasionally put it up, perhaps at a prohibitively high price, $1000 etc, because you can get the normal promo codes off Apple for this one to give to journalists etc, just explain what you are doing to them in your cover letter and I'm sure they'll be more than happy to play ball
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We have a paid iOS application in the AppStore currently. We are planning to convert it to a free application with in-app purchases. We would want to make the in-app purchases free to the users who have already paid for the application in the previous version. I think this can be done via App Receipt Validation. But will the receipt get updated once the application is converted from paid to free and will the purchase details get lost?
If you convert your app from paid to free, you are still able to inspect the receipt and see which version was originally downloaded and act accordingly.
When we did this in one of our titles, we implemented a three tier system:
We bumped the version of the save file. Any time we promoted from a save file with version <= X (where X is the last one that was on the premium version) we would award the appropriate IAPs (in our case we gave them a coin doubler, an ad disabler and a chunk of coins). You should use this simple mechanism for the majority of the users because receipt checking can require an internet connection, and your users might not be online the first time they boot after an update.
We had a 'restore IAP' button. You need this anyway on iOS if you have any non-consumable IAPs, but we additionally added a check of the App Store receipt which lets you discover whether or not the user originally paid for the game. Here's the tutorial we based our code on, we chose the easy way, but you might need to weigh that up against piracy concerns.
Our reimbursement system also checks a file that we host, which can give out extra coins/doubler unlocks/ad removers. If the receipt checking failed (we supported pre-iOS 7 so we couldn't rely on receipt checking APIs) then we could reimburse users that way if they contacted us. This is a good idea anyway, with luck you'll have a lot more users after you go free, which means more people who will discover some progress-losing bug in your app - it's good to be able to give them stuff in return.
Edit: I'd also recommend keeping track of the user's category in the save file. So, you might have 'free' users who have never paid anything, 'paid' users who downloaded for free but have bought some IAPs, 'premium' users who bought your app when it was paid, and 'premium+' users who bought your app when it was paid AND have since bought IAPs. Even if you don't need this info immediately, it's worth tracking for analytics and so that you can reward your old premium customers with free content in the future if you decide to do so.
As of about May 2014 this year, searching Google for "ios in app purchase promotion code", yields lots of news sites reporting the same thing - Apple seem to be working on allowing promotion codes for testing in-app purchases as evidenced by a screenshot from EA games.
My question is; does anybody know how to do this yet? I logged into the new iTunesConnect interface but can't find any link and nothing appears in the Apple docs from what I can find.
Ideally I'm looking to create a code for a monthly subscription but they may only be allowed for consumables. With the lack of actual info on IAP promo codes my guess is that the feature hasn't been officially made available yet and that EA games were invited by Apple to test it out.
As #Christoph Wimberge notes this is old news. Apple is now supporting this.
You cannot officially get promo codes for IAP currently. See here https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/iTunesConnect_Guide/Chapters/ProvidingPromoCodes.html . If you're testing then you should be creating Sandbox Testers under Users and Roles. Depending on how you handled the IAP this could well serve as a promo code of sorts. So, for instance, if you're using the IAP to set a flag in NSUserDefaults or a plist file then this will work as a promo code. You will have to instruct the user to log in as the test user for the purposes of the purchase. Even if you delete the test user once the flag is set the user can use the IAP so long as they don't completely remove the app and assuming you don't change the way IAPs are handled like using App Store digital receipts to confirm purchases. Of course, if you're worried about crackers then you're probably not going to store successful IAP as a flag especially in User Defaults where anyone can just change the value willy nilly. But for apps that aren't games this probably isn't a huge worry. Hope that helps.
We were told by Apple today that they never allow users to type in codes, use Q-codes, or other gateway key to access anything. Instead, she said we should use a members-only webpage (i.e., login required) to accept redemption codes and associate the content through our backend. When the user returns to the app, the content would be available.
If Apple enabled codes for IAP, you could offer sales of the codes from another platform, which would then unlock the IAP. Apple would be doing all of the work, but reaping none of the rewards. In addition, all of a sudden, you've created a knock off market for promotional codes, like g2a.com does for Steam keys.
While Apple might have the functionality, it seems exclusive to EA for now.
Currently, you'll need to figure out how to support promotional items outside of the app store.
We have a print magazine and we're going to release an app with subscription model, sort of kiosk app but with extended functionality.
Well, what we want is to solve the following cases:
Case 1 (complex)
User buys a print issue and discovers a promo code in it. This code should allow user to download free digital copy of this issue from our app.
User launches the app, opens a dialog box where he can enter the promo code.
Voila! User gets his free digital copy of purchased print issue.
Digital issue always remains in his list of purchased issues and is a valid purchased issue with all App Store options available for them (restore, etc.)
Case 2 (simple)
User does not have a print issue. He launches the app and buys the same digital issue using IAP.
So, both issues are the same (i.e. "blablabla magazine", November, 2014) but 1st was downloaded using a promo code, and 2nd was purchased with IAP, and they both should have the same properties and "weight" for App Store.
Problem is I don't know if this model will be approved by Apple. Or, if they do, how do I develop this? AFAIK, list of purchased and non-purchased items is provided by App Store and there's no way to intervene this process.
I didn't find any samples of using 3d party promo codes in iOS apps. Can anyone provide a solution for this, please?
Thanks
To keep a record of the promo code usage, I think the simpliest way to do it is to require an account. Once the user is logged with his account, you can tell a server that the promo code have been used with that account. If the user delete/reinstall your app, you will be able to restore all his promo codes from his account.
For your issue with IAP and promo codes, here is the App Store Review Guidelines
See the 11.16 section:
Apps may enable additional approved features or functionality when
used in combination with specific approved physical products (such as
a toy) as long as the additional features and functionality are either
completely dependent on such hardware (for example an App that is used
to control a telescope) or also available through the App without the
physical products, such as by way of reward for achievement or by use
of IAP
So basically, what you want to do shouldn't be rejected.
But by experience when you do something that borderline with Apple's money (possibility to "undercut" IAP), you should expect a review failure, whatever the guidelines review says.
Keep in mind that the guidelines can be interpreted in your advantage, or in you disadvantage.
Our app is moving from paid to free, and in the process, moving a key functionality from being included to activating via In-App purchase. Obviously, we don't want current users who paid for the app functionality to be charged again in the In-App purchase for functionality they already had. So on the update by the user, we want to 1) identify current users and 2) make it so they don't see the In-App purchase in the first place, sort of 'faking' the In-App purchase so that the app will appear to them exactly as it did before.
The app does not have a backend, so we have to determine current users from new by examining the saved user data fields for certain values. I do understand that if a previous user has deleted the app from their device that nothing can be done, and I don't mind charging them for the In-App purchase, since they never used the app anyway.
But for those current users who update and assuming we can examine the saved user data and determine that they are current users, what would be a good way to bypass the In-App purchase and make the app look like they already got it, when in fact they never paid for it? Thanks!
Here's what I would do - keep in mind this will take some time:
Set up a server (I prefer EC2) with mySQL on it. Plenty of tutorials about this.
Submit an update to your app that sends the user's UUID to your server.
Wait. This is the hardest part. You'll need to wait until satisfactory majority has updated to your app. That majority percentage is up to you to figure out. It could take months for this to happen.
Make your new, free, app send the UUID to the server.
Check to see if the UUID is in the DB.
If it is, set whatever you would have set when an in-app purchase was made to true.
You have several options:
Free in-app purchase for a limited time:
You would create a free tier in-app purchase content and release an update that somehow makes the user sign up for it. This way, when your user switches devices they can restore the purchase and regain the functionality.
Wait for a period so most people use the in-app purchase content
Change the tiers and release your app as free
Dual versions
Make a demo version of your app. Note this can be rejected by Apple.
Create a file in the filesystem
Make a file in the filesystem and save into iCloud. The app will check for the file and thats how you would determine if the user has paid for the app (or should buy the in-app purchase).
iCloud will synchronise the file between user's devices and it will make sure that whatever device the user uses the app will see the user as 'paid'.
I hope this helps, currently having this problem myself.
I have a client that needs to have its volunteers purchase an IAP (A data package that is downloaded), then somehow reimburse them. The problem is that there is no easy way to do this that I think Apple will approve of. Especially for over 1500 people. I've come up with several ways of doing this with their pros and cons, which one would be best to implement and does anyone have any other suggestions on how to do this?
1) Have the client send out iTunes gift cards via email. The IAP is $7, and you can't send a gift card less than $10. Also, they would have to send them one at a time, there is no way to send bulk. Not going to work
2) Create gift codes like iTunes gift cards. My client can purchase codes in bulk via IAP (so Apple still gets their money), and store them on my web server securely. I can then implement a system to send all the codes to a single email, or individually to multiple emails. Then the volunteers can use the codes to unlock that single IAP. This would be more work on my part, but easier for my client. Something tells me Apple probably would not approve of this method.
3) Create "Credits" that the client can purchase in bulk via IAP (so Apple still gets their money), then gift either the credits or send the IAP info itself to the volunteers via a p2p bluetooth connection created with game kit. This would be harder for the client, as they would have to send each "Credit" individually. But I think Apple would be more likely to approve this.
4) Have the client send me a list of UUIDs for each of the volunteers devices. I add the UUIDs to a secure list on my server. During the purchase the a check is preformed to see if the devices UUID matches one on my server. If it is, they are marked as "all ready paid" and given the IAP data. I don't know about this one, as the only way I can see the money transfer happening is myself getting paid directly, and Apple being left out (So they probably wouldn't approve of this. I have no problem giving Apple their 30% if I could find a way to get that to work with this.
I'd go with Option 5, and create my own IAP system. Much like Option 3, but bypassing Apple all together. Add a Custom URL Scheme to you application, give it to your client to distribute. When your app is launched by its Custom URL Scheme have it open to a promo code entry page.
Your client would be able to purchase/create codes as necessary via a website that you set up for them. You would then store the codes (or create an algorithm to check generated codes against), and validate the codes as the users enter them.
Then your clients users would enter their unique code and have everything unlocked/downloaded as needed.
I have done a similar set up with promo codes to unlock the full version of my applications so I could create my own promotions, without making the upgrades free for everyone by removing/altering the IAP.