I'm working on apple server-to-server analytics system that verify apple transactions from my mobile apps. Is any way of getting price or region of InApp or LatestReceiptInfo from apple VerifyReceipt endpoint? Or maybe any other ways of getting price of consumable purchases and auto renewable subscriptions?
Related
Guideline 3.1.1 - Business - Payments - In-App Purchase
We still noticed that your app includes or accesses paid digital content, services, or functionality by means other than in-app purchase, which is not appropriate for the App Store. Specifically:
The courses can be purchased in the app using payment mechanisms other than in-app purchase.
- Your app accesses digital content purchased outside the app, such as , but that content isn't available to purchase using in-app purchase.
- Your app includes intermediary currencies, such as points, coins, or gems, without using in-app purchase. Please note that the cost of the intermediary currency cannot be included in the purchase price of the app.
- Once the user's free trial has expired, the subscription is not available for purchase using in-app purchase and the user is directed to payment mechanisms other than in-app purchase.
- Your app includes or accesses paid services for buying and selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs), or related paid services, such as minting, listing, or transferring, with mechanisms other than in-app purchase.
Next Steps
The paid digital content, services, or subscriptions included in or accessed by your app must be available for purchase using in-app purchase.
Apps that offer paid digital services and content across multiple platforms may allow customers to access the content they acquired outside the app as long as it is also available for purchase using in-app purchase. See Guideline 3.1.3(b) Multiplatform Services for more information.
If you have any additional information to provide regarding the digital content and services in your app and how the guidelines apply to them, please reply to this message in App Store Connect and let us know. If there is information you'd like us to consider in our review of future submissions, please feel free to include it in the App Review Information section of App Store Connect.
I've been looking for a way to add a monthly subscription with free trial to my product. I've noticed some apps, like Life360 (screenshot 1), do this through credit card billing rather than an iTunes account. I've searched all through the developer documentation and cannot find an API to allow a user to enter a credit card outside their iTunes account.
Is there an API for this?
You have to go through Apple for all credit card transactions if you want to be accepted in the App Store.
According to the App Store Review Guidelines, 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
And 11.3:
Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used
outside of the App will be rejected
So, yes, so-and-so does it, but you aren't so-and-so, so you probably will be rejected for doing it.
Apple frowns on this, in general, for non-physical merchandise. Chances are good your app will be rejected (and Life 360 might have just slipped through - it happens!)
There's definitely not a credit card API built into iOS. You'd need to use a third-party for your payment processing. Stripe is a popular one, and has a page on iOS integration: https://stripe.com/docs/mobile/ios
There isn't a built in API for this. You need to use a third party like Stripe. However by having a subscription system that does not go through the appstore you will likely be rejected.
Most apps that use content (news, magazines) will need to use in app purchases. Apps that provide a service such as insurance etc can usually be added by working with someone from Apple in order to get it into the app store such as Uber.
I want to make an app that lets a vendor sell gift cards through the app to the vendor's store. Does anyone know which PayPal SDK I would use?
I'm hoping for guidance based on experience here, which is easiest to work with and simplest.
Also does anyone know if there's a paypal alternative with an SDK?
Thanks!
Following on from my comment above, the rules are not clear and are therefore open to interpretation (and Apple's interpretation always supersedes anyone else's)
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
A gift card could be interpreted as a service, PayPal interpreted as a system other than IAP
11.3 Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the application will be rejected
Therefore you can't use IAP's to purchase your gift cards
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
Here external mechanism could easily refer to alternate payment providers, so that rules out using PayPal.
As you mention giftcards, the following clause may also be relevant as a gift card could be interpreted as a credit or even a virtual currency
11.4 Apps that use IAP to purchase credits or other currencies must consume those credits within the application
We want to sell digital content through subscription model in our app. Is it possible to support a subscription bundle? Let's say content in question is magazine subscription for $0.99 a month. Is it possible to support a bundle of subscription such that user can subscribe to any three magazine by buying a bundle for let's say $1.99? Or is it possible to support eat-all-you-can model - $3.99 for subscribing to all magazines in our app?
According to the official documents from Apple, yes you can. What you need to do is design your iAP store and items according to Apple's requirements.
Getting Started with In App Purchase
on iPhone OS (Version 2.0)
...
Subscriptions
Subscriptions and subscription
renewals to content or services can be
offered to customers for purchase. You
can offer customers the opportunity to
renew their content or service
subscriptions using In App Purchase,
but be sure to define a reasonable
renewal frequency to avoid bothering
users with unwelcome reminders. Be
aware that you are responsible for
both tracking subscription expirations
and for renewal billing; the App Store
does not monitor subscription duration
and does not offer an automatic
billing mechanism. Be sure to indicate
when an item is a subscription when
entering its product information into
iTunes Connect.
Both of these features are supported, they are called consumable and non-consumable in-app purchases.
Can an iPhone app allow a user to purchase a physical product (say a pen or a mouse) from inside an app, without using Apple in app purchase?
Is it allowed by Apple?
If yes, do you know any API that supports this?
Thanks
AJ
You are not permitted to sell physical goods or services using 'In-App Purchasing' since the goods purchased via this method must relate directly to the app using them.
You are free to implement your own payment handling system for selling physical goods though - for instace the PayPal API
If you already have a website for this purpose you could even forward them to that to take the payment - though this may reduce the quality of the user experience greatly.
Yes, but you can't use Apple payments to do it. All of the apps use their own payment processor to do it (Paypal, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments, etc).
They each have API's -- there is some code for PayPal in this question
Has anyone implemented the PayPal API through a native iPhone app?
You cannot use these mechanisms to deliver a digital good to the app (features or content), but you can use it for physical goods (as you wanted to).
Yes,
It is allowed to sell physical goods related to the app in-app on iOS and Android. Here is one interesting startup that handle logistics - http://www.sellinapp.com (for physical items). They use http://www.ZooZ.com as a payment gateway.
Hope this helps.
From Apple In App Purchase we can't able to purchase physical items or services, allowed only Digital Goods and services.
Ref:
https://developer.apple.com/in-app-purchase/In-App-Purchase-Guidelines.pdf
See 5th page.
Other than Apple , many third party gateway are there to do.
https://www.paypal.com/
http://www.sellinapp.com
http://www.zooz.com/
https://stripe.com/
http://www.ccavenue.com/
For PayPal SDK: https://github.com/paypal/PayPal-iOS-SDK/