I am new to In-App purchase feature in iOS.
I am working on an iOS app in which I'll be showcasing my products along with its price, and when the user wants to purchase a products he can do so by tapping on shopping cart, which will launch a web-view and displays my mobile webpage from where they can buy the selected product. My products are tangible and will be delivered outside the App.
My question is:
Do I need to implement In-App purchase, even if the user transaction is done in my mobile web-page?
If I have to implement Apple In-App purchase, how will I know if the user has purchased the product, so as to inform the Apple that a product has been purchased?
It really depends on the type of product you are selling. If it's a tangible good. i.e. a Plane ticket, or some other physical item. You can use your own payment mechanism. If it's something that can be consumed in the app, or could otherwise be conceivably delivered via Apple's IAP mechanism then you must use IAP. If you don't you will most likely be rejected.
To answer your questions. 1) If the transaction is done via the web, and is for a none-IAP type item as described above, then you cannot use IAP. 2) If you did have something that could be purchased via IAP, Apple is responsible for the transaction, and they take the typical 30% off the top.
Check out section 11 (specifically, 11.2 and 11.3) of the review guidelines
Apple will not allow you to direct the consumer to purchase something Within the app. Unless it is with an in app purchase.
The way we have gotten around this. is to let the user request information about it. or sign up an invoice. which will be delivered to their email address. and they can continue the purchase outside the app.
Apple has graciously accepted our app with this feature.
If you want them to provide a credit card number within the app, then you will need to use In app purchases instead.
Another way around this may be to have them sign up on your site and add a credit card for them to purchase with. And use that purchase method when the user buys something.
Not requiring them to put in their credit card on the app is I believe the main concern.
Related
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 am planning to use subscription (auto renew) type of in-app purchase. My idea is to allow one subscription per device. (i.e.) if someone purchase the subscription on iPhone, he shouldn't be able to use same subscription on iPad. Instead I want to force user to new subscription for other device. But from in-app purchase what i understood is that, if user subscribe for a particular item, if he tries to purchase the same thing again, app store allows to user to restore already purchased item.
As per my current setup, all the downloads will happen from a separate server and I am going to keep all the receipts and content in that server. In order to implement this particular thing, what should I do in my application? Could someone help me on this?
Also if I want to limit download of data from server using in-app purchase for only 3 device? Beyond 3 I want user to make payment via in-app purchase again? How will I do this?
Thanks
Apple's In-App Purchase Guidelines state that you must support restoring subscriptions to all of a user's devices (see page 7).
Also consider if your content is episodic (such as a TV show or magazine) because that's a requirement for using auto-renewing subscriptions. For things like time-limited access to a certain feature, like voice guidance in a navigation app, you'd need to use non-renewing subscriptions.
I am exploring options which would enable the user to make payments from within the Application.Right now i am aware of 2 options through which a user can make payments from within the App.
1 In-App Purchase (Already implemented).
2 Pay Pal (Exploring).
So is there any other way to implement purchases. Any links , APIs ,advices will be welcomed...
PS: I intend to release this app on US App Store.
Cheers.
I can tell you, that for an in-app purchases PayPal is most definitely a no go, but you will find this out by yourself :)
Apple will only accept payment for such activities through in app purchases, no other methods of payment are allowed.
There is a workaround for these type of purchases (especially PayPal); do them not within your app but from mobile Safari. That will work and is (for now) an accepted method used by more applications.
In app purchase is the only (reliable) way to do 'feature purchasing' and if you want to be in the App Store. If you want to accept donations, you can use in app purchase or PayPal in a UIWebView. There really isn't a whole lot of choice for it on the iPhone.
The reality of the situation is that you are going to want to use in app purchase. Users are going to be more willing to pay if they can just press a button and have it show up on their bill. If you use any other service, they're going to have to go get their credit card, etc... It'll just be ugly.
Another alternative is accepting funds through SMS. This may only be appropriate for donations to charities/non-profits. There are services for supporting SMS giving such as mGive (http://www.mgive.com/), Give on the Go (http://www.giveonthego.com/), or giveByCell (http://www.givebycell.com/).
I am new to credit card payment applications, I am developing an iPhone application which requires to take credit card payments from the user. In this application I am just providing a coupon to the user and if the user uses the coupon I just want to collect $1 from the user's credit card.
I have read In App Purchase guide but this doesn't suit for this requirement it seems since my coupons are just builtin-App products.
can anyone provide other method which best suits for my requirement or if IAPP suits for my requirement, how to approach.
some help will be appreciated.
I don't know how you are planning to distribute your app. Apple says it will reject almost any app that takes payments via anything other than in-App purchase. There may be some narrow exceptions, but you should take a very careful look at part 11 of their approval guidelines (from the link).
The easiest way is to implement in App purchase for every coupon and the in app purchase just unlocks the content(which must be stored in the application or downloaded from your server).
super easy.
But I would recommend you to implement a feature like buying credits for the app.
You can create an in App Purchase for let's say one (1$) 3, 3$) and so on. This can be send to your server(of course you need to make the billing management on your own) and the iPhone User can identify himself by an User Name and an Password to get access o their Credits and redeem them instantly in the App. In this Situation you could even extend your service by adding PayPal Payment(in an WebView inside the Application).
I Hope this helps. Good Luck.
I'd like to sell products through my application (insurance policies) and I don't want to use the in-app purchase mechanism as it would mean sharing 30% of the product price. Instead I would like to provide the user with a page to enter his/her credit card details and perform the credit clearing through my own self-developed secured services.
My question: is selling products which are not content or features, using my own purchasing system, prohibited by Apple or appstore policy?
Obviously, I am not a lawyer, but I think you’ll be OK. Here’s my interpretation of the three relevant rules from the developer guidelines (emphasis mine):
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.
11.3 Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the application will be rejected.
The first rule prohibits you from unlocking anything inside of your app with something other than the App Store. This would prevent you from, say, making a game that downloads new levels from your server based on your membership to a website.
The second rule prohibits you from, say, making a game and enabling PayPal in it to unlock more levels. Apple wants you to use in-app purchase for that.
The third rule—and this is where it gets interesting—prohibits you from using in-app purchase in an application to buy “physical goods” or “goods and services used outside of the application.” Nowhere does it say, however, that you can’t use other purchasing systems.
With that third rule, I think what Apple is saying is this: anything that runs on the iPhone must be purchased through the App Store, and everything purchased in the App Store must run on iOS. For something like insurance, which isn’t new functionality in the app, I think you’ll be OK. This is absolutely worth an e-mail to Apple’s technical support staff, but if you look at Amazon’s app, you can purchase physical goods using Amazon’s checkout system.
Quoting from Apple's Guidelines - 11.3 Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the application will be rejected.
So, you should be fine. This is validated by apps that are already in the Apple app store, such as Groupon, Fandango, Chegg and others that charge users credit cards for physical goods or goods consumed outside of the app without passing the transaction through Apple.
It would be great feedback for everyone to hear whether you had any difficulties with Apple when publishing your app or not.
11.10
Insurance applications must be free, in legal-compliance in the regions distributed, and cannot use IAP
https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html
Also read: http://www.quora.com/How-do-eBay-and-Groupon-get-around-Apples-in-app-purchase-system-despite-being-native-apps
In general you can sell physical products via an app. You cannot however use the InAppPurchase mechanism for this, but are required to use your own payment mechanism.
Ruling on this seems somewhat unclear from the guidelines. Would be interestig to hear whether your app got accepted.
We just recently submitted an app that featured in-app purchase of non-digital goods and everything went through without issue. Take a look at the following to get more insight:
Does Apple test purchase of physical goods during their app approval process?