Apple’s iOS 15.5 developer beta was launched 9to5Mac found that part of the code showed that the Reader App added support for third-party channel payment. In the past two years, the app stores of major companies such as Apple/Google, and whether in-app purchases should support external purchases (third-party payment channels) have become a major controversial issue in the technology industry.
Some users and most developers think they should support it because big companies’ commissions make them lose an income; of course, these big companies think they shouldn’t, except for the loss of revenue, the subsequent refunds of the app, bills and other issues make them Headache.
Compared with Google, the problem of Apple’s App Store is actually more prominent, because there was no third-party App channel such as iOS/iPad OS before. Apple previously proposed to support third-party payment channels, but the specific implementation process has been slower than expected, and today’s latest beta version of their operating system supports users to make external purchases is an important milestone.
Of course, due to the addition of third-party channels, some logic will change. For example, if the user deletes an externally purchased app, iOS will display a reminder indicating that purchases and subscriptions cannot be managed through the App Store – the App Store is very difficult to manage purchases in its own system. Clear, but Apple has no control over what content or apps users buy outside of its platform, so it’s important to alert users.
Internal iOS code analyzed by 9to5Mac also revealed that Apple is preparing to implement another reminder that will appear the first time a user opens an app that offers external purchases. However, it’s worth noting that this feature isn’t available for all apps.
App Store guidelines make it clear that “externally linked account authorization” only applies to “reader apps,” which are apps that offer digital content such as magazines, books, songs, or videos. At the same time, if you use third-party payment, you can no longer use the Apple platform to provide in-app purchases.
Earlier, Apple and Dutch regulators broke out a large “fine action”. Due to the requirements of Dutch regulators, dating apps need to support both Apple’s in-app purchase system and third-party payment systems. After being fined 50 million euros, Apple finally compromised.
There is no word on when the official version of iOS 15.5 will be released, but supporting third-party payment and purchasing apps should be a big change.
For users, if the developer takes 30% of the rake out of the profit. The third-party purchase channel maybe a little cheaper than Apple’s official system, but the two purchase channels are indeed easy to make subsequent subscription management more confusing.