Tag: In-App Purchases

StoreKit now has API to get billing issues related to subscriptions and display them without leaving the application.

Operating system will provide default implementation to report billing issues.

Starting this summer, if an auto-renewable subscription doesn’t renew due to a billing issue, a system-provided sheet appears in your app with a prompt that lets customers update their payment method for their Apple ID. No action is required to adopt this feature. 

Apple Developer

Feature is available in iOS and iPadOS 16.4 and newer, Mac Catalyst apps also have access to this API.

StoreKit also provides messages and display to get billing issue messages and display them within application scene.

Apple Developer: Get ready to help customers resolve billing issues without leaving your app

Lucky episode of good reads today! And we've got a lot to cover on last day of March.

• Marcel Voss explains how to deal with new Swift features conditionally – Enabling Upcoming Swift Language Features;
  
  
• And good tip on source code checks for Swift features – SDK conditional code with canImport(module, _version: "1.2.3.4") by Marco Eidinger;
  
  
• How the relative size modifier interacts with stack views by Ole Begemann continues topic of complex layouts in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Keith Harrison explains sort options on SwiftUI tables – Custom Sort Comparators;
  
  
• How to change JSON keys by using Swift's CodingKey protocol by Natascha Fadeeva is covering Codable customizations;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov goes into details on new approaches of sharing content in SwiftUI – Sharing content in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Morphology in Swift by Jordan Morgan goes deep into Swift number localization techniques;
  
  
• Lee Kah Seng continues his series on Widgets – How to Hide Sensitive Widget Data When Device Is Locked?;
  
  
• Antoine van der Lee explains location debugging practices in simulator – Location Simulation in Xcode’s Simulator;
  
  
• How to fix "You are not authorized to make purchases of this InApp in Sandbox at this time" error by Sarun W. helps to fix development issues with in-app purchases;
  
  
• Leonardo Maia Pugliese provides extensive guide on persistence solutions for iOS apps – SQLite vs Core Data in iOS Development: Which One Should You Choose?

We're finishing with video by David Smith on design.

With this – have a great weekend and see you in April!

Apple is continuously implementing pricing tier updates announced in December. Now these update are applicable to app prices, all in-app purchase types.

On May 9, 2023, pricing for existing apps and one‑time in‑app purchases will be updated across all 175 App Store storefronts to take advantage of new enhanced global pricing. Unless developers explicitly update their price tiers for all storefronts, updates will be applied automatically based on US storefront prices. Developers are encouraged to update prices themselves.

Apple Developer: App Store pricing upgrades have expanded to all purchase types

App Store Connect: App Store Connect API 2.3

Apple announces another series of sessions with App Store team from February 28 til April 13. Sessions include topics on app marketing, product pages, user acquisition, design, subscriptions, in-app events.

Apple to host sessions in multiple languages and different time zones to allow more users to participate.

Apple Developer: Meet with App Store experts

Apple Developer Events: Meet with App Store experts (schedule)

Apple updated approach it provides for subscription grace periods. Duration of grace period is not could be set manually (previously it was hardcoded for each subscription duration).

Billing grace period could be existing paid renewals or all subscription renewals (existing paid renewals and free offers transitioning to paid renewals).

Apple Developer: App Store Connect Update

While RevenueCat provides SDK for using its service, some of its components could be used by apps which do not use the service.

Receipt validation API will allow to parse receipt file and gather all necessary information to get list of approved purchases and also verify overall validity of the receipt.

GitHub: purchases-ios

Reference: Introducing ReceiptParser for Apple Platforms

Recent certificate update still caused recent issues with receipt validation for developers. Old certificate expired February 7, 2023. And some apps still got receipts signed by expired certificate.

This caused in-app purchase validation issues. Issue is now resolved.

Reference: New WWDR Intermediate Certificate and Receipt Verification

It's almost 2023. This good reads list come a little early, so you'll have time to celebrate New Year :)

• ChatGPT makes another appearance in our good reads – Static vs Dynamic Frameworks on iOS — a discussion with ChatGPT by Trevor Elkins and Max Topolsky;
  
  
• Improving your publication automation scripts – Authorizing App Store Connect API requests by Natascha Fadeeva;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov shares his review of 2022 – iOS development trends in review;
  
  
• Enum explained in-depth with code examples in Swift by Antoine van der Lee covers multiple enum use cases in Swift;
  
  
• RevenueCat shares upcoming updates for App Store receipt validation – App Store receipt signing certificate changes in 2023;
  
  
• Another great hint on accessibility in SwiftUI by Natalia Panferova – Image accessibility labels from Localizable.strings files;
  
  
• And an interesting article on macOS Gatekeeper – Gatekeeper’s Achilles heel: Unearthing a macOS vulnerability by Jonathan Bar Or.

We'd like to finish this issue with our Holiday Special podcast episode.

Happy New Year!

Apple improves pricing approach for App Store apps and in-app purchases. Apple adds much more new price steps and conventions.

These new pricing enhancements will be available for apps offering auto-renewable subscriptions starting today, and for all other apps and in-app purchases in spring 2023, giving all developers unprecedented flexibility and control to price their products in 45 currencies throughout 175 storefronts.

Apple Newsroom

Also, developers will have control on local prices in different storefronts. Most of new capabilities will be available in spring 2023.

Apple Newsroom: Apple announces biggest upgrade to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

Apple Developer: Apple announces biggest upgrade to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points

Apple blocks Coinbase Wallet app from App Store due to NFT trading without use of In-app purchases.

Recent App Store Review Guidelines update forces apps to use Apple's mechanisms and treats NFTs as any other digital goods. Coinbase also could not update their NFT trading to use In-app purchases for now.

App Store: App Store Review Guidelines

Reference: Coinbase Wallet NFT Transfers Blocked From App Store