Periodic iOS subscription policy for service, not content

Question

Sorry for the policy in advance, not for the programming question, but given the lack of information available on the Internet, I hope that they can forgive me for her request.

I would like to use Apple's new recurring subscriptions in the iOS app. I used to have encrypted payments and there are no problems there, but I can’t find any instructions on what is allowed by the type of new subscription. The implication seems to be that there is no specific guide, however all the discussions that I can find are talking about content providers, not service providers.

I would like to use a recurring service subscription to which people subscribe. I do not offer any content as such.

Using the old type of subscription without updating (it’s really so broken that it’s not worth using), I’m 99% sure that the application will be accepted, but all the talk about content providers bothers me that Apple really don’t want SAAS providers We used a repeating subscription model and wanted to limit it to content publishers.

Does anyone have experience using a new payment model for software as a service?

I would like to receive more detailed information on whether it will be viable or not, before we build the whole payment solution around the concept!

Answer 1

I'm sorry that I come to this a little late, but I have an answer to this question.

Mostly about a month ago, I sent my application and it was rejected for not including iAP, as it links to our SAAS website for users to set up their subscriptions. So I went and implemented Auto-Renwing subscriptions. It didn’t hold me for too long and worked fine from testing. So I resubmitted. and again was refused.

We found that the Purchase Type for one or more of your In-App Purchase products was not installed correctly, which does not comply with the App Store Review Guide.

Cloud books have automatic subscription renewal.

Depending on the functionality of the product, it would be more appropriate to use a non-renewable in-app purchase subscription. An auto-renewable subscription product is best suited for applications that require dynamic or frequently changing content, such as digital periodicals or radio subscriptions.

Although creating an iAP product has a small line that says the following:

Non-returning subscriptions may still be offered, but automatically renewable subscriptions are now preferred for the following reasons:

Thus, in my experience, auto-updating is NOT allowed for SAAS.

Answer 2

I think that the policy of automatic renewal of subscriptions on iOS may have changed recently, but it is tough because there is still a lot of old information and feedback from developers. Marco Arment's blog says a lot about politics here and here , but it's from 2012 and 2013

At the moment (mid-2014), based on what I managed to collect, the corresponding policy has changed compared to this:

“Applications that use IAP to purchase goods need to be assigned the correct type of purchase. App-In-App Purchasing is currently an auto-renewable subscription. However, it would be more advisable to use a non-renewable In-App Purchase subscription. Auto-Renewable Subscriptions are for periodic applications such as magazines and newspapers. "

to that:

Applications can use auto-renewal of subscriptions only for periodicals (newspapers, magazines), business applications (corporate, production, professional announcements, cloud storage) and multimedia applications (video, audio, voice), otherwise the application will be rejected.

Thus, it seems that the old restriction, which was mainly focused on periodicals, is now extended to many other use cases. There are a number of open source applications, such as Evernote, that have switched to automatic updates.

Source: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/

Answer 3

If I understand your question, you are offering “another month of this service” as a subscription item. This will be a common model for subscription based games, etc. Probably your best indicator of whether or not it is allowed is to search for other applications that do this.

Also, don't be afraid to contact Apple! They are not monsters, but they do answer questions! You can send technical support by e-mail or, if this does not help you answer, ask to speak with one of the Apple iOS biz-dev managers. They have people whose job it is to help you succeed in your business. If they do not know the answer, they will find it; if the answer is no, they will help you find ways to do something similar. They are quite friendly and familiar, like a brilliant bar dedicated to the business of iOS applications.

Let us know what you found out!

Answer 4

As I mentioned in my comment on @Joe Meredith's answer, I got a similar deviation. Although I thought this was due to an unwritten rule, I just noticed that this Hacker News commentator found a written rule that explicitly states that

Applications containing a “rental” of content or services that expire after a limited time will be rejected