In applications and trial runs?

Question

I am creating an application for a client who will have 30 days of free content, after which you must buy a subscription through purchases in the application store.

However, I read that you will be rejected if you have trials.

Do not set a time limit on any functionality of your application, either for runtime or lifetime. Applications that run only to dial the number of minutes per session, or that expire completely after some period of time, do not hire customers in the same way as leaving a bad taste in their mouths.

Finally, they also say that "your application will be returned to you by the application review team for changes if it has time limits."

This seems odd because I know that Guardian and all major newspaper apps have limited functionality.

• The Guardian app is free, but do you get limited functionality?
• The daily app is free, but you have to pay for daily subscriptions and has limited functionality for the duration of your subscription.
• The Times app is free, but it's a free trial (many) complaints about it)

There are other examples that seem to differ from Apple policies.

Suppose you have a free application, but you need to pay for a subscription in order to gain access; however, according to the rules, this is considered limited functionality, but there are many newspaper applications that do just that.

I am embarrassed.

Can someone clarify the situation? Can applications be tested?

thanks

Answer 1

It is difficult to clarify the situation because, unfortunately, the guidelines are not necessarily set in stone. They can and depend on the application and publisher.

In the case of The Times and The Daily, both applications are created by News Corp. Perhaps we can say that News Corp has a much greater impact on Apple than on one person creating an iPhone game. Apple will not want to admit this, but there are obvious cases of using popular applications in the store that do not comply with recommendations in which they tacitly made an exception.

So I would tell you: be reasonable. You do not have an application that automatically terminates when the trial period ends. Think what will be acceptable to users. This is a very important case when nothing dared, won nothing. Take the risk, submit your app with a limited trial and see what happens.

Answer 2

I think you are mixing “content” and “functionality”.

You can deliver content items (for example, a magazine number) for free, or the user must pay for them - so the first n issues or all issues in a certain period of time can be free, while the rest must be paid. But if the user has purchased any item of content before, you will have to re-deliver it for free.

You can also sell functions (for example, searching the journal archive). But you cannot give this to the user for free for a certain time, and they make him pay.

So, the general rule is this: no matter what the user receives from you, you cannot take it from him and force him to buy again.

Answer 3

Using the Guardian application, we needed to provide an application in which you always received at least fresh content if you used the free version. Subscription opens up more content for the user.

Answer 4

There are many free apps that provide limited functionality. They do not provide a time frame, though (or at least they should not). I assume that it will not be as clear as accepting or rejecting Apple, because I came across an application that closes after 10 minutes, opening a web page to purchase it (closing the application is also against the Apple Human Interface Recommendations, since the application never should end).

Answer 5

guidelines mentions that this is only allowed for certain types of content:

11.9 Applications containing content or services that expire after a limited time will be rejected, with the exception of certain approved content (for example, movies, television programs, music, books).

11.15 Applications can only use automatic renewal of subscriptions to periodicals (newspapers, magazines), business applications (enterprises, productivity, professional creative, cloud storage) and multimedia applications (video, audio, voice) or the application will be rejected