Apple Finally Lets 'Reader' Apps Link Out to Sign-Up Pages
Many of the iPhone or iPad apps you use to read, listen to, or watch entertainment can now add a previously banned button allowing you to sign up for or manage an account on the web.
This news came in a Wednesday Apple developer post announcing that "reader apps"—defined as those primarily offering "magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, or video"—could add this obvious functionality.
Apple typically keeps 15% or 30% of digital transactions from iOS or iPadOS apps, even when the content purchased is a song, book, or video hosted elsewhere and Apple only processes a payment. As such, it has forbidden apps that charged for digital content from linking to sign-up or account-management web pages. Companies that didn’t want to let Apple collect that cut could work around this ban with instructions like this Kafka-esque line in Netflix’s app: “You can’t sign up for Netflix in the app. We know it’s a hassle.”
Apple previewed its change to this policy in September, when it settled a Japan Fair Trade Commission investigation and said it would extend the terms of that deal to developers everywhere. But the specifics of its new “External Link Account Entitlement” show Apple relaxing its control only slightly. Developers can only display one message above a link that may not include pricing details but must convey the following warning, as if it’s 1995 and you’re leaving AOL’s walled garden for the scary, wide-open web:
“You’re about to leave the app and go to an external website. You will no longer be transacting with Apple.”
“Any accounts or purchases made outside of this app will be managed by the developer '<Developer Name>.' Your App Store account, stored payment method, and related features, such as subscription
Read more on pcmag.com
