Can I implement my own free trial in Auto Renewable Subscriptions?

Yes, you can unlock special features code for a period of time and then lock that up again after an introductory period.

Your app must do something after the free introductory period - it must operate as a 'lite' version.

You can use the keychain which is device specific and user agnostic. Or you can use the user's iCloud key-value file which is user specific (Apple ID) and device agnostic. In the second case, using the user's iCloud key-value file, if they are not connected to an iCloud account don't unlock the code and tell them to log into iCloud. Most users are logged into iCloud.

My App was rejected because: "We noticed that your app offers a free trial without implementing the offer in App Store Connect."

I asked the reviewers to show me the documents where it states that it is mandatory to implement that in App Store Connect.Waiting for an answer.

What I did:

- Save first launch date in Keychain (locally)

- In the subscription viewController I show: Free until <calculated date 30 days after first launch>

- Before starting the feature, I check:

- If free period not over: Do it

- If free period over: Check Subscription

Sounds like a valid architecture, right?

I just want to avoid scaring people away who so not like to commit to something yet.

Thanks for your comment!

Kind regards,

Wouter

>where it states that it is mandatory

Seen 3.1.1 In-App Purchase in the ASRGs?

I would certainly appeal the rejection, as you have, stating that although you could use the free trial in autorenewable you have chosen not to do that. I might point out that the free trial is free and available to all users of the app and that no unlock key or QR Code is being used - hence it is consistent with the intent of the Guidelines. You might also point out that you believe the free-trial-period in an autorenewable subscription is subject to an easy hack by simply creating and using multiple user accounts on the App Store.

Or....just give in a add a free trial to your autorenewable subscription.

I believe that is the way to go.

I have uploaded a new version with some fixes, but no changes to the Free Period.

Also, I added some text to the Review Information like you mentioned.

If they still refuse, I will appeal once. If they persist, I will give in :-(

Thanks for thinking with me!

Kind regards,

Wouter Wessels

This has just happened to me now. I didn't want to scare away users with an automatically billable free trial so I implemented my own way and they rejected it with this reason:

"We noticed that your app offers a free trial without implementing the offer in App Store Connect. Offering free trials through App Store Connect ensures that when the free trial period is over, the user will automatically be billed (unless the user has cancelled the subscription).

Next Steps

To resolve this issue, please use App Store Connect to implement free trials."

My app has a lite version and a pro version. Users try the pro version for 2 months before switching back to the lite version if they don't subscribe.

How did your appeal work? Did you have to give in?

Another approach I just realized may be to offer a newly described in 3.1.1 "Non-Consumable IAP item at Price Tier 0 ... 'XX-day Trial' in addition to an autorenewable (without a free trial). I do not know if the autorenewable will satisfy App Reviews requirement that the 'tier 0' be paired with a permanent non-consumable IAP. I think you could use the receipt's original_purchase_date field to determine the purchase date even if the user repurchased the tier 0 for free.

I have just run into this as well for a submission I did today. We didn't use the app store connect route as we are offerring both a time and a usage type trial and give the user the option of choosing which is best for them. While we might be able to do the time based trial in app store connect, the usage based trial is not possible. For our app, the app is fully functional until the trial runs out. At that point, all the functionality of the app is still present, but the user cannot add any more data. If they wish to purchase a subscription, they can and the app will open up to data entry again. This seems like a pretty standard use case and is also used by some of competitors that also dont use the App store connect introductory offers. Has anyone successfuly worked through this or fought it?

You can implement the two free trials using three IAP procudts this way:

Check the receipt to be sure the user has not already made an IAP purchase.

If they have not, let the user chose which one they want, free time or free usage.

If they chose free time let them purchase IAP1, an autorenewable IAP with a free trial.

If they chose free usage let them purchase IAP2, a tier 0 non-consumable IAP that grants them the usage

If they have made an IAP purchase then only show them the following IAPs for purchase

if they have already purchased IAP1, only let them purchase IAP1 again (Only relevant of they let the subscription expire)

if they have already purchased IAP2 then only let them purchase IAP3, an autorenewable subscription with no free trial.

Thank you for the information. Its a good suggestion and somethign we could do, but it is also a lot more complicated than offerring a single IAP after managing our trial ourselves.

I am curious if this is a recent change from apple and if anyone has been able to fight it via an appeal. As everyone else above, to me the guidlines do not explicitly say that free trials have to be configured as part of an IAP via a introductory offer, etc. We had three verisons of the app that are exactly the same to the version that was just rejected in terms of their ability to offer a free trial. For the approved versions, new users are prompted to pick a trial and it is now that onboarding screen that is being flagged as an example of the problem. Now it seems as though the review is just looking for the words "Free Trial" and if they exist, and then failing the submission.

At this point, it is not as simple as adding a free trial/introductory offer to our yearly subscription. We added a two week trial to our existing IAP, but are still being rejected. I am guessing this is becuase the trial period for the IAP is different than what is offered to the user during onboarding.

What is very frustrating is that we have competitors that do exactly what we want to do (and what we used to do), but either got their versions in before this change or have found another way around the issue. Changes like this on apples part, really make the playing field unlevel and uncompeditive. Luckily we have a version approved, but have some great new features and bug fixes we want to get out there.

Have you (or anyone else on the thread) successfully appealed this type of rejection?

We were able to get a version of our application approved that used a non-consumable Tier 0 IAP for the free trial. Once the trial period is done, the user has the option to purchase the yearly subscription, but it is strictly opt in. Unfortunately, although that version was approved, a subsequent bug fix release that made no changes to how the trial is setup or presented was rejected with the reason that we are potentially trying to mislead the user. The kicker is the screen shots provided are the Apple provided confirmation dialogs for the free trial IAP. Currently trying to get more information and will try to appeal things if that does not work. Truly a frustrating process.

@robGTS We've also ran into similar issues, actually pretty common. It's really frustrating dealing with Apple Review. They're rules can be vague and enforcement very inconsistent. Most recently we had a back-and-forth on locking our app to members only, while providing a free interactive demo. Many competitors don't even allow app access without creating an account, while we had created a full demo. Got rejected and went back and forth for a week or two before they approved.

Now we're working on migrating from an IAP free trial using Intro Offers to a Software Trial. Reasons: 1) We want to enable several trials on the fly and on demand for our non-paying users for cases where we add new features and want to give them a second try. 2) We want the trial users that did not upgrade the chance to upgrade at a later time using another intro offer through sales events providing discounted subs, and 3) We want a more seamless onboarding process of getting customers into our Pro App without opting into a paid subscription with trial.

Has anyone had success with a "software trial" without using IAP on this topic lately, or are we pretty much doomed to get rejected?

I've done this by pricing the app at zero dollars and implementing an IAP for whatever you want the subscription to be. That means you have to put in the free trial period code that saves initial install date and times out after the trial period ends and disabling the app after the trial period ends.

Hi, has anyone found a good solution for this? I want to offer a free trial without asking users to commit.