Multiple In-App Content Subscriptions

Question

RDT2 OP

Created Jun ’20

Replies 2

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Participants 2

I'm working on an app that enables publishers to provide their content through our platform.

I can't seem to find examples of other Apps where, when inside the app, users subscribe (and auto-renew) to various content streams.

Using a Digital News Stand as an Example:

News Stand App

- Publisher 1 (Subscribe for $1.99 / month with auto-renew)

- Publisher 2 (Subscribe for $1.99 / month with auto-renew)

- Publisher 3 (Subscribe for $1.99 / month with auto-renew)

By way of this example, the user chooses to subscribe only to "Publisher 1's" content. That subscription auto-renews on some recurrent basis. At any time, the same user can subscribe to "Publisher 3". New publishers are added and removed frequently. The user can choose to unsubscribe to any / all publishers at any time either in-app, web, or other platform.

This is a multi-platform app where the user can view those subscriptions across web/android/other. I think this falls into the reader app exception but still do not see a mechanism (or have found an example) for content specific auto-renewed in-app purchases.

Are you able to provide some assistance, please?

1) Are their such examples that you know of where an accepted App has similar features?

2) What mechanism of subscribing and auto-renewal is exists for this example and...

3) ... can this work cross-platform?

TIA

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Answer 1

PBK OP

Jun ’20

Apple has made provisions where users can purchase content outside of the app, not using IAP, and still use the content inside an app - they are called multiplatform apps and reader apps. There are various restrictions to each. I think you are not asking about those but about a more flexible autorenewable subscription.

Here are four ways of creating the flexibility that you want:

1) use a non-renewing subscription. Each renewal period ask the user what they want to renew - publisher 1 or 2 or 3. And if they want more than one, let them purchase more than one 'non-renewing subscription'.

2) Use generic products for the autorenewable subscriptions. Call them 'Subscription A' and 'Subscription B', etc. A user starts out with just one subscription - A. They can apply their A to any publisher and they can switch from one publisher to another. Your system handles which content the user gets given their one subscription. Apple will charge them for one subscription. If a user wants two publishers, they expand and purchase B. Apple will charge them for two subscriptions because they have purchased two different products. Again, your system decides which content stream they get given, now, that they have 2 streams available to them. If they decide to cancel one of the two subscriptions you cancel B. You can charge less for a B than an A.

3) There are 'groups' and 'levels' in autorenewable subscriptions. You could allow the user to upgrade within a group from '1 content stream' to '2 content streams'.

4) Create a different autorenewable subscription IAP product for each publisher.

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Answer 2

RDT2 OP

Jun ’20

Thank you for replying. This makes sense.

Number 4 seems the most straight forward for the end user, but I'm guessing that might not scale due to the required app updates and the manual process for setting up each new publisher. I have to look more into this. I'm als not sure this works in an tvOS environment, just iOS and it would need to be both.

The desire is to have the subscription auto renew vs. asking the a user to renew what could be 20 to 30 publishers each month (at different times of the month assuming no proration).

This was helpful. Thank you.

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