Apps have become a huge economy, but it’s almost impossible to understand the rules that govern them.
Apple and Google have twisted the 10-year-old rules of app stores like Pretzels to the point where they no longer make sense. This has led to the purchase of digital content in complex apps.
Example: In theory, it’s not yet realistic, but you can use your Amazon account to buy eBooks from the Kindle iPhone app. You cannot purchase ebooks with the Android version of the app. Until recently, Kindle purchases were virtually prohibited by Apple’s rules, but Google’s rules were fine. Now the opposite is true.
confusing? yes. Apple and Google have created long and complex guidelines for apps and frequently revise those rules to protect their interests. (I mentioned earlier that Apple’s app rules are much longer than the US Constitution.)
Want more buzz? It’s easy to subscribe to podcasts today with Patreon’s iPhone app. Apple will stand aside and allow Patreon to retrieve your personal information and credit card details.
However, purchasing other types of digital subscriptions can be quite different. Purchasing a platinum membership in the dating service Tinder on the iPhone app will effectively sign up for Apple, making Tinder a bystander.
Apple will receive a portion of that membership fee forever. If you want to quit, tell Apple instead of Tinder.
Some people buy a 6-month membership through the Tinder app for $ 14.99 per month, but buy it from the website for $ 13.50. (Price difference is Tinder’s way of partially recovering up to 30% of what you pay Apple for each app purchase.) Oh, and paying to use the dating app is immediately at Patreon. May work to pay — but Netherlands only..
For now, paying Tinder via an Android app is similar to how Patreon works. But that’s because Tinder’s parent company, Match Group, has urged Google to block changes to the company’s rules.
{Deep breath. }
You can get bored with the details of why Apple distinguishes between buying a subscription from Patreon and buying a subscription from Tinder. Why can’t I buy a paperback copy of 1984 from Amazon’s Android app, but not the ebook version, and why new Netflix subscribers could previously sign up from the Android app but can’t sign up now? There is logic. Or you can’t do certain things. It’s another pretzel twist.
I spent hours calling and researching to understand all the details of the paragraph you just read. If you need so many rules, exceptions, and explanations to buy things from your app in 2022, the logic of your app economy is probably illogical.
Over the years, some companies that create apps have been complaining about how Google, especially Apple, manages many aspects of this economy. Both determine which apps are easily downloadable from the app store and when to process purchases directly from the app.
If you use the app to buy things that exist in the real world, such as Uber rides or meal kit subscriptions, those purchases bypass Apple and Google. The battle is to buy things to use digitally, such as accessories used in smartphone app games and subscriptions to dating apps.
The problem is that the distinctions that seemed to make sense when Apple created the app store front in 2008 don’t always fit into the modern digital economy.
I’ve written before about YouTube video creators who don’t understand why Apple and Google are entitled to receive most (and in some cases forever) of the money fans pay through the app.
Zoom-In all ages, it makes sense to have different rules, as Apple wanted, for example, to buy a gym class to meet in person and a class to take virtually at home. Is it true? Why is it an app that sells digital subscriptions, rather than an app like Facebook that makes money from ads and provides most of the revenue to Apple and Google?
Also, the rules of your app change frequently, which adds to the complexity.
This month, Google has set stricter restrictions that require it to process and reduce more digital content purchases in the app.
Again, there are some implications behind all these pretzel twists. Apple and Google want to prevent major smartphone video games, the world’s largest money-makers in apps, from circumventing regulations and fees. And they say they’re trying to respond to complaints that they’re over-controlling or overburdening small businesses.
But the more Apple and Google make concessions to relieve angry governments and some angry developers, the more arbitrary their app store logic can look.
Before going …
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Mark Zuckerberg once said that protecting elections was his company’s top priority. My colleagues Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang report that Meta is currently shifting focus, but the risk of fake online election information remains.
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This stinks: Reuters spoke with college students who accepted jobs from technology companies such as Twitter, Coinbase, and Bolt. Those jobs have been cancelled When a company applies a rough patch. A recent college graduate said she might be forced to leave the United States because her job was yanked.
Previously from On Tech: Hiring technicians is still difficult..
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Super wide shot selfies that look distorted people are completely cool. So I write a certified young person, my colleague Kalley Huang.
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The baby octopus growing in the egg Creepy and wonderful..
