[ncw96]

Apple has a well known exception to the rule requiring an option to subscribe inside the app for “reader” apps, a vaguely defined which includes Netflix, Spotify, Dropbox, and seemingly whatever else is convenient to Apple.

Apple did not lift this requirement for the Hey email app during the controversy over that last year. Instead, they reached a compromise where Hey would offer a free trial of their service inside the app, so they could be in compliance with the rule that an app must have some functionality without an account.

[knubie]

What's maddening is that that "solution" isn't even informed by anything in their guidelines, and technically Hey is still not compliant according to 3.1.3(b).

> 3.1.3(b) Multiplatform Services: Apps that operate across multiple platforms may allow users to access content, subscriptions, or features they have acquired in your app on _other platforms or your web site_, including consumable items in multi-platform games, _provided those items are also available as in-app purchases within the app_.

And by that rule there are _many_ apps from big companies that violate App Store guidelines, yet they get a pass because Apple doesn't have has much leverage over those companies as they do with small independent developers.

[wvenable]

I'd like to see them try to enforce that rule with banking apps...

[ncw96]

Apple’s in-app purchase/subscription rules only apply to digital goods — not things like banks, Uber, food delivery, etc.

[hnick]

Where would a bitcoin exchange fall in this categorisation? I've seen BTC referred to as a digital good in some pieces.

[perryizgr8]

For me, banking is totally digital. I don't buy anything physical from my bank. Just online things.

[ogre_codes]

You have a banking subscription?

[mrloop]

I've got 2 bank accounts which i pay a monthly subscription fee. For instance https://monzo.com/i/monzo-plus/