Apple has announced that it will now allow certain applications to use external links. This will allow them to display a link to a website so users can create or even manage an account outside of the Apple App Store.
The new rules, which come into effect today, allow developers of reader apps that are primarily intended to provide access to digital content, such as Netflix, Kindle or Spotify to link to their sites for things like managing or creating accounts, but also for payments.
Previous App Store guidelines previously prevented such apps from linking to their own websites. However, a recent US court decision had forced Apple to relax its rules on payment links external to the App Store, and developers therefore finally have the right to redirect their users to their own sites.
Apple allows paying Netflix and Spotify subscriptions outside the App Store
Apple’s new policy will allow reader app developers to entice their users to sign up from their own website. Therefore, companies will be able to avoid the payment system of the App Store; which until now took between 15 and 30% commission on sales.
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For its part, Google also launched a similar initiative a few days ago. Indeed, the American giant has announced that it has collaborated with Spotify to allow users to do without the Play Store to pay for their subscriptions. Thus, the application on Android will therefore have two separate buttons placed “side by side”; which will let users choose between the Spotify website and the Google Play Store to pay for their subscription.
We imagine that the operation will be quite similar on the Spotify application on iOS. Anyway, this is good news for developers, who will finally be able to generate more profits by freeing themselves from part of the commission they had to pay to Apple on purchases made. through the App Store.
Last year, Apple announced an update coming to the App Store in early 2022 that would allow developers of “reader” apps; to include an in-app link to their website for account creation and management purposes. Starting today, with the update of App Store Review guideline 3.1.3(a); developers of reader apps can now request access to the External Link Account Entitlement. This entitlement lets reader apps link to a website that is owned or maintained by the developer; so that users can create or manage their account outside of the app. Reader apps are apps that provide one or more of the following digital content types; magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, or video — as the primary functionality of the app.
