You literally cannot even inform the user that there is another way for them to pay.
This is shitty. Apple benefits from developers making great apps on their platform, just as developers benefit from being on their platform. It's a symbiotic relationship, but Apple takes up to 30% of your profit which does not feel respectful of what developers are bringing to the table, which is often Apple first, quality apps.
Apple is saying that because Hey offers a subscription elsewhere, Hey should provide an in-app purchase as well, despite other apps not being forced to do this.
They take 30% of your gross revenue. If you spent $x on development and marketing of your app, and generated $1.5x from iOS, they take away $0.45x and you're left with $1.05x which is actually a lot worse than if they only took 30% of your profit, which would be $0.15x.
Letting apps link out to websites for paywalls circumvents all of this. If I was in Apple's position I'd limit that as well.
If you're using, say, Stripe for your payment processing then you can offer the user a choice if they'd pay through Stripe or Apple pay. If you do not have your own payment processor for mobile payments, then you use only Apple pay. If you do, then you have to include Apple as an option.
I've been releasing apps with this in the past few years, it's been a requirement all along.
I was just opposing the statement that you cannot offer another way of payment in an iOS app, that part is just not true.
No, you cannot use Stripe for software subscriptions. Stripe (non-Apple pay) can only be used for physical goods, or sale of services rendered outside of iOS/MacOS.
In other words, can only be used for non-digital sales. The context of this conversation is the Hey app, which is a software subscription, so no... there is no other way to pay.