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Comment by gizmo | Hacker News Reader

Hold up, the point of the trial is so people can try the app for free. Then, after having tried the app, users can choose to pay. Or not.

There is no issue about misleading customers here, because many apps promise features that don't work well or have other problems and the only ways for the user to figure out if an app is worth it is by (a) reading reviews and (b) trying it, and that will result in an informed decision. What's the difference between misleading users about functionality and misleading them about price? In both cases you're wasting your users' time and in both cases they'll ultimately choose not to buy.

What Apple is doing here is moving the purchase decision forward, to the point where the user knows practically nothing about the product. How can you make an informed decision if all you've seen are a couple of screenshots and some vague list of features on the App store page?

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Because Apple forbids an app to be disabled or not function, if the customer chooses no, what happens? It’s disabled.

Okay, then what happens to the app when your subscription renewal fails when your CC expires?

And what happens if you drop your phone, and it's being repaired so you haven't used the app for the full trial?

And what if say, a Sasquatch, steals your phone, and your wallet, and he's using the app and delighted by it, by you've never used that app but you're still going to be charged?

What happens if the universe ends?

Apple must account for this scenarios!

The things you're describing are rare. A credit card expiring is not rare at all.

What were you hoping to prove here?

That keeping your credit card updated is your responsibility, not related with the merits of auto-renewing subscriptions or not.

I believe that there is a grace period for billing: https://www.macrumors.com/2019/09/12/apple-app-store-subscri...

Nobody has answered the question yet.

Since you can't be guaranteed to be able to bill someone forever, an expired CC being an obvious example, how does an app not break the rule of "Because Apple forbids an app to be disabled or not function".

I mean, the app surely doesn't uninstall itself or give you free access forever.

If there’s no valid subscription it would all you to subscribe...

So you get stuck in a "please resubscribe" modal when you launch the app?

The rule must be "Apple forbids an app to be disabled or not function without displaying Apple's subscription chrome" which makes sense then.

This is an edge case, so Apple may just pop up an error and actually allow that as that is not the developers fault

When you submit your app, you can specify a grace period that allows the app to work while the payment gets sorted out. For apps that bill at least monthly, the grace period is 16 days.

>What Apple is doing here is moving the purchase decision forward, to the point where the user knows practically nothing about the product. How can you make an informed decision if all you've seen are a couple of screenshots and some vague list of features on the App store page?

No, what they're doing is they turn:

"I tried this app and I want to keep it, so I click before/after trial ends to be charged with the subscription"

into:

"I tried this app and I don't want it, so I click to cancel the trial anytime before it ends, not to be charged for a subscription".

In other words, they don't forbid trials.

Actually this whole thing is not even about auto-renewal or not, it's about apps using their subscription methods/apis. Tomorrow they might chose to forbid auto-renewal across the board just as well, but they will still insist apps use their subscription method.

What they're doing is making it so people have to actively remember to cancel a trial. If you're not even using the app, it would be very easy to forget to cancel. If you regularly use it, you'd notice that the trial ended, and can pay for the subscription if you'd like.

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