Link Out for In-App Purchases | Hacker News Reader

Link Out for In-App Purchases

docs.stripe.com

34 pointsmfiguiere11 comments

Remember: this is only possible not thanks to Apple's good graces, but by:

- the EU Digital Markets act

- (in the US) Judge Yvonne‑Gonzalez Rogers’ final Epic v. Apple injunction https://www.theverge.com/news/660025/apple-changes-app-store...

I wonder whether the UX of this will lead to less sales than Apple Pay.

Certainly, but 30% less? Hmm. At least it should be possible to use Apple Pay for web to offset some of the difference.

15 if you’re “small”. And stripe takes 2-3%, and then you have some extra services for VAT handling and accounting. So in the end you’re talking about 10%

I’m more than happy to pay the extra 10% and have CLEAR terms for my purchase/subscription and be able to actually cancel with ease, instead of going through dark patterns.

An app author could make the in-app prices 300% more (or any amount) if they chose, right?

that's just a red flag to not pay for your app at all, similar to all the gyms that don't take credit cards and only accept preauthorized bank withdraws.

Sure they can. But at least they cannot do that without me knowing and without me being able to cancel it. No questions asked and no weird calculations. Apple also sends you renewal or expiry notifications. So a lingering subscription can be cancelled on time.

Most developers don’t do that (don’t wake up a sleeping dog, if that’s a saying).

One missed cancellation, and you’ve actually saved on all that “Apple tax”

> One missed cancellation, and you’ve actually saved on all that “Apple tax”

Even more reason that apps will try and push users to their own payment systems: automatic renewals, difficult cancellations, and more dark patterns. As a user, I'd happily pay an extra 10% for those protections through Apple, but I know I wouldn't pay 10x. Apps will be A/B testing their way to find exactly that profit maximizing threshold.

Soo the question is… who’s the bad guy now

Stripe supports Apple Pay, though. You can easily enable both Apple Pay and Google Wallet.

But since it is just the regular version of Apple Pay and not an in-app purchase it has different (lower) fees.

I assume you are referring to IAP not “Apple Pay” (it’s confusing, not as confusing as “Apple TV”, but still).

Apple Pay: Apple’s digital wallet, “free” to business and consumers (Apple takes a few points off the transaction)

IAP: Apple In App Purchase system that takes 30% (or 15% on subscriptions after 1 year OR if your revenue is <1M)

Apple Pay can be used inside apps today for no extra change as long as you aren’t selling digital content in your app (I do think). I’m guessing you can’t just start using Apple Pay in your app instead of IAP but you could link out to a web page that supports CC entry, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link, etc.

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