Critical Warning for External Purchases in Apple App Store
49 comments
·May 15, 2025seydor
urbandw311er
Yes, they do have a personal, well documented beef about this.
figassis
At this point it’s probably existential. They AB test this and see immediate and drastic impact on revenue so they do them.
disgruntledphd2
Yeah, the market loves growth and services have been their growth lately so that being hit is a big deal for the stock price (and execs are bonused on stock price).
Additionally, because they control all of the payments on iOS they can provide much better targeting to advertisers for purchases, which open payment processes would reduce the value of.
But they've played this so badly that they are going to lose most of their app store revenue at this point. Sucks to be them I guess.
throwaway290
It's definitely existential if they DON'T put a warning because then it undermines the core promise for which they charge (security/privacy)
Zoethink
[dead]
AnonHP
Hopefully the EU shames Apple and threatens with more fines for this “malicious compliance”.
Warning: potentially inflammatory content ahead.
AFAIK, Eddy Cue is the one responsible for all this. He’s known to be a shrewd negotiator (with Hollywood studios and such), but the App Store has been a disaster for developers in many ways (as well as users, in some ways) for a very long time. Tim Cook has trusted lieutenants who shouldn’t be, and gotten rid of those who could’ve done a little better (Scott Forstall, I believe, was one of those).
lapcat
> AFAIK, Eddy Cue is the one responsible for all this.
Incorrect. "To hide the truth, Vice-President of Finance, Alex Roman, outright lied under oath. Internally, Phillip Schiller had advocated that Apple comply with the Injunction, but Tim Cook ignored Schiller and instead allowed Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri and his finance team to convince him otherwise." https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.36...
3D30497420
Screenshot of the warning: https://nitter.net/pic/orig/media%2FGqxWbH8WgAAPx8L.jpg
tentacleuno
For what it's worth, that link doesn't seem to work anymore.
Here's an article which does show what the warning looks like: https://www.theverge.com/news/667484/apple-eu-ios-app-store-...
xx_ns
Works over here.
tentacleuno
That's strange, it does seem to work now. When I posted my comment, the link returned a 404 error.
qiqitori
TBH that doesn't look or sound so bad.
I'd personally use a palm tree or coffee icon for this kind of message. But it is kind of alarming that Apple allows external payments now!! That's like... hell freezing over, or Dracula donating blood.
OsrsNeedsf2P
They have obviously tested it and found that it deters their users from installing the app, otherwise they wouldn't have done it.
I don't blame them for doing it, but as someone who spent years doing App Store Optimization (ASO), I can assure you this would tank your conversion rates.
conartist6
So it would be fair to say they're going for round two in trying to sidestep the intent of the judicial order not to hinder competition?
I only ask because the judge took a bite out of them the first time they did exactly that.
shash7
Nah it's pretty bad. Me and you are in the tech sphere and we know the backstory.
But imagine mom or dad viewing this screenshot and getting creeped out because of the red icon.
nlitened
But imagine the flashlight apps and mindless-tapper games that subscribe some mom’s credit card to a 9.95 USD/day charge without an easy way to cancel?
I am pretty sure that mom would be upset that her “iPhone” keeps stealing her money
Edit: my fears may be overblown, but I am so happy that since getting my mom an iPhone and iPad many years ago, any need for my “computer guy” technical support has vanished.
akmarinov
Wonder if they’ll put that warning on bank apps? What’s the difference after all?
It’s looking like Tim Cook should wrap up and let someone like Schiller take over
xnx
Does Apple display this message when an app includes both Apple and non-Apple payments? If that were the case, it would make sense to support Apple payments at 10x the price.
fundatus
So, the Amazon app doesn't get this warning, even though it also only uses "external purchases", because somehow according to Apple it's only unsafe for digital goods? Give me a break..
Avamander
Well, to be a devil's advocate here a second, Amazon can probably be trusted more with using their own payment system.
With random apps there's really no good indication that the system they use is okay. It's not like you can see a legit URL bar or anything in apps.
lapcat
This has nothing to do with the trustworthiness of the app and everything to do with the European Union Digital Markets App mandate. Every app that's using the new EU rules is getting the warning.
Indeed the warning has a link to the document "About alternative payment options on the App Store in the European Union" https://apps.apple.com/ie/story/id1726640865
goosedragons
Apple has always allowed physical good sellers to use external payment systems. Even complete nobodies you've never heard of. It's always made their rules seem ridiculous IMO.
klabb3
Yes you can. On iPhone the recommend ”secure webview” shows the domain name in bold at the top.
In general, this embedded webview seems very easily spoofable to me, but that’s a separate problem. Both Android and Apple have determined this is the most secure way to auth against third parties. It’s the standard way to sign in with oauth etc.
figassis
It would be amazing if someone like setapp signed up iOS apps to their service, so you could now have apps that did not rely on individual subscriptions, solving the subscription fatigue issue and the in app advertising issue, especially for kids apps.
CharlesW
Setapp has supported iOS with a healthy selection of apps since 2020.
cadamsdotcom
Won’t stop til the US gov starts enforcing anti monopoly laws.
Best backup plan is EU laws that basically target these monopoly players directly.
seviu
The EU laws are indirectly hurting the small developers though by establishing frameworks of usage which are impossible to follow.
Best example is Apple, which got away with DMA by just doing the bare minimum and inflicting max damage anyway.
tpxl
> The EU laws are indirectly hurting the small developers though by establishing frameworks of usage which are impossible to follow.
What are the frameworks of usage impossible to follow? People can't release stuff on the apple app store anymore?
Apple did not get away with their (un)implementation of DMA, they got spanked and will continue being spanked until they actually comply. What is the 'max damage' they inflicted?
sabellito
Small, medium and large developers don't have anything to do with DMA. It's applied only to the giants.
OsrsNeedsf2P
Is this Apple PR? Because I worked at numerous indie dev companies (under 10 people) and they celebrated all these changes
IsTom
For some reason there is always a demographic of people who have a need to defend big corps, like they don't defend themselves already.
akie
Very unsurprising, but still disappointing, that Apple resorts to scare mongering for apps that don't want to pay the 30% Apple tax.
pcardoso
I agree. And between these practices, ads everywhere for services such as Apple TV+, Music, iCloud storage, etc and some feeling that software quality is declining and focused on fluff (emojis, etc) I have decided to start looking around for alternatives but it won't be easy...
seviu
They scared the good app developers away. That 30% means making a living out of selling apps is nearly impossible. For an indie developer it’s just dead.
A clear example is the Vision Pro. Developer relations were menacing app developers that they would regret not building for it.
One year later, half a million headsets sold, and nobody in my circle has even the slightest interest in developing apps for it. I should know because I am an iOS developer, now working for a bank, and enjoying it, but no longer pursuing the indie dream.
Crickets
Apple maximized its strategy for maximum profit extraction. They have all the rights to do it. It’s, after all, their product. And they keep on doing it by selling devices which are fully managed by them, disallowing the usage of APIs that would make their devices way more usable. All this with full disdain for app developers.
As I said, they have all their right to enforce that 30% rule and show scare banners all over the place.
But the damage is done. And the trust is lost.
kruuuder
> That 30% means making a living out of selling apps is nearly impossible. For an indie developer it’s just dead.
Not at all trying to defend Apple's behavior here, but that statement is not true. There are many indie devs making a living from apps. Margins in indie apps are usually very high, as in most cases the expenses are fixed - just your own salary.
AStonesThrow
> as in most cases the expenses are fixed - just your own salary.
It sounds like you are hiding costs of overhead. What about rent for your workplace (whether it is your home, a coffeehouse, or WeWork) and your utilities, especially electric power and Internet access, and your HW/SW tools, including your notebook, monitors, accessories.
Don’t hide your externalities naïvely like an Uber driver.
JimDabell
> That 30% means making a living out of selling apps is nearly impossible. For an indie developer it’s just dead.
Almost all developers get charged 15%. Only the tiny minority earning more than a million dollars a year are charged 30%.
OsrsNeedsf2P
> They scared the good app developers away. That 30% means making a living out of selling apps is nearly impossible. For an indie developer it’s just dead.
This doesn't even make sense, most provably by the fact you stopped being an indie dev long before Apple was forced to drop its 30%
rini17
They don't have "all the rights" btw. We have agreed that monopolies should not have the right to exist, 100 years ago already. Building bigger and bigger moats moves us away from the "enlightened self-interest" that should be the positive motivation for capitalism.
seviu
I still think they have full right to charge an amount. Apple doesn’t hold a monopoly.
That 30% is however ridiculous. But they can raise it to 90% if they want to find out. The user is not really hurt, just the developer. Eventually they won’t have developers.
No apps, no iPhone.
Not sure what the monopolistic take is. There is a lot of alternative smartphones with way more ram and great specs, that rival the best iPhone.
I live in Europe though, and over here Android dominates the market, and people use WhatsApp for messaging. A totally different world.
Fizzadar
I’m done with iOS, apples endless anti user/developer bullshit has pushed me over the edge. For my next phone I’ll be moving back to Android-ish something sans google components.
The same process is happening to macOS too, but at least Linux is an easy switch there.
relistan
Bad for everyone, but not surprising at this point.
Why is apple pulling these silly cards, do they have a personal beef or something??
They achieve precisely the opposite of what they think. People will learn to associate that warning with "oh good this app is cheaper than the competition".
People are so accustomed to dismiss "warnings" ,especially when there are going to be so many of them