God. I just stopped opening the play store. Everything is ads and autoplaying videos. I added the update shortcut to homescreen to go straight to updates
Sadly the App Store also has ads and no way to deep link to updates.
It’s possible, just not obvious. Create a Shortcut with the “Open URL” action and point it to “itms-apps://apps.apple.com/updates”
You can then add the shortcut to your home screen, run it from the shortcuts widget, via search, etc.
This is really sad. On the one hand, sure Apple should be able to make a cut on their app store, on the other hand, they shouldn't be allowed to force apps to do this sort of thing. This will only drive domain prices higher on iOS in order to compensate (in the case of Automattic). If I were in a position where Apple is forcing me to pay a 30% tax, I would literally add "30% Apple Tax" to the check out screen on top…
pretty sure you have to offer the same price as on your website if you offer IAP. it’s one more of the developer unfriendly move of the developer program, alongside that you cannot even hint that you can purchase or subscribe somewhere else.
I think Apple only restricts how you can tell people about lower prices, but I forget the details. Pretty sure you can't include in-app information or links about/to lower-cost options, and maybe you arent allowd to advertise that the iOS IAP price is higher elsewhere, either.
Unfortunately going from iOS to Android is out of the frying pan into the fire. Android is much worse from a privacy point of view. You can easily see this by just spying on network traffic and DNS requests from the device. It's constantly telling everyone about you. Your choice in mobile is walled castle or forest full of thieves. I suppose there are open source phones around but I don't personally find them that us…
I will choose a forest of thieves long before a knell to a tyrant king
Media streaming services "only" pay a 15% fee on IAP
How much are credit card fees? Chargebacks? Fraud? Server costs to host your app and updates? The shopping cart/private infrastructure? You actually get some value from those percentages, but few people actually run the numbers.
2.9% is the highest you'll pay to accept cards unless you're in a high risk category. And even cheaper with volume
Fraud happens with any payment provider including Apple.
You don't have to pay extra for shopping cart infrastructure if you use Stripe or similar
Even if it was, that’s definitely not significant. Each engineer is probably paid more per day than that. (I’m not a fan of the flat 30% charge, but developer program fees are not a challenge for any group with a revenue stream if any kind.)
Yeah, I meant per developer. Wires crossed. But it certainly doesn't matter what each engineer is paid. Apple has 20 million registered developers. [Edit: And let's say a third of them pay that fee, which is admittedly probably a stretch. The finer details are not my point here other than to say here's a bunch of money that comes in no matter what] I don't care what those developers are making: that's serious income…
I know it won't happen but I wish that all major companies on the Apple store would collaborate and all at once either release in-house in-app purchases or link to their websites to instruct users to buy stuff. Apple can't remove every app from the app-store as the ensuing shitstorm would have people ditching Apple in waves.
I know I really don't matter to Apple, but this walled garden and app store dictatorship is what finally made me move away from iOS to Android last year. I had used Android in the past, but it was with Samsung Galaxy's which where very bloated and awful when compared to Apple. But when a friend told me that Samsung just ruin Android [1] and I should try an actual Google phone, I bought a Pixel and it's honestly great…
The play store is getting worse and worse. It will eventually end up being just a bad. Meanwhile every iteration of Android is getting more locked down because of "security". No more external cameras etc.. The future look bleak until we get a true open source alternative running on open hardware.
> The future look bleak until we get a true open source alternative running on open hardware.
Maybe a fork like LineageOS will take over eventually. An open hardware device is really needed though.
This is really sad. On the one hand, sure Apple should be able to make a cut on their app store, on the other hand, they shouldn't be allowed to force apps to do this sort of thing. This will only drive domain prices higher on iOS in order to compensate (in the case of Automattic). If I were in a position where Apple is forcing me to pay a 30% tax, I would literally add "30% Apple Tax" to the check out screen on top…
> If I were in a position where Apple is forcing me to pay a 30% tax, I would literally add "30% Apple Tax" to the check out screen on top of the regular fees to make consumers aware If you don't know that, it is not allowed to sell for more in iOS than in your site, and the app will get banned for attempting that, forget about displaying 30% apple tax to the users explicitly. Edit: Heard from somewhere, likely not f…
This is not correct. You can charge whatever you like. You just aren’t allowed to have line items like “Apple tax” or words blaming Apple for the price.
I know I really don't matter to Apple, but this walled garden and app store dictatorship is what finally made me move away from iOS to Android last year. I had used Android in the past, but it was with Samsung Galaxy's which where very bloated and awful when compared to Apple. But when a friend told me that Samsung just ruin Android [1] and I should try an actual Google phone, I bought a Pixel and it's honestly great…
> I haven't even needed to sign up for a Google account since using it (although I have to use an alternative app store).
This means you can't use any Google apps like Maps, Photos, etc, right? What Google alternatives do you use?
Sadly the App Store also has ads and no way to deep link to updates.
It’s possible, just not obvious. Create a Shortcut with the “Open URL” action and point it to “itms-apps://apps.apple.com/updates” You can then add the shortcut to your home screen, run it from the shortcuts widget, via search, etc.