Apple Makes It Hard for Parents and Users to Make Good App Choices

Apple no longer lists in-app purchases available in the App Store for iPhone and iPad or in apps in the Mac App Store. With in-app purchases of up to $99 and weekly subscriptions costing $25 per month or more, in-app purchases are a major concern for parents.

Until recently, Apple was listing in-app purchases in the App Store on your iPhone and iPad. Parents and interested players can easily scroll down and see what in-app purchases are included in a game or app. Apple now just shows a small icon next to the “Buy” button that says In-App Purchases. Google continues to list a number of in-app purchases for an app, but not individual purchases.

there is big money Even for Apple. Between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day last year, Apple made $890 million from app sales and in-app purchases.

On or about October 24, Apple removed the section of the app page that lists in-app purchases. By this time, a parent can open an app store home page and easily see the most common in-app purchases and their prices. This may reveal a single unlock to remove ads, or it may show a long list of options designed to let kids consume your bank account for virtual currency.

You can no longer see any details about in-app purchases in a game or app without first installing the game and then playing the game to see when you’re asked to spend money. In some apps this happens right away, while in others it may take 10 minutes or longer to see how much you can spend on a game.

By removing this list, Apple makes it much more difficult for parents to decide whether a new and popular app their kids want to play with is a good option. Many apps, such as FIFA Mobile, appear to be designed only to free up bank accounts and convert them into the in-game currency needed to progress. Adult coloring books have been known to come with hefty price tags, ranging from $24 a month, $9.99 a week, or $99 a year. You will no longer see this information until you start the app.

While Apple has a big deal on consumer privacy and brands as a watchdog for consumers, the company often moves slowly when it comes to offensive apps. TechCrunch Apple has recently reported that it has pulled several apps from the App Store to force consumers to sign up for QR code readers, PDF scanners, and more for $3.99 per week, $4.99 per month, or $156 per year subscriptions. Reviews from consumers indicate that they felt tricked into signing up for auto-renewing subscriptions.

TechCrunch summarizes the numbers by highlighting why Apple is not encouraged to show you all the information about in-app purchases and subscriptions. Here’s how many of these annoying apps were made before Apple decided to remove them, and your ability to easily see in-app purchases and subscriptions before installing an app.

holds an apple 30% of subscription 15% during the first year and during the second year. With the apps listed above, Apple makes a lot of money. Apple has yet to restrict the use of a feature that slowly disappears in a close button. This is designed to trick users into thinking they only have the option to start a free trial or sign up right away, which auto-renews as a paid trial. If you look at the top left corner of the video below, you can see that the turn off option has disappeared.

This dark pattern is the best (stolen from fullscreen ads). The (x) close button comes alive after a few seconds so people don’t see they have a way to exit the page. Watch the top left of the subscription page: pic.twitter.com/DaRJPvdu5Q

— David Barnard (@drbarnard) April 17, 2018

In most cases, these free trials become paid subscriptions within a few days. Some refresh multiple times before a customer sees a credit card statement. This doesn’t even go into how hard Apple has made figuring out how to cancel an in-app subscription. You can’t do this from where you expect it, from the App Store.

Instead you need to go to iPhone or iPad Settings. Tap your Apple ID, tap iTunes & App Store, tap your Email, tap View Apple ID, Sign in, tap Subscriptions and then you can cancel a subscription. Ridiculously convoluted and suspiciously hard given Apple reportedly secretly negotiated with developers to force subscriptions.

In the App Store In-App Purchases section, Apple is putting the responsibility back on users and parents, despite removing the most useful tool parents have to see how much an app is charging for in-app purchases. Apple recommends that parents restrict this option to parental controls.

You can use Screen Time to set app limits and even use it to stop in-app purchases. This guide will show you how to use Screen Time on iPhone and iPad or you can watch the video below.

There isn’t much you can do right now to put this information at your fingertips. Apple Support encourages you to leave feedback to Apple about the change. It’s unclear how good this will actually be.

We welcome your feedback on App Store changes. Go to our Feedback page and get your voice heard: https://t.co/eTPVYVFyd8

— Apple Support (@AppleSupport) 29 October 2018

There’s an Apple Event on October 30th, and while we expect a lot at this event, we don’t expect Apple to reinstate the in-app purchase list or roll out a better version of it.