Best practice for changing the price of in app purchases (subscriptions)

Split the problem into 2 problems - iOS and android.

You can adjust the price of the iOS IAP and your one user will see a price reduction at their next renewal.

I have no idea how you change things in android.

Hello PBK, thanks for your answer. As I stated earlier, I‘d like to have a solution that fits both os. So do you have an answer to my 4 questions? Big thanks in advance.

I don't do Swift or Android so don't get me started on either of those systems.

But for iOS, just change the price - isn't iOS IAP wonderful!

Leave the higher price for android - poetic justice for chosing android.

Of course, I can‘t ask questions about Android here ;-) I never will. In understood that I can solve *this* issue with changing the price. But there might be situations in the future where this isn‘t possible, so... Is it OK to not deliver the old subscription product id's with the app? And how do I handle the purchaser of the old product? Will the app crash if he opens the IAP section and the product is missing? How do I handle sitzations where a subscription IAP must be removed? There must be a way to handle such situations, no?

When you change the price of an auto-renewing subscription, different things happen depending on whether the price is being increased or decreased. If the subscription price is increased, then the user is alerted that the price will increase for the next period and the user must agree to the price increase before the renewal occurs - otherwise the subscription expires. In the case of a decrease, the subscription just continues.

The expectation is that so long as the auto-renewing subscription item is active, that subscribers will still have access to the associated content. You can go into App Store Connect and uncheck the "Ready For Sale" box for an In-App Purchase identifier so that the app can no longer validate the item and new user will no longer be able to purchase the item. For existing users, they will be notified that the subscription will no longer renew. However for active subscribers to the item, it's expected that the associated content be available until the subscription stops.

If the SKProductsRequest fails to validate the In-App Purchase identifier, then do not offer the item to a user. If you are calling SKProductsRequest inline with the addPayment method, when the "Buy" button is pressed, you might want to re-consider the program design. It's preferable for an app to call SKProductsRequest at app launch so that it knows what it should offer and it can present price change info - such as periodic sales to the user. The "Buy" button should then be used to call the addPayment method.

If the SKProductsRequest method fails to validate an identifier, then the app shouldn't offer the item for sale.

rich kubota - rkubota@apple.com

developer technical support CoreOS/Hardware/MFI

Thanks for the clarification. This was very helpful!

The idea just occurred to me, that I could keep the prices and just change the amount of benefit that stands behind the in app products (subscriptions). This is also possible for Android so I can basically keep my products as they are but only change the description where the amount of benefit is described.

Means I change

Product 1 - max. 30 items - 9,99$

to

Product 1 - max. 50 items - 9,99$

This should be also ok for Apple, right? Because the user doesn't have any negative impact but in fact an advantage. And I can keep my products ;-)

Your issue is not 30 or 50 things, it is $9.99. You need to lower the price. IMHO. (But I think the better situation is for you to switch from a subscription to a consumable - how's that for a wringer answer - 2 items for $0.99, 10 items for $2.99, 20 items for $4.99 and 50 items for $9.99)

> Of course, I can‘t ask questions about Android here ;-) I never will.

The same should go for Swift.

> Is it OK to not deliver the old subscription product id's with the app?

I assume you are referring to a new version of the app. Yes - and also uncheck 'cleared for sale' for users of the old version of the app

> And how do I handle the purchaser of the old product?

As per Rich they get notified the IAP is no longer available at their next renewal. BUT - isn't it better to just change the price?

> Will the app crash if he opens the IAP section and the product is missing?

That depends on your code in both the old and new version. Remember that not all users will update to the new version.

> How do I handle sitzations where a subscription IAP must be removed?

Unmark 'cleared for sale' and deliver content only for the next subscription period.

> There must be a way to handle such situations, no?

Yes, abandon Android.