iOS App rejected due to wrong purchase type

Question

I am stuck with one of the in-app purchase rejection issue in my app and need some help on this.

What this in-app for?

In our app we have options for user to become premium user. A user can become premium user to enjoy some benefits and it is tied to time. There are two in-app products which defines them

1. One month premium service.
2. One year premium service.

Since these are time based service, user expects these service should be made available for that user once he/she purchase the product for the specified time, from all his/her other devices. In order to track whether the user is premium service user or not, once the purchase is done, the app writes a entry in server about premium service. So when user uses other device and logs in, he/she can enjoy the premium service without any issues. For this reason I created the above mentioned products as "consumable", thinking that it is controlled by our server there will be no issues. But apple came back with rejection and asked me to change the products to "non-renewing subscription".

Here is what apple says about this

We found that the Purchasability Type for one or more of your In App Purchase products was inappropriately set, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.

"Premium account service for 1 month and 1 year" IAPs are set to Consumable.

However, based on product functionality, it would be more appropriate to use the Non-Renewable Subscription In App Purchase type because the service offered by your application requires the user to make an advance payment to access the content or receive the service.

The Purchasability type cannot be changed once an In App Purchase product has been created. Therefore, you will need to create a new In App Purchase product with the correct Purchasability Type. To create a new In App Purchase in iTunes Connect, go to Manage Your In App Purchases, select your app, and click "Create New". The current product will show in iTunes Connect as "Rejected".

Non-Renewable Subscription content must be made available to all iOS devices owned by a single user, as indicated in Guideline 11.6 of the App Store Review Guidelines:

11.6 Content subscriptions using IAP must last a minimum of 7 days and be available to the user from all of their iOS devices

If you choose to use user registration to meet this requirement, please keep in mind that it is not appropriate to require user registration. Such user registration must be made optional. It would be appropriate to make it clear to the user that only by registering will they be able to access the content from all of their iOS devices; and to provide them a way to register later, if they wish to access the content on their other iOS devices at a future time.

For more information about Purchasability Type, please to refer to the iTunes Connect Developer Guide.

Now I have created new in-app products which are non-renewing. But this works the same way as I mentioned earlier, i.e. the server keeps track of whether user is premium user or not, expiry date. When user goes to other device and does login, the app comes to know whether user is premium or not and based on that app works.

But I have couple of questions on this,

1. Should I need to provide the "Restore" button in the app? If so what is the purpose and how it works?
2. Since the user can access this service only after doing login to the app (it is different from app store account). Will these two logins make any issue?

Please share your valuable inputs.

Answer 1

1. It is highly unlikely that the user will end up in a situation where they won't be able to use your app unless they restore their purchases, however it is still possible. Imagine your server goes down for a day and during that day some user purchases a subscription, gets a new iPhone, installs your app on the new device and then wipes their old iPhone. I can think of a couple of other, equally unlikely, but still possible situations (Apple receipt validation server going down, etc) in which the purchase receipt will get lost in transit. It's best to provide the button, and if Apple thinks that you need it in your app, you will have a hard time convincing them otherwise.

2. If by "two logins" you mean user having to log in to your system and then log in to the App Store to purchase the subscription, that should not be a problem.

Answer 2

I recommend you make the changes Apple requested to the Purchasability Type and then re-submit. If you need to clarify a lack of a restore button put it in the notes for the reviewer