Should be Free subscription be forced before user can download anything?

Question

I've a question which really bothers me last couple of days. We have a Free subscription in our Newsstand app. Before user proceeds to download any free content available in app we ask him to go through Subscription process and, afterwars, he/she can download anything.

The question is should we be forcing user to do it in this way? or it is enough to provide the way to subscribe to Free subscription without actually restricting download of content? If we should force it, then please, can someone point me out to the legal document or any document which clearly states how this should be done at all?

Answer 1

I also am a co-founder in a news app and we force used to do this but only as to verify (because Apple sends you a receipt) that the thing trying to pull our news content (which we try to protect from being stolen) is a real human being with an actual iDevice and iTunes account who has logged in. For us it is just a safety percussion, if you are doing it just because it's the "standard" I don't see any reason for that. I'm not aware of any legal reasons for doing this... it doesn't seem to me that there would be any, however you do have to verify a users age before sending them some content, perhaps you guys are having them log-in for this reason? (Not sure if you can even verify age through a subscription IAP but hey) haha, good luck!

Answer 2

Newsstand apps must have an option for user to subscribe. For free content Apple provided a "Free Subscription" in iTunes and app developers must have provide a way in their app so that users can subscribe to your content.

In case user subscribe to your content, it means he/she agreed (legally) that your app can automatically download new content as and when it is available (e.g. using Newsstand Push notification). This is the whole purpose of adding "Free Subscription" in iTunes and your app.

Users can download your free content even without subscribing but in case you want to automatically download new content in your app using Newsstand push notification Apple want you to make user purchase subscription .In case you download content using Push notification without user being subscribed, Apple may reject your app.

Answer 3

I think you can implement it either way. There are pro and cons in each approach.

Forcing users to subscribe will let you push new issues whenever the user have WiFi. It also means that they will be able to read your issues offline without launching your app.

Not forcing users to subscribe means that user won't have to type their password to download your issues. But this means that they wouldn't be able to download your issues in the background when you publish a new one.

Apple does not enforce either approach, as far as I know.

Answer 4

so, app update passed with flying colors. Therefore,it is not becessary to force users to subscribe to free issues