The mistake I made in the In-App purchase process
While implementing the in-app purchase in mobile development for iOS, I faced a lot of issues before the app finally got approved. Mistakes are a way to learn too. To implement in-app purchases we are required to write a lot of code but I will not cover it here. I will be covering the Apple console part only, the place where I did a lot of mistakes, and from where I learned a lot. Hopefully, this will guide you in avoiding the same mistakes that I did! 😅
- Agreement in App Store Connect
The first thing I did was to jump to the coding section directly before knowing about the requirements in the App Store Connect. While trying to test after development, I received an error and got stuck as the testing was blocked in the sandbox. After spending a lot of time debugging, I found out that without the “Agreement Acceptance” and the “Paid App” being in an Active status, we can not test in the sandbox for in-app purchases.
2. Add Subscription/In-App Purchase
The second mistake was filling out the review information was completely missed. Not necessarily a mistake solely on my part, as the fill-in form had no mention of it being mandatory before submission for review, and naturally I thought it was optional. As my Subscription always gave a ‘missing metadata’ status, I decided to investigate. After a few hours, I found out that we have to give the review information properly with clear guidance and with screenshots. The most important thing is that we should always provide a proper description of the Subscription as in the future the app may be rejected because of it.
3. Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy
The third mistake I did was not providing a link to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions in both the In-App purchase Screen and the App Description. Because of this simple thing, my app got rejected multiple times 🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️ . You guys can see the image I got as a message from Apple below.
It seemed pretty simple as we were supposed to add the links only. However, I could not figure out where to add them. Hence, I arranged a call with the Apple support team, they were very helpful and explained clearly where to add the links and why they needed them. After that, I added the EULA link and Privacy Policy link to the In-App purchase Screen 😅 and the App description. Then finally, my App got Accepted 🎊🎉 .
4. Submit a Subscription
Even after filling out all the forms, I am still not able to “Submit” the app for review, as the button is still in gray in an unclickable state. I don't know whether the mistake is on my end or in the apple developer console. Some people suggested refreshing the page when the button will be blue for a few seconds, and clicking it at that time. I tried the same and then guess what… BOOM its works. I know it sounds weird but sometimes the app developer console is weird and a lot of time gets wasted in it not knowing what is happening and figuring out what to do.
Thank you for reading the article. I hope this will serve as a guideline if you are to implement the in-app purchases.
I implemented the in-app purchase subscription in the GoodNightStory app. Be sure to check it out!
