How to Use Guided Access On iPhone and iPad
With Guided Access on iOS, you can temporarily restrict your iPhone or iPad to a single app. This can be useful when you let a child use your device.
Apple Loosens Grip on App Store Payments After Court Ruling
Apple has updated its App Store Review Guidelines for apps on the U.S. storefront, allowing developers more freedom when it comes to external payments.
The changes follow a U.S. court ruling stemming from the long-running legal fight with Epic Games. Fortnite will now be returning to the U.S. App Store.
What’s New for U.S. App Developers
Previously, Apple had an iron deathgrip on how users could pay for digital content inside apps. Developers were required to use Apple’s own in-app purchase system, with strict bans on directing users to outside payment options. That ensured Apple would get its 30% cut on any in-app payments.
But as of the latest changes:
- Apps on the U.S. App Store can now include external links and buttons that take users to a developer’s website to make purchases.
- Apps no longer need special permission (entitlements) to add these links or buttons in the U.S.
- Reader apps—those offering things like books, music, and video—can also link to account creation or management websites without Apple’s approval.
- Developers can inform users about other ways to buy digital goods, including possibly cheaper options outside the App Store.
These updates affect sections 3.1.1, 3.1.1(a), 3.1.3, and 3.1.3(a) of Apple’s App Review Guidelines and apply only to apps available in the U.S., a change made yesterday.
Why It Happened
The rule change follows a court decision in Epic Games v. Apple, a lawsuit that began in 2020. A U.S. judge ruled that Apple must allow developers to inform users about alternative purchasing methods, calling Apple’s restrictions anti-competitive.
Apple has said it will comply with the ruling but plans to appeal.
For now, developers targeting the U.S. market have new tools to reduce their reliance on Apple’s payment system—something many have been pushing for years.
Spotify has already made changes to its latest iOS app update in the U.S. App Store (approved by Apple), and now the flood gates have opened.
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Does this apply in Canada as well? Or is this an alternative app stores situation where it works in the EU and only the EU, and developers have to either release separate versions in the US or use location services or other trickery to determine if a user can see alternative payment info within their app?
American laws don’t apply to Canada, you know that. Eu laws don’t apply to the us or Canada either. You know this. You’re asking as if you think that this is apple choosing to do something in one place and not the other when in reality they are choosing to do the same thing everywhere (no alternative app stores) but is being forced by law to allow alt stores in those countries.
Where is the Canadian angle?