Creating in-app subscriptions in iTunes (Apple)

In order to be able to offer a paid subscription via your Kiosk-App for Apple iOS devices, an in-app product must be set up in advance at iTunes Connect.

Note: Before you are able to offer paid subscriptions for Apple iOS devices, you must first activate the payment function in iTunes Connect.

To set up new subscriptions

  1. Log in to https://itunesconnect.apple.com with your user information.
  2. Choose your app under "My Apps" and open the "Features" tab and select "In-App Purchases".
  3. Choose "Create New" or select the "+" icon.
  4. Create a new "Auto-Renewable Subscription" via the "+" button.
  5. Fill out the information for your subscription and save the form. Both information can be chosen freely but should help you to identify the subscription later on. Example could be "Football Magazine - 3 months" as reference and "football_magazine_3_months" as product ID.
  6. If you are setting up the first subscriptions for this app you will need to set up a "Subscription-Group". All subscription types are collected in this subscription-group. As stated by Apple, a "user can only subscribe to one subscription out of one subscription-group, but is free to switch between different subscriptions in one group". There basically are two different scenarios for our clients:

    A -You only have one magazine title in you app: Please create one subscription-group and assign all subscriptions (run-times) to this group. A user can only subscribe to one of those subscriptions.

    B - You have several magazine titles combined in your app: Please create a subscription-group for every magazine title and assign the subscriptions of this title to the appropriate group. Like this your users will be able to e.g. switch from "Football Mag - 3 Months Subscription" to "Football Mag - 12 Months Subscription" if they like, but are not able to switch from "Football Mag - 12 Months Subscription" to "Movie Mag - 3 Months Subscription". It also means that users can subscribe to several subscriptions from different titles.
  7. Fill out the information on the next overview:
    - run time
    - price
    - localized description
    - screenshot (it's enough to upload a cover of your magazine in 640x920 pixel - this screen will not be published anywhere!)

    After saving those information, you can now submit the in-app product ("Submit for Review" button at the top right). Please note that new subscriptions have to be submitted to the review with a new app file.

  8. In the next step, create a note with the Shared Secret from iTunes Connect. You will find it on the upper right-hand side of the list of your created "In-App Purchases".
  9. Enter the Shared Secret from iTunes Connect in your publication in Pegasus under the tab "My App" under "Settings".


  10. Then enter the subscription under the menu item "Services" - "Subscriptions" as "In-App Purchase" once the subscription(s) are set up in your iTunes Connect.
  11. Only after you have set up the subscription in Pegasus and activated it will the subscription appear in your app.
  12. Your subscription will now be reviewed by Apple and will be available as soon as its status is "Approved".

 

Please note:

When you sign up a new app with paid contents in iTunes Connect, it is important that you submit all in-app products (in-app purchases and in-app subscriptions) together with a new app file to the Apple Review. You will find the item on your App Overview page as soon as you have set up in-app products.

Please visit Apple's support center for more information.

 

Not a customer of PressMatrix but still need help?

Benefit from our extensive app store management experience.

Contact us to get an offer - Get an offer

Was this article helpful?
0 out of 0 found this helpful
Have more questions? Submit a request

Comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.