Apple gives developers new tools relating to users and subscription renewals

By Oliver Haslam
published

App Store
App Store (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Apple has told developers of two new tools.
  • They both relate to subscriptions.
  • One notification is being deprecated, too.

Apple has told developers of a couple of new server notifications relating to subscriptions. It also warned that an existing notification type will be deprecated in March 2021.

The two new additions were announced via the Apple developer website (opens in new tab). The two new notifications are:

  • DID_RENEW lets you know when a subscriber successfully auto-renews.
  • PRICE_INCREASE_CONSENT lets you know when the App Store starts asking users to agree to your subscription's new price, so you can remind them of your service's value as encouragement to stay subscribed.

However, it appears that the first of the new notifications is replacing one that will be deprecated next year, along with a number of top-level objects.

In addition, the following will be deprecated in production in March 2021: RENEWAL notifications and these top-level objects: latest_receipt, latest_receipt_info, latest_expired_receipt, and latest_expired_receipt_info. Update your code to continue providing a seamless user experience.

Developers looking for more information on subscription server notifications can find it over on the Apple developer site (opens in new tab).

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.