Spotify confirms in-app purchases on iPhone are not coming back for now

Spotify
(Image credit: Spotify)

Reports yesterday of Spotify adding in-app purchases for subscriptions back on iPhone have been debunked by Spotify’s global head of corporate and policy communications.

Speaking to The Verge after new code was spotted in the Spotify app on iOS with an in-app payment system including a checkout screen, Farshad Shadloo said, “We have no plans to switch IAP [in-app payments] on at the moment.”

Spotify removed the ability to subscribe to Spotify Premium in 2016 in an effort to avoid Apple’s 30% commission for purchases made through apps on the App Store. Earlier this year, Spotify migrated those subscribers over to its payment system.

Spotify’s dispute with Apple creates friction in the Spotify app experience on iOS with no ability to buy audiobooks, similar to how Amazon Kindle users can’t purchase content in the Kindle app on their Apple devices.

While reports yesterday seemed to hint that there was a slight shift in the relationship between Spotify and Apple, it looks like there won’t be any changes to the way you pay for Spotify Premium on iPhone anytime soon. 

Earlier this week, Spotify revealed that 17% of its workforce were to be laid off, roughly 1,500 employees. This is the third announcement of job cuts this year for the company, which is looking to find a remedy to its continued financial losses.

No IAP for now


While the lack of in-app purchases in the Spotify app is inconvenient for Apple users who use the green and black streaming service, it’s something we’ve become accustomed to over the years.

It would be ideal to see all subscriptions like Spotify Premium inside Settings on your iPhone, but for now, it looks like we’ll have to keep tabs on our Spotify login details and use the company’s website for all future payments.

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John-Anthony Disotto
How To Editor

John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself. Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings. John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019.  John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit. 

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