Apple has once again extended its deadline for complying with the company’s in-app purchases requirements for apps offering paid online group services till June 30. *Given the recent resurgence of Covid and its continued impact on in-person services, we’ve extended the most recent deadline to June 30, 2022,” it said in a post on its developers blog.
The move by the tech giant would allow such apps to use an alternate payment method till the deadline, bypassing Apple’s app store fee of 15 to 30 per cent.
In-app payment
The tech giant had introduced the changes, requiring such apps to use its in-app payment method in September 2020. However, apps that provide “realtime person-to-person services between two individuals (for example, tutoring students, medical consultations, real estate tours, or fitness training)“ can use purchase methods other than in-app purchase.
It deferred the rule for group event apps in November 2020 after facing criticism regarding charging the commission to such platforms in the middle of a pandemic. The deadline was then extended to December 31, 2021 and now June 30, 2022.
Account deletion requirements
Separately, it has also extended the deadline for apps that allow account creation to enable account deletion within the app to June 30, 2022.
“App Store Review Guideline 5.1.1 provides people with greater control over their personal data by stating that all apps that allow for account creation must also allow users to initiate deletion of their account from within the app,” it said in the post.
“This requirement was set to apply to all app submissions by January 31, 2022. Due to the complexity of implementing this requirement, we’ve extended the deadline to June 30, 2022 to give you more time,” it said.