Apple will let developers accept payment outside App Store

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=28323688" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=28323688</a><p>Linking this here from the other thread, because the above comment cites the actual court documents, which clear up a lot of confusion I&#x27;m seeing on this thread. Apple&#x27;s concession only applies to communications <i>outside of the app</i> using contact information obtained <i>outside of the app</i>. (Which, yes, was somehow disallowed before.)<p>If your user signed up through the app? Tough luck.<p>This &quot;concession&quot; only removes a rule that Apple know it never could have defended in court.

This is the worst tech news headline I’ve ever seen. The change the article is referring to is allowing developers to refer to non-IAP payments in <i>communication with users outside the app</i> (the fact that this was disallowed before blows my mind). This does absolutely nothing to change the in-app anti-steering rules Apple has.<p>(edit: for clarity)

Thanks Apple, for &quot;letting&quot; me accept payment outside the App Store. Thanks for not watching the streets and not intervening when somebody tries to pay me.<p>All jokes aside, the wording is wrong. Apple does not &quot;let me&quot;. I do. And Apple indeed doesn&#x27;t stop me.<p>In one sentence Apple not only &#x27;backs down&#x27;, but presents itself as the one who &#x27;lets you&#x27;. Well, thanks Apple. :&#x27;)

There is already legislation in process that would do a hell of a lot more than this change including giving vendors the ability to sell entirely via their own store.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnbc.com&#x2F;2021&#x2F;08&#x2F;11&#x2F;bipartisan-bill-targets-apple-and-googles-ability-to-profit-from-app-stores.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnbc.com&#x2F;2021&#x2F;08&#x2F;11&#x2F;bipartisan-bill-targets-appl...</a><p>If lawmakers are already going to give you 200% of what you originally asked for why on earth would you settle for half?

This is really big news. Waiting to see some more details. Apparently nothing changes if you decide to take in-app payments but you will be able to take payments outside App Store and avoid the 30% cut Apple takes.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ghostarchive.org&#x2F;archive&#x2F;xCvEZ" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ghostarchive.org&#x2F;archive&#x2F;xCvEZ</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;lnqON" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;lnqON</a>

If this one becomes official, can Epic back to App Store? I guess no, since it will be a precedent for other escalations.

They&#x27;d have to mend a lot of rules around not having links to your own website &amp; what not as well

This is a step in the right direction, but it&#x27;s not reform, nor is the kind of transparency that would have remedied issues like the Hey email scandal. In any case, it&#x27;s an interesting departure from the &quot;courageous&quot; Apple that unabashedly removed the headphone jack and dismissed concern over on-device scanning as &#x27;screeching&#x27;.

I guess epic games just won?

But some users told be that would be a violation of the ToS and Epic violated it so Epic should just shut up and play by the rules!

Everything that is done with a platform dependent app can be done with a platform independent web app. I don&#x27;t know what the best way out of this is but app stores were a step back. Your phone could have one app...a web browser and maybe a few utilities like a calculator, calendar, clock. Even these could be implemented as web apps running in the browser.