How to market a subscription app: what the stores require of your offer

Apple says an auto-renewable subscription must provide ongoing value, last at least seven days and be available across all of the user’s devices. Its examples of appropriate subscriptions include new game levels, episodic content, multiplayer support, apps with consistent, substantive updates, large or continually updated media collections, software as a service and cloud support. Users should get what they paid for without extra tasks such as posting on social media, uploading contacts or checking in a certain number of times. If you move an existing paid app to subscriptions, Apple says not to take away the main functionality existing users already paid for. Google Play also requires sustained or recurring value for the life of the subscription and does not allow what is really a one-time benefit, such as a lump of in-app currency, to be sold as a subscription. For marketing, the recurring value is the message: say what keeps arriving each week or month.

Apple asks you to describe clearly what the user will get for the price before asking them to subscribe, with examples such as how many issues per month, how much cloud storage and what kind of access. Google Play requires you to disclose the offer terms, the cost, the billing frequency, the automatic renewal terms and whether a subscription is required to use the app, without the user having to do anything extra to see them, and says subscription benefits must be truthful and accurate. Both stores treat deception harshly: Apple removes apps that try to trick users into a subscription or use bait-and-switch practices, and may remove the developer from its program.

Google Play’s policy is specific about paywall design. Its examples of violations include monthly subscriptions that do not say they renew and charge every month, annual subscriptions that most prominently show a monthly price, pricing and terms that are not fully localized, promotions that do not show a user can use the app without subscribing when that is possible, product names such as “Free Trial” for a plan that auto-renews at a charge, and purchase flows where repeated taps in the same spot lead to an accidental subscription. Its illustrations also flag a missing or hard-to-see dismiss button and a price after the trial that is hard to read. Check your paywall against this list before you test variants.

For free trials and introductory offers, Google Play requires you to state before enrollment how long the trial or intro price lasts, that the user will be moved to a paid subscription automatically, what that subscription costs and how to cancel if they do not want to continue. Apps must also tell users how to manage or cancel a subscription and offer an easy online way to cancel, for example a link to Google Play’s subscription center in the account settings. Apple lets auto-renewable subscriptions offer a free trial by providing the relevant information in App Store Connect. The App Store Connect offer tools themselves are covered in how to promote an iOS app, and Play promo codes in how to promote an app on Google Play.

Apple’s rules on other purchase methods limit what an app may say inside the app about paying elsewhere, with exceptions such as the United States storefront, but Apple also says developers can send communications outside the app to their user base about purchasing methods other than in-app purchase. Your website, newsletter and listings are where you explain the plan in full. Censuus ranks apps by the real visit traffic they draw on the web; adding your app is free on the submit page, and it can rise on the visits it earns. Sponsorship raises placement and adds a followed link to your website; details are on the sponsor page. We do not promise downloads, revenue or store rankings, and this guide is not legal advice.