App makers will soon be able to offer subscription discounts on a broader basis thanks to a brand-new API in iOS 12.2 beta 3, which dropped today.

Discounts can be realized as a free trial period, a lower price during a set period or broader discounts based on duration (Apple’s been employing the latter option to promote Apple Music by offering people to buy a yearly membership for the price of ten full months of service.

From Apple’s documentation:


These new subscription options are aimed at retaining subscribers and helping developers boost their subscriber count.

You will be able to use subscription offers to help win back subscribers who have canceled their subscriptions or promote an upgrade to another subscription at a special price. Customers can accept the offer even if they’ve already completed an introductory offer.

9to5Mac has more:

Apps will be able to present price discounts for auto-renewing subscriptions to existing and previously subscribed users. If a customer cancels, the app could present a 3-month free incentive to encourage them into subscribing again, for instance.

This is an improvement over the current model that lets apps offer introductory discounts or free trials when signing up for a subscription. But as the article states, these discounts were controlled by the App Store Connect server and only redeemable once.

Apple now requires that apps nearly describe how a subscription works

“If a user cancelled, the app would have no opportunity to incentivize a subscription down the line with a discount,” it reads.

These improvements arrived hot on the heels of January’s refresh to Apple’s developer guidance for in-app subscriptions taht introduced new pages in the Human Interface Guidelines and App Store documentation sections.

Are you looking forward to the afforementioned changes in app subscriptions?

Let us know in the comments!