The limited world of auto-renewable subscriptions. Apple’s In-App Purchase system permits two types of subscription purchases. The documentation suggests that Auto-Renewable subscriptions are the right choice in almost every case: Auto-Renewable subscriptions are delivered to all of a user’s devices in the same way as non-consumable products. However, auto-renewable subscriptions differ in other ways. When you create an auto-renewable subscription in iTunes Connect, you choose the duration of the subscription. When developing Instapaper 4.0, I initially offered the optional subscription purchase as Auto-Renewable, since it sounded like a perfect fit: a server-side service with ongoing monthly operational costs should be billed until the customer cancels it and the server-side resources can be reclaimed.
When I implemented the auto-renewing subscription in development, which requires quite a bit of tricky server-side subscription validation and tracking, I quickly ran into this mandatory dialog in the purchase flow: It was rejected. Iphone - iOS recurring subscription policy for service, not content. iTunes Connect Developer Guide: Introduction. Special iTunes Connect accounts. The first in-app purchase must be submited. In-App Purchase Programming Guide: Introduction. App Store Quick Reference: Getting Started with In-App Purchase on iOS. Digital services.