Some of your favorite iPhone apps are changing

Emily Parsons

iOS developers are busy grinding out app updates that would’ve gotten them suspended from the App Store until very recently. ICYMI: In a stunning blow to Apple’s “walled garden,” a federal judge last week ordered the elimination of the tech giant’s 27% fee on App Store developers who direct users to make purchases outside of their apps. Apple already takes up to a 30% commission on anything you’ve double-clicked to confirm in-app. With the court’s blessing, popular services that used to avoid offering in-app purchases are adding link-outs in their apps to make transactions easier for users in the US: You can now see subscription prices on Spotify’s app and click to go directly to the corresponding section on its website. It’s also now able to hyperlink a three-month free trial offer within the app. The Kindle app added its first “Get Book” button, which takes readers to 1-Click Amazon checkout. Patreon also added external purchasing options. And the monetization platform said that its creators probably won’t have to comply with Apple’s previous mandate to migrate subscriptions to iOS by November. That change likely would’ve led Patreon creators to increase their membership prices by 30% to counter Apple’s in-app commission. The retro gaming simulator Delta Emulator also added a link-out to its Patreon memberships, which the app’s developer said couldn’t even be mentioned in-app before last week’s ruling “without giving Apple 27% of donations.” Fortnite is returning. Epic Games applied for its goofy shooter to rejoin the App Store yesterday, five years after Apple booted it for directing users to make transactions on its own website. Since the judge’s ruling last week, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has been on a victory lap—at least for now. Apple asked the court to halt the order’s enforcement this week as it appeals the decision. A hit to Apple’s bottom line: With fewer commission fees, the tech giant could make $2 billion less per year from US App Store sales, which brought in $11 billion for the company last year, Morgan Stanley estimates.—ML