Apple’s Inconsistency Begets More Inconsistency ⇥ on.substack.com

I quoted Steve Jobs the other day; here is another one courtesy of a 2006 interview with Brian Williams which, in its re-uploaded form, has been bizarrely stabilized relative to each face in a way that is difficult to describe and nauseating to watch:

Brands are like bank accounts. You can have withdrawals and you can have deposits.

So if a customer has a great experience — they buy an iPod and they love it — that’s a deposit into our brand account in their mind. If you buy something from us and you have a bad experience, then it’s a withdrawal.

Today, Apple spent big from its brand account. While there are some who are upset with Patreon for having an iOS app in the first place, the overwhelming frustration is justifiably directed toward Apple.

As upsetting as it is, I cannot say I am surprised by any beat in this story. First, Apple decided to, for years, treat Patreon pledges as something other than In-App Purchases against which it would normally levy a commission. But that could not last forever because Apple would — as it has several times before — want to reclassify pledges to get what it feels is its cut. It is now going to require Patreon treat them as subscriptions, similar to Substack.

Hamish McKenzie, Substack’s co-founder, is more positive toward Apple’s In-App Purchase system, but notes how it does not really fit with authorship by individuals or small teams:

But creators aren’t Apple’s traditional customers. They’re not app makers or game developers. They don’t actually have a piece of real estate in the App Store. They instead find their distribution through media platforms, including the likes of Patreon and Substack. It might feel weird for someone who publishes a podcast through Patreon, or a publication through Substack, to receive the same treatment from Apple as Netflix.

John Gruber, in linking to my piece from earlier, also mentioned the Substack parallels:

Lastly, I suppose it’s implicit here that a lot of Patreon users go through the iOS app. But I can’t help but think they should do what Substack does and just not allow paid subscriptions through the app. I just double-checked this was still true, and it seems to be. Substack’s iOS app lets you subscribe only to free subscriptions in-app. If you tap “Manage Subscription” in the app, you’re presented with a sheet that says, unhelpfully, “You cannot manage your subscription in the app.” (It’s Apple’s odious anti-steering rules that disallow apps like Substack from explaining where you can manage your subscription, which, of course, is on the web.)

I also wondered why the Patreon app could not simply be a viewer for subscriptions a user has purchased elsewhere. My understanding is that Apple has raised objections by invoking rule 3.1.3(b):

Apps that operate across multiple platforms may allow users to access content, subscriptions, or features they have acquired in your app on other platforms or your web site, including consumable items in multi-platform games, provided those items are also available as in-app purchases within the app.

This is the rule for what Apple calls a “Multiplatform Service”, which is somehow different from a “‘Reader’ App” that allows users to subscribe to “magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video”. A “reader” app does not have to provide In-App Purchases which are equivalent to those available outside the app, but a “Multiplatform Service” does. It seems likely to me both Patreon and Substack are “Multiplatform Services” in Apple’s view.

Substack does have several subscriptions available as In-App Purchases, according to its App Store page and the app itself. I am not sure this is true of all newsletters because Apple only lists ten popular In-App Purchases on the app’s page. It seems you can manage a subscription from within the app only if you paid for it from within the app; if you paid for your subscription on Substack’s website, you can only manage it there, and you get the notice Gruber quoted if you try from inside the app. Oddly, I can also read paid issues from within the Substack app for a newsletter which does not have an In-App Purchase option because it is no longer active on Substack. Perhaps it once did and that is why viewing this subscription is allowed.

Maybe Substack is a “reader” app that just so happens to provide In-App Purchases for some newsletters. More likely it is a “Multiplatform Service” that treats subscriptions purchased in the app as different products from those made externally, and the app merely allows access to the latter. It seems Apple is requiring Patreon to be consistent with Substack which, as it stands, is inconsistent with “reader” apps — even though Substack is more of a reading app than Netflix — and does not permit a transaction-free experience.