Patreon’s iOS App Can Now Accept Web Payments in the U.S. (Again) ⇥ techcrunch.com

Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:

In the updated version released on Monday (version 125.5.0), users now have the option of making a purchase via the web, where they can choose to pay with other payment methods, including credit cards, Venmo, and PayPal, as well as with Apple Pay.

The option to use Apple’s own in-app purchases method, meanwhile, is shown only in very small text below the larger, bold “Join” button. This change will likely direct more customers to pay via Patreon’s website instead of through Apple’s in-app purchases.

Patreon’s app, for many years, supported web-based payment options, until Apple decided it no longer could.

Matt Birchler’s summary of Apple’s stance on in-app payments is maybe the most cogent I have read:

Apple’s logic around “safety and security” for allowed payment methods was:

- it’s safe enough to enter your credit card in an app to buy physical goods

- it’s safe enough to enter you card into an app to buy digital goods you enjoy on other devices

- it’s unsafe to enter your card in an app to buy digital goods you enjoy on that device

I am jealous of the simplicity and clarity in these four lines.

This nonsense remains true outside the U.S. and the other regions that have mandated, to varying degrees, a revision to Apple’s payment terms. It makes no sense at all — but, of course, nothing about this really does. It is all reverse justification — a way for Apple to absorb a slice of an economy it feels it is owed for little reason other than because. A common thing I now see and hear from people whose work is supported by Patreon — plug — is advising people to subscribe outside the app to avoid giving Apple a cut. The sooner Apple’s “post-PC” devices are treated less like permanent extensions of the company which we are graciously allowed to use, the better it will be for all of us.