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Apple should absolutely keep improving the App Store, but most of the things listed here are already possible, they just require a bit more work. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ https://twitter.com/jasonfried/status/1274066861634793474
And if @basecamp doesn’t want to do the work, they could use @RevenueCat. Customer support teams love RevenueCat! You can see a user’s full history ( https://docs.revenuecat.com/docs/customers , grant promotional entitlements ( https://docs.revenuecat.com/docs/promotionals), and more.
3/ Hey is locking customers into a proprietary email service that doesn’t support open standards, custom domains, etc. It’s bizarre to say they don’t own the customer relationship just because Apple handles payments and charges developers to publish apps on their platform.
4/ The only thing that’s not possible on this list is refunds, but that’s easy. I have a macro set up telling people how to request a refund from Apple. Takes them a bit more work, but it’s a couple seconds for me. And Apple can see if one account is requesting a bunch of refunds
5/ Credit card changes: Apple is way better and dunning than any one developer could ever be, I’m so glad Apple handles this. Tax exemptions: it’s actually easier for us and customers if they set it up once with Apple instead of every developer having to verify exemption status.
6/ Discounts, trial extensions, hardship exceptions, comps, non-profit discounts, educational discounts, downtime credits, etc. can all be handled with clever uses of subscription offers. More work, but possible. And I’d bet Apple has some improvements coming to that next week.
7/ I’m not sure exactly what he means by partial payments, switching subscriptions on the App Store does do prorated billing, but that one should probably be lumped into refunds as something that isn’t possible.
8/ When you own someone’s email, they have to login on any platform they use anyway. It’s extra work to track billing across platforms, but it’s also extra work to build cross-platform apps. Tons of apps have solved this (also, ahem @RevenueCat).
9/ I mean, I get that they don’t want to do extra work, but saying most of this is impossible is either disingenuous or missinformed. Ask @calm, @Lightricks, etc. It’s not easy, but they use IAP and take care of customers. Is it perfect? Absolutely not, Apple does have work to do
10/ And you already know how I feel about calling the 30% fee highway robbery: https://twitter.com/drbarnard/status/1273700823822893058?s=21 https://twitter.com/drbarnard/status/1273700823822893058
11/ This thread is NOT a defense of Apple. If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I have a huge list of greavences I’ve been pressing Apple on for years. They are far from perfect. This is a defense of well-reasoned conversation about improving the App Store.
12/ This whole thing has turned into such a circus that it’s muddled the conversation around what *most* developers actually care about. Jason doesn’t even bring up App Review capriciousness which is what started this whole mess and tops the list of greavenaces for most of us.
13/ It just dawned on me that this whole thread is really just me saying “you kids get of my lawn, I’ve been complaining about the App Store since 2008 and you’re doing it all wrong”.
