Streamline in-app purchases on Apple TV with Cleeng, enabling secure transactions and seamless management of user entitlements across devices.
Apple in-app purchases
The popularity of mobile apps is constantly increasing, with Apple being one of the leaders in this field. Subscription functionality and in-app purchases are among the functionalities offered by Apple.
In-app purchases allow your viewers to purchase access to your video content directly on their smart device, without having to leave the application, or literally their couch to go and find the nearest computer. It ensures a seamless checkout experience and allows your viewers to use their preferred payment method without being redirected to the web. In this way, the friction that often deters users from completing the purchase is removed, which has a positive impact on your conversion rates.
For more information, see here.
Cleeng and Apple
In-app payments enrich your portfolio with yet another purchase point for your video content. To facilitate it, Cleeng offers integration with the main app stores, including Apple’s.
When you enable in-app purchases you gain:
- multi-access for your users who can use your services on many devices
- frictionless user experience
- reporting abilities that can support your subscriber retention analytics and strategy building.
Important: When you make a purchase through an Apple iOS or tvOS app, Cleeng does not handle your payment. Cleeng acts as an observer and tracks Apple in-app purchase lifecycle events to gather data to make it available for analysis.
The latest version of in-app purchases - Storekit2
StoreKit 2 is a framework introduced by Apple that provides developers with a more robust and efficient way to handle in-app purchases and subscriptions within their iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS applications. It is an evolution of the original StoreKit framework, offering enhanced capabilities, simplified workflows, and improved tools for managing the entire lifecycle of in-app purchases.
Supported Versions for StoreKit 2 (SK2)
StoreKit 2 is supported on the following Apple platforms and versions:
- iOS: StoreKit 2 is supported starting from iOS 15 and later versions.
- macOS: StoreKit 2 is supported on macOS 12 Monterey and later versions.
- watchOS: StoreKit 2 is supported starting from watchOS 8 and later versions.
- tvOS: StoreKit 2 is supported on tvOS 15 and later versions.
These versions ensure compatibility with the StoreKit 2 framework, enabling developers to utilize the new APIs for handling in-app purchases and subscriptions across Apple's ecosystem.
Will Storekit be depreciated?
The original Storekit framework will still be available in the app. However, migrating to Storekit 2 is strongly recommended as the original Storekit won’t be further developed, so the API will not receive any enhancements or new features in future OS releases.
While Apple has not announced any immediate plans to deprecate the original Storekit, the focus on Storekit 2 suggests that, eventually, Storekit may be deprecated. Given that Apple is prioritizing StoreKit 2 with enhanced features and ongoing improvements, it's better to switch to StoreKit 2 now before StoreKit potentially becomes deprecated in future updates.
The broadcasters who decide to switch to SK2 will be guaranteed full assistance of Cleeng Support during the process.
Why switch to Storekit 2?
Storekit 2 is a powerful tool especially for complex subscription management as it offers more advanced tools for managing and monitoring them. Let’s have a look at the key features:
- Enhanced Functionality: Offers advanced purchase validation and robust subscription management, ensuring transactions are secure and handled efficiently, reducing the risk of fraud and errors.
- Streamlined Integration: A unified endpoint simplifies the setup process, reducing development time and complexity, allowing for quicker implementation and easier maintenance.
- Improved User Experience: The use of Swift’s async/await in StoreKit 2 makes the purchasing process faster and more responsive, leading to a smoother, more intuitive experience that increases user satisfaction and reduces drop-offs.
- Data Accuracy: Provides precise and detailed transaction reporting, minimizing discrepancies and improving data reliability, which is crucial for better business decision-making and analytics.
- Future-Proof Technology: Ensures your app remains current with the latest in-app purchase features and security updates, keeping you ahead of the curve as Apple evolves its platform.
Storekit 2 migration with Cleeng
Smooth, frictionless integration
Cleeng facilitates a seamless upgrade to StoreKit 2. Our powerful transformation layer converts SK1 API calls to SK2, preserving all current functionalities. SK2 uses more efficient API calls, designed with modern app architectures in mind. By translating SK1 calls to SK2, Cleeng ensures that your app can take advantage of these optimizations, reducing latency and improving the speed of in-app purchase transactions.
For devices unable to switch to SK2, we maintain compatibility with SK1 APIs. Additionally, clients have the option to directly integrate with SK2
Improved performance and reliability
Migrating to StoreKit 2 with Cleeng offers substantial improvements in reliability and data management. From more accurate transaction processing and real-time data synchronization to enhanced error handling and scalability, this migration ensures that your app's in-app purchase and subscription systems are robust, reliable, and capable of handling growing demands.
Enhanced data security
SK2 provides improved security protocols for handling in-app purchases and subscriptions and supports enhanced authentication mechanisms, allowing only authorized users to complete transactions. Cleeng ensures these authentication measures are fully implemented during migration, protecting your users from unauthorized access. SK2 provides improved security protocols for handling in-app purchases and subscriptions. It ensures that all transactions are securely processed, reducing the risk of fraudulent activities.
Privacy and compliance
SK2 is designed with privacy in mind, helping your app comply with regulations like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act). Cleeng guarantees that your migration adheres to these regulations by maintaining proper data handling practices, such as limiting the amount of personal data processed and ensuring user consent where required.
SK2 uses modern encryption standards to protect data transmitted between your app and Apple’s servers. Cleeng that this encrypted communication is maintained during the migration, safeguarding sensitive user information such as payment details and transaction histories.
Extensive Documentation and Support
We provide detailed setup, configuration, and troubleshooting documentation. A complete set of documents to guide you through the whole process.
The migration will be handled efficiently by Cleeng support team who are familiar with both SK1 and SK2, minimizing downtime, reducing the number of errors, potential service interruptions and ensuring the transition is completed as quickly as possible.
Integration Guide
Please see Apple In-App Purchase - SK2 [Beta].
Further reading
Please see What are In-App Payments?