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Concept on howto maintain a trial and purchasable full version of an IOS-app today:

There are lots of dicussions on this topic, but I would like to look at this for my case and how it would be designed TODAY (2015), with actual Apple restrictions.

  • I have an app which initially loads data from the internet to be displayed. (Trial-Content -> 80MB, 20%, Full-Content -> 400MB, 100%)
  • I would like to offer the Users to try the app with limited content first.
  • With limited content: 20% works as like the fullversion. 80% are marked with a question mark. If the users clicks on the question mark I would like to guide the user to the fullversion.
  • I prefere to have 2 apps (2 builts), because of having 2 separate rankings. Users, which buy an app are rating better, because they are really interrested in the app and will only buy, when they are pleased with the trial app. So an app with inapp purchase has a lower ranking in avarage then a isolated full version (built). But I guess this concept would be rejected by apple, because you have to mention the fullversion in the trialversion and you have to name the trial version as "trial" ? (Sorry for the bad english)

How will this be designed with IOS apps ? Howto guide the User to the fullversion, without beeing rejected by Apple ? (I read popups like "Would you like to purchase the fullversion?" will be rejected. )

In Android I did the following:

  • I created one app with the full functionality, which is at the same time the trial-version.
  • I created one purchasable app, which is only an unlocker app.
  • The trialversion app checks if the unlocker is installed. That way I can differentiate between trial and full and will load the corresponding content.
  • When clicking on the question mark, I will show a popup saying "Would you like to purchase the full version?".
mcfly soft
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2 Answers2

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This is quite a common pattern, you just can't call your "trial" version "trial". Quite often such versions are called "light".

To send the user to the app store to buy the full version you can use the SKStoreProductViewController to display the app store page for your full version directly in your app. This should be OK with Apple.

Your Android solution with the paid "unlocker" app would be possible too. Your apps need to expose an URL scheme and using that you can check if the other app is available. They also could use an app group to communicate. But this will most likely not pass review as apps must do something useful by themselves. They will probably test your unlocker on a device that doesn't have your other app installed and immediately reject it.

I would strongly suggest to reconsider an IAP for this. That's basically the ideal use case for it. You must not be afraid of bad reviews for offering purchases. Trying to send the user to buy another app will probably give as many bad reviews if not more. The IAP flow is much more user-friendly.

Sven
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  • They are also often called "Free", like "Killer Panda Free". – ThomasW Jun 11 '15 at 07:35
  • I agree on solutions but probably he's afraid of bad reviews on full/pay version of app not for the light/free one, that's why he don't want IAP and prefer to have 2 different versions – il Malvagio Dottor Prosciutto Jun 11 '15 at 07:38
  • Thanks a lot to all helping me out. @Dottor Prosciutto : Exactly ! With one app and IAP the rating will be an average of users who tried and users who bought. generally users who bought rate better. So separating the apps will lead in a better rating of the fullversion app. – mcfly soft Jun 11 '15 at 09:19
  • Just one more question. if like to have 2 apps in appstore because of mentoined thougts, would it be also good to build 2 versions in xcode from one source with a unique identifier for each app ? – mcfly soft Jun 16 '15 at 15:02
  • Hi Sven. I awarded the bounty to you, but for me the question is still not complete answered. Could you probably help in my last comment regarding 2 builts ? – mcfly soft Jun 18 '15 at 06:32
  • Sorry, didn't notice your comment. Yes, building the the second app from the same project with the same sources and a different bundle ID is the best practice. You want to share as much code as possible so that you don't have to do changes twice. – Sven Jun 18 '15 at 06:55
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As @Sven suggested IAP is recommended in your case.

If you want to maintain two different apps for trial and full version, you can give your trial app name as "APP NAME FREE", I think Apple will not reject the app with name "Free" in App name (I successfully uploaded free and paid versions of same app with this trick).

Yuvrajsinh
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