Apple has a reputation for putting a lot of restrictions on the work of app developers. These guidelines may appear onerous at first, but in the long run, they benefit customers by making their lives easier. To help app developers better understand what happens to user accounts when they are deactivated or removed, Apple has introduced a new guideline for app developers. Apps that enable you to establish an account must also allow you to deactivate it under Apple’s new Account Deletion rule since deactivating an account is illogical.
If you’re submitting apps to the App Store after June 30, Apple has reminded app developers that they must provide an option for consumers to initiate a cancellation of their account in their apps. As a result, Apple had to postpone the implementation date for the original guidelines to June of this year. Apple is urging developers to move quickly now, with little over a month left, in order to avoid any repercussions.
Any data linked with an account that “the developer isn’t legally obligated to preserve” is deleted when an account is deleted by Apple. Social networking applications, content-sharing platforms, and user-generated material are all included in this definition.
These are requirements for App Store apps that allow for account creation, and “promising to temporarily suspend or cancel an account is not enough.”
Developers should tell their customers if account deletion takes a long time, according to Apple. App developers must inform users of how invoicing and cancellations will be handled if the app permits transactions. For recurring subscriptions, developers must inform customers that they must go to their Apple ID page’s Subscriptions menu to cancel them.
It is necessary for the applications that require “extra customer care processes to validate and ease the account cancellation procedure” to fall into one of the “highly regulated sectors.” If an app doesn’t fall into that category, it shouldn’t need users to call or email to cancel.
Apple allows developers to add steps to authenticate the identity of a user who wants to cancel an app, but if they do so in an unnecessary manner, their apps will not be eligible for a review pass. To put it another way, Apple will not accept any developer that asks consumers to perform extra tasks in order to terminate their subscriptions.
To remove an account from an app, you must be able to do so without having to open a web browser to do so. Apple said it’s “not proper” not to do so. It is mandatory for an app to give an option for users to delete their account if it creates one automatically.
Even though Apple has provided a number of suggestions for the new Account Deletion regulation to assist developers comply with it before the deadline, users may look forward to a better experience.
