Monday, 7 July 2025
MG Siegler, on Threads last week:
We’re already beyond ridiculous with the full-on ad assault from
Apple as everyone is well aware by now. But the wild thing here — in this full screen pop-up in the Apple TV app — is that it’s
not in-app but links out to the web to pay?!
At least here in the US, if you just opened the TV app on iOS 18 last week, you were presented with this full-screen ad (replete with all those dumb ®’s, despite Apple’s ads for the same thing in the App Store omitting them).
There were two buttons to choose from: “Not Now” and “Buy Tickets ↗︎”. If you tapped the “Buy Tickets ↗︎” button, boom, you just jumped to the F1 The Movie website in your default browser. Kyle Alden, on Threads:
That’s weird, Apple’s new full screen F1 ad in the TV app links
out to the browser to compete the transaction, but for some reason
doesn’t include any full screen interstitials warning of the big
scary web, nor a confirmation dialog that it would open in the
browser? Must be an oversight.
The hypocrisy isn’t that Apple didn’t show a full-screen scare sheet for this link-out to the web. It’s that they require other developers, who are doing it to sell digital content, to show a scare sheet/confirmation.
One of the subtle differences with this particular promotion is that buying movie tickets is not “digital content” — even if they’re just passes in Apple Wallet or saved QR codes in an app like Fandango. You’re purchasing a real-world experience, so it’s not eligible for Apple’s In-App Purchase (IAP) system. This is why when you buy theater tickets in the Fandango app, Fandango charges your credit or debit card directly. Same when you pay for rides in Uber or Lyft. It’s really subtle for something like a movie. Pay for a movie to watch on your TV at home? That’s a digital purchase. Pay for a movie to watch in a theater? Not a digital purchase.
I understand the distinction between digital content (that’s consumed on your Apple device) and real-world goods and experiences (even if you pay for them in apps on your Apple device). But how many iPhone users understand this distinction? Like, if you polled 1,000 U.S. iPhone users who (a) purchase in-game content in games like Candy Crush, and (b) hail rides in Uber or Lyft, what percentage of those iPhone users do you think could give a coherent answer as to why their in-game purchases must use Apple’s IAP system, and why Uber not only doesn’t use IAP to charge for rides, but is not allowed to use IAP for that? I’d bet fewer than 1 percent. (I’d also bet that fewer than 1 percent care, which is why they don’t know.)
Is it inherently confusing to have a button in an app that jumps you out of the app to your default web browser (probably Safari, especially for people who might be confused) to complete a transaction, without a scare sheet or even a confirmation alert? I can see the argument that Apple’s answer is “Yes, it’s potentially confusing for many users”. But I can’t see the argument that the answer is “Yes, it’s potentially confusing for many users, but only if they’re trying to buy in-app content or subscriptions, but not confusing at all if they’re trying to buy, say, movie tickets.”