15 Comments
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Maia Duerr's avatar

I just read about this development from someone's post on Bluesky -- quite by accident. Otherwise I wouldn't know about it. Can you all find a way to email Substack creators about important developments like this that we really should be aware of?

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Michael Spencer's avatar

They did send it to everyone, on their On Substack Newsletter. It's been well explained.

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Michael Spencer's avatar

The lawsuit that Epic Games brought in 2020 concerned the amount of control Apple had over transactions done in apps hosted on its App Store. In 2021, the game studio won an injunction that ordered Apple to give developers more options to redirect users to their own websites so they could avoid paying the tech giant a 30% cut. Read about this May, 2025 change: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/02/apple-changes-us-app-store-rules-to-let-apps-redirect-users-to-their-own-websites-for-payments/

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Diane Cheyanne's avatar

Did this notice go into all contributors' in box? Because there isn't much of a reaction on the Substack notification itself.

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Maia Duerr's avatar

I didn't get a notice.

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Diane Cheyanne's avatar

People need to be made aware of this.

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Darina K.'s avatar

I am a subscriber to Charlie Angus' Resistance only. I don't plan on publishing anything on Substack. I don't want to pay through IAP or have a another app.

So far I paid via credit card linked to my e-mail account. The payment has now been declined. Do I have to cancel my subscription to Resistance?

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shepherd ogden's avatar

If I have a US bank based Stripe account but live in Mexico what is the net effect on me?

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Michael Spencer's avatar

Nothing unless you want to subsidize Apple users who insist on using IAP. Currently the customer eats the Apple tax. (which frankly is their choice, they could simply click the other option and pay 30% less).

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Michael Fritzell's avatar

Only in the US

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Michael Spencer's avatar

And what percentage of your customers are US based?

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Michael Fritzell's avatar

About 1/3

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Michael Spencer's avatar

If substack only becomes a cash cow for Apple, does this mean it has a better path to ranking on their lists?

30% to Apple Plus 10% to substack, no wonder people have been raising their prices!

Provided that people don't subscribe to many newsletters has a paid reader, if they want access to information is a few dollars going to stop them? It's a certainly interesting crossroads.

This week I keep getting more IAP customers.

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Michael Fritzell's avatar

I think IAP will be perfect for your and other lower priced publications. Especially as tech people are more likely to use the app. Most fund managers, on the other hand, rely primarily on email.

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Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Is this automatically enabled on my iPhone Substack app?

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