Apple today has made a small but notable change to its App Store Guidelines. The company quietly adjusted section 3.1 of the guidelines, which previously prohibited gifting in-app purchases to other users. With today’s change, however, Apple is permitting developers to add support for gifting in-app purchases.
As first spotted by MacRumors, Apple previously indicated in its App Store Guidelines that gifting of in-app purchases was not permissible. The recent revision, however, says that developers are free to “enable gifting of items that are eligible in-app purchases to others.”
Apple adds that such gifts can only be refunded to the original purchaser and that the gifts can’t be exchanged:
Old text: Apps should not directly or indirectly enable gifting of in-app purchase content, features, or consumable items to others
New text: “Apps may enable gifting of items that are eligible for in-app purchase to others. Such gifts may only be refunded to the original purchaser and may not be exchanged.”
At this point, details about how this support will be implemented are a bit unclear. Apple has not acknowledged support for in-app purchase gifting outside of this quiet revision to the App Store Guidelines. The wording of the guideline implies that it will be up to developers to enable in-app purchase gifting, rather than be a blanket feature of the App Store.
Read more at 9to5mac.com