Last March Apple has opened the door to the possibility of making payments outside the App Store for all those applications that are classified as readerthat is simple interfaces from which it is possible to access a series of contents included in a catalog, as for example happens for the video streaming apps, reading and so on.
A few months after the announcement, it looks like Netflix has decided to make its moveas discovered by colleagues at 9to5Mac in the past few days. The novelty in question concerns the addition of a new screen in the iOS / iPadOS app which is shown during the creation of a new account, with which Netflix warns the user that the management of the same and all the payment information will not be carried out through services related to Apple, but will take place under the direct responsibility of Netflix.
Many may ask themselves what’s different than now, considering that for several years Netflix has not allowed users to subscribe directly from the App Store, but only from the official website of the streaming service. The novelty concerns the presence of an explicit notice within the applications on the iPhone and iPad, to which it is even accompanied a direct link to the site from which to carry out the registration and payment procedures, as you can see from the image published just below (we point out that it is also possible to do it in Italy).
This means that Netflix can finally be more transparent about subscription methods, without having to risk incurring the wrath of Apple due to the mention of a system that allows you to circumvent the traditional rules of the App Store. We remind you that the program started by the Cupertino house is only accessible to developers who are approved after an evaluation conducted by the company itself, so there is still a margin of discretion in the hands of the Californian company.
In any case, it is clear that regulations around the world are gradually converging towards a scenario in which the power of the owners of online stores – especially Apple and Google – come on heavily scaled downin favor of more open approaches that leave developers the choice of which payment services to offer.
One of the main tools of this change is certainly the Digital Markets Act, to which Google has already declared its intention to comply (albeit with a decidedly controversial initiative) well before its entry into force and which Apple will certainly not be able to avoid in order to continue its business in Europe.
