News hardware Apple: the next update of the App Store will cause rage
Present on absolutely all iPhones, the App Store will soon experience quite an impactful change. Even if Apple hasn’t leaked the information too much, on JV Tech, we find it important to keep you informed.
Apple is changing the philosophy of its App Store
As everyone knows, Apple is a company that likes to be in control. Somehow, this has certain positive aspects: a high-performance and ergonomic ecosystem, harmony between hardware and software or the protection of your personal data, for example.
Critics of the Apple brand know it well, this control that Apple exercises over its products and services also allows the brand to be quite opaque on certain points. In this finely controlled vagueness, an update quite harmful for the user points the tip of his nose.
In a very short time, the price of your various subscriptions linked to the App Store may increase… without your consent.
As a reminder, when you subscribe to a service on an iPhone, you must now clearly stipulate your agreement in the event of a price change. IOS always asks you for explicit permission before taking any extra pennies from you.
If a price increase bothers you and you do not want to give your consent, there is direct access to the menu in the information window which allows you to manage your subscriptions.
This Apple franchise is particularly appreciated by lovers of the brand. It’s a real philosophy for the apple. When an application asks to use your camera or GPS, you are notified. For the use of your personal data, it’s the same… there are many examples. And yet…
iOS biz people… Subscription price increase as mere NOTICE instead of having to confirm, else subs expires.
Is this new behavior for everyone or exclusive to Disney+? pic.twitter.com/zt7c15QcTA
— Max Seelemann (@macguru17) March 24, 2022
App Store Update: What will concretely happen to iPhone users in the future?
As you can see just above, this information started circulating in the tech world thanks to a man, Max Seelmann. Max Seelmann is an app developer, having even won an award in 2016 from Apple themselves.
Who better to discover and publicize a change in App Store policy? In his tweet, Max Seelmann is surprised. Instead of a window asking him if he’s OK with paying more for his Disney+ subscription, Apple informed him of the price change (which is legally required in many countries)… and c ‘is all.
Below the information box, there was nothing but a big “OK” button. The only other option is a very small, unobtrusive link that only serves to unsubscribe from the service concerned.
In computing, this is called a “dark pattern”. To quote Wikipedia: “A dark pattern (…) is an interface that has been specially designed to deceive or manipulate a user. These choices can also be described as elements put in place to further solicit the user and ensure that that it stays longer on a service using cognitive biases.”
We might not be offended, but the use of dark patterns is supposedly completely contrary to Apple’s philosophy. This is a step in a fairly new direction.
The tweet caused a reaction and many Internet users said they also noticed this change. Our colleagues from TechCrunch therefore directly challenged the Cupertino company. Here is Apple’s response, translated into French by us:
We are testing a new commercial feature which we plan to release very soon. This test includes developers from all types of apps, from all types of companies, and from all regions of the world to help us develop an improvement that we believe will benefit both developers and users. We will have more details to share with you in the coming weeks.
Which developers are affected? Does this have anything to do with the recent update that fixes Netflix, Amazon and Disney ? How can this benefit users?
Many questions, very few answers.
By WarialJournalist jeuxvideo.com