HOWTO track auto-renewed subscriptions in iOS In-App Purchases?

Question

We are building a subscriptions based video on demand platform that lets our subscribed users to access films from a variety of devices including iOS, Web etc.

So no matter from where the user has subscribed, they should be able to access the content from any & all devices that we support.

Since I need to maintain user's state at a central system (so that all devices can query & allow/disallow access to paid-content).

I have read through multiple documentation re: iOS In-App Purchases & have determined we are a good fit for auto-renewable subscription category.

I have already integrated subscriptions via Roku & using that as a reference. For users who are subscribing through the Web, I have also integrated payment processors like Amazon Payments, Stripe & PayPal - the transactions for which are triggered by the Subscriptions Billing platform that I have already built.

My server (or an endpoint essentially) needs to be able to receive following bits of information preferably directly from iTunes and not from my app.

• Notification when a user subscribes successfully to one of my products
• Notification when iTunes sucessfully renews a subscription i.e. if user is subscribed to a monthly product then at start of next month, I need to have notification from iTunes that user has been successfully charged for upcoming month
• Notification when iTunes successfully refunds a user for whatever reason
• Notification when a user cancels a subcription directly from iTunes (not from the app). I know in this case it will mean that it stops the auto-renewal, but I still need to know that this has happened.
• Notification when a user un-cancels the auto-renewal.

Does iTunes support any of these actions via Webhook or Push or IPN (instant payment notifications) etc? I havent come across it, if it does.

I know that there is something called as Validating Receipts but that seems to be not a good solution for me, since I need to know ASAP rom iTunes that one of the above flows has happened.

What, if any, are the workarounds to get this information? I am afraid that getting this info from my app is neither timely nor guaranteed to get it.

Answer 1

If you're expecting a direct feed from iTunes, you need to reevaluate your requirements. The in-app purchase ecosystem simply doesn't work that way. You may have the option to write your own subscription processing system (requires an outside payment processor) but whether Apple will approve it will depend on the exact nature of your content. From your description, you have mutually-exclusive requirements.

If the immovable requirement is that you use iTunes, you will need to validate receipts and forward those results to your server.