Promoted (AppStore) IAPs behind Parental Gate Question

Solar2D Monetization (in-app purchases, ads, etc.)
#2

I know I can look into launchArgs but what I don’t get is how to show a working parental gate which really can stop a transaction from happening if (for example) a kid clicks on a promoted IAP.

Is this not working like this: Click on promoted IAP… a purchase call is triggered. Now when seeing this inside the app I show a parental gate and what then? When the parental gate question answer is wrong the purchase call already was made, wasn’t it?

Does anybody out there have a solution for this to make promoted IAPs safe for kids?

#3

Long time ago I created some kids apps for a customer.

From what I see now (because I really couldn’t remember :p) to call a purchase you have to press three times fast a specific button.

I guess back then (2017 or 2018) apple triple checked my method and approved it because the apps went live.

If I remember well there was some other methods too.

Like type the number 6246.

#4

I know this question is more about tieing the gate launch to the the ‘promoted’ aspect of the IAP, but just in case you want a starting point for the actual gate…

I’ve got some free sample code for a parental gate: 

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/74704-template-portfolio-release/

Look in the thread for link.  The code come with several sample options you can modify.

Note: I think, if you just put a gate on your app to enable IAP features overall, that should be good enough.

#5

First: Thanks for your fast help and feedback.

Regarding your answer: I don’t know if this is working, because the promoted IAPs I guess work like this: A player clicks on the promoted IAP image in the store which will download the game and instantly call store.purchase (“X”) in the game. I don’t know when and how to catch this with a parental gate.

Any help welcome on how I can get this call and handle it.

#6

d.mach, did you ever figure this out?  We’re having the exact same issue.

#7

We have removed the promotions to get the app approved. Still looking into it.

#8

Yah, that’s what we’re doing for now.  Honestly I have no clue if the promoted in-apps even drive any traffic.  When you removed it did you notice any difference in sales/downloads?

#9

This is difficult to say because the changes were done for kids games which right now have more downloads because a lot of kids stay at home from school. I assume it can have an negative effect with enough DLs because the promotions are normally visible during searches.

#10

I noticed ABCMouse and SplashLearn (two pretty big kids app makers) don’t have their in-app purchases promoted.  So probably safe to say they’ve done A/B experiments and saw them not to increase sales.

Ask me in a week and I’ll have data, as our updates went live last night no in-app promotions.

#11

Thanks for the info and sharing the detail! I really appreciate it!

#12

d.mach, did you ever figure this out?  We’re having the exact same issue.

#13

We have removed the promotions to get the app approved. Still looking into it.

#14

Yah, that’s what we’re doing for now.  Honestly I have no clue if the promoted in-apps even drive any traffic.  When you removed it did you notice any difference in sales/downloads?

#15

This is difficult to say because the changes were done for kids games which right now have more downloads because a lot of kids stay at home from school. I assume it can have an negative effect with enough DLs because the promotions are normally visible during searches.

#16

I noticed ABCMouse and SplashLearn (two pretty big kids app makers) don’t have their in-app purchases promoted.  So probably safe to say they’ve done A/B experiments and saw them not to increase sales.

Ask me in a week and I’ll have data, as our updates went live last night no in-app promotions.

#17

Thanks for the info and sharing the detail! I really appreciate it!

#18

We are having the same issue. Apple documentation states that the “delegate method in the SKPaymentTransactionObserver protocol” allows a return of “true” to continue the purchase or “false” to cancel it. Do we have that much access to the SKPaymentTransactionObserver through Solar2d? How can we access it? Also, does any have any ideas on how we would test this scenario?

#19

Answered in related thread Access to SKPaymentTransactionObserver?

#20

We’ve noticed a decline in sales when we stopped promoting our IAP. Probably due to IAP titles counting as searchable keywords. We’re still looking for a solution to this issue.

#21

We are now considering whether to add this to our app as well. I am curious if others think this has helped?