Since roughly 2018, Netflix didn’t offer a signup link for external users or even let consumers know where to join up in the iPhone and iPad apps. Instead, users had to use their web or mobile device to find Netflix’s website and sign up for the service there. Before this, the app was liable to abide by Apple’s rules, which restricts developers from providing connections to external sign-up pages. This made it impossible for apps to evade commissions on in-app sales of up to roughly 30% (which Apple has now reduced to 15%). Therefore, customers who thought they could simply signup from within the app were caught in a pickle. Now with this new prompt, users who opt to ignore the warning are redirected to Netflix’s website’s account sign-up page, where they may enter their payment details and select a subscription plan. Users still cannot access Netflix’s signup page from its iPhone or iPad app, according to the company’s help page as of right now. Apple still has a highly confining set of rules that developers must adhere to, such as not including any cost information with a link to external sign-up pages, even if it has started to loosen some of its standards for reader apps. To obtain approval to include the external connection in their software, developers must also submit an “entitlement. It’s unclear whether Netflix and Apple have struck a deal because both companies have been at odds before. Previously, Apple actually tried to convince Netflix to keep offering subscriptions through the App Store’s IAP (In-App Purchase) system, which Netflix ultimately ended up mot agreeing to. Not only that, now with the advent of Apple’s own streaming service; Apple TV+ directly competes with Netflix, which further complicates things.
