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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-26T09:34:56+00:00

I am building an app for a client that will have 30 days of

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I am building an app for a client that will have 30 days of content for free, thereafter you are required to buy a subscription via in app store purchases.

However, I have read that you will get rejected if you have trials.

Don’t set time limits on any of the functionality of your app, either
for run times or life times. Applications that only run for a set
number of minutes per session, or that expire altogether after some
period of time, don’t recruit customers so much as leave a bad taste
in their mouths.

Finally, they also say “your app will be returned to you by the App Review Team for modification if it is found to have time limits”.

This seems odd because I know the Guardian and all major newspaper apps have limited functionality.

  • The Guardian app is free but you get limited functionality?
  • The Daily app is free, but you have to pay for daily subscriptions
    and has limited functionality for the period of your subscription.
  • The Times app is free, but is a free trial (of sorts) (plenty of
    complaints about it)

There are other examples which seem to differ from Apple’s policies.

Lets say you have an app that is free, but then you have to pay for subscriptions to gain access; however according to the rules this is considered limited functionality — yet there are lots of newspaper apps that do exactly that.

I’m confused.

Can someone clarify the situation? Can apps have trials?

Thanks

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    It is difficult to clarify the situation because unfortunately the guidelines are not necessarily set in stone. They can and do vary on an app and publisher basis.

    In the case of The Times and The Daily, both apps are produced by News Corp. It is perhaps safe to say that News Corp has a good deal more influence with Apple than a one-man development shop producing an iPhone game. Apple would be loath to admit it, but there are clear cases of popular apps on the store that don’t conform to the guidelines, where they have tacitly made an exception.

    So what I would say to you is this: be sensible. Don’t have an app that quits automatically when your trial runs out. Think about what would be acceptable to users. It’s very much a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained. Take a risk, submit your app with your limited trial, and see what happens.

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