What’s a Reader App?

A reader app is an app that allows a user to access premium content that they have already purchased somewhere else. A reader app cannot allow them to purchase content within the app.

It is called a reader app because it only allows the user to “read” content, but not buy it.

The app stores created the idea of a reader app to exempt certain businesses from being forced to use in-app purchases in their app when all they wanted to do was to allow their users to access a library of content that they had already purchased on their website.

Some BuddyBoss app customers may wish to use their app for community and courses but opt-out from using IAP and sell their subscription directly on their website.

This would be categorized as a Reader App. In Apple’s eyes; Reader Apps allow users to browse previously purchased content or content subscriptions for digital magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, video, etc.

The best example of a Reader App is “Netflix”. With the Netflix app a user can only access the full Netflix library of content if they have already signed up for a premium Netflix account on their website. There is nowhere to buy a Netflix subscription from within the app, and there is nowhere to buy additional content from within the app.

Steps to Configure

• You can configure this directly through  BuddyBoss App > Integrations > LearnDash > Enable Reader App Compatibility.

For the BuddyBoss App, enabling reader app compatibility forces all users to only see the course they’ve purchased on the site. You cannot purchase them via the app directly, nor can you be prompted to purchase any. 

There is NO evidence that Apple won’t approve a “reader app” if it has social features. It’s not in their official guidelines, it’s not documented anywhere in their terms. But they are purposefully vague about what they consider to be a “promotion of alternative payment methods” so that their review team can use their discretion to decide whether your app passes the criteria.

BuddyBoss has specific “reader app compatibility” features built in to help make the process easier but each app is reviewed by the app stores on a case-by-case basis so it’s impossible for our publishing team to confidently give hard and fast rules for reader app approval.