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Apple Updates App Store Guidelines to Permit Game Emulators, Website Links in EU Music Apps

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Apple today updated its App Store guidelines to comply with an anti-steering mandate levied by the European Commission. Music streaming apps like Spotify are now permitted to include a link or buy button that leads to a website with information about alternative music purchasing options, though this is only permitted in the European Economic Area.

iOS App Store General Feature JoeBlue

Music Streaming Services Entitlements: music streaming apps in specific regions can use Music Streaming Services Entitlements to include a link (which may take the form of a buy button) to the developer’s website that informs users of other ways to purchase digital music content or services. These entitlements also permit music streaming app developers to invite users to provide their email address for the express purpose of sending them a link to the developer’s website to purchase digital music content or services. Learn more about these entitlements.

In accordance with the entitlement agreements, the link may inform users about where and how to purchase those in-app purchase items, and the price of such items. The entitlements are limited to use only in the iOS or iPadOS App Store in specific storefronts. In all other storefronts, streaming music apps and their metadata may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.

The European Commission in March fined Apple $2 billion for anti-competitive conduct against rival music streaming services. The fine also came with a requirement that Apple “remove the anti-steering provisions” from its App Store rules, which Apple has now done. Apple is restricted from repeating the infringement or adopting similar practices in the future, though it is worth noting that Apple plans to appeal the decision.

Apple has accused Spotify of manipulating the European Commission to get the rules of the ‌App Store‌ rewritten in its favor. “They want to use Apple’s tools and technologies, distribute on the ‌App Store‌, and benefit from the trust we’ve built with users – and pay Apple nothing for it,” Apple complained following the ruling.

In addition to updating its streaming music rules, Apple today also added games from retro game console emulator apps to the list of permitted software allowable under guideline 4.7. Guideline 4.7 permits apps to offer HTML5 mini apps and mini games, streaming games, chatbots, game emulators, and plug-ins.

Apps may offer certain software that is not embedded in the binary, specifically HTML5 mini apps and mini games, streaming games, chatbots, and plug-ins. Additionally, retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games. You are responsible for all such software offered in your app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws.

Game emulators have managed to sneak onto the ‌App Store‌ several times over the years by using hidden functionality, but Apple has not explicitly permitted them until now. The rule change that allows for game emulators is worldwide, as is support for apps that offer mini apps and mini games.

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Meta, Microsoft, X and Match Join Epic Games in Protesting Fees for Non-App Store Purchase Links

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Meta, Microsoft, X, and Match today joined Epic Games to protest the way Apple complied with a court ruling requiring it to walk back its anti-steering rules. In an amicus brief in support of ‌Epic Games‌ (via The Wall Street Journal), the four companies said that the fees Apple is charging are too high, and that there are too many restrictions on how developers link to their websites. “The Apple Plan comports with neither the letter nor the spirit of this Court’s mandate,” reads the brief.

app store blue banner epic 1
For context, Apple was ordered to change its App Store rules in 2021 as part of the decision in the ‌Epic Games‌ case. The judge took issue with the anti-steering guidelines that kept apps from directing consumers to lower prices available outside of the ‌App Store‌. Apple delayed implementing the changes while it attempted to appeal the ruling, but the appeal was not successful and Apple had to update its rules in January.

Developers are now allowed to include a single link in their app, with that link going to a website where customers can make a purchase without using the in-app purchase system. Apple is still collecting commission for purchases made this way, requiring developers to pay between 12 and 27 percent (three percent lower than the standard 15/30 fee).

‌Epic Games‌ last week told the court that Apple has not complied with the order, and that the Cupertino company should be held in contempt of court. ‌Epic Games‌ said that Apple’s implementation makes links “commercially unusable” due to the fee and the “accompanying web of restrictions.”

Microsoft, Meta, X, and Match further complained that Apple is not allowing apps to include “even the most basic information” about alternative purchase options. Apple does not allow apps to let customers know about how to receive a discount by purchasing directly from a website, for example.

Meta said that it should be able to direct users to the web to pay for boosted posts to avoid Apple’s fee, and Microsoft complained that Apple’s rules limit options for providing subscriptions and discounts. X, formerly Twitter, said that Apple’s 27 percent fee eliminates incentives to include an external link, while Match claimed that the rules prevent price competition for digital transactions.

Apple in January claimed that it was in full compliance with the injunction, and that it has given developers a way to inform customers about alternative purchase mechanisms both in their apps and outside of their apps.

The amicus brief filed today supports ‌Epic Games‌’ recent filing. ‌Epic Games‌ has asked the court to force Apple to bring its policies into compliance with the injunction, so it will be up to the court to decide whether Apple’s rule change does enough to satisfy the requirements of the initial judgment.

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Spotify Complains That Apple Hasn’t Approved Update With Subscription Pricing and Links in EU

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Apple has not approved a Spotify app update that adds information on subscription pricing and links its website, Spotify complained today in an email to the European Commission (via The Verge). Spotify says that Apple has not “acknowledged nor responded” to its App Store submission.

Apple vs Spotify feature2
The European Commission on March 4 fined Apple almost $2 billion and said that Apple abused its dominant position in the market by preventing music streaming services from telling users about more affordable subscription prices outside of their iOS apps. The EC said that it is “illegal under EU antitrust rules” for Apple to keep developers from telling customers about cheaper music subscription options.

Apple was told that it must “remove anti-steering provisions” in the European Union, and so on March 5, Spotify submitted an app update that included subscription pricing tiers and options to pay without using in-app purchase. Spotify says that it has not had a response from Apple since submitting the update.

Spotify told the European Commission that Apple’s lack of response is “yet another example” of how Apple “will seek to circumvent and/or not comply with the Commission’s decision.” Spotify asked the EC to require Apple to approve the app update.

In a statement to The Verge, Spotify also said that Apple’s delay “directly conflicts” with Apple’s statements about processing app submissions within 24 hours, and “flies in the face of the timeline for adoption” from the EC.

It’s been nine days now and we’re still waiting to hear from Apple about our app submission to show EU consumers pricing and a link to our website, which we are now authorized to do by the European Commission’s decision on the music streaming case. Apple’s delay directly conflicts with their claim that they turn around reviews on app submissions within 24 hours, and it also flies in the face of the timeline for adoption the Commission laid out.

The ruling from the European Commission that requires Apple to eliminate anti-steering rules is separate from the app ecosystem changes that Apple made in the European Union with iOS 17.4 to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Under the terms of the DMA, Spotify is allowed to distribute a Spotify app to EU users outside of the ‌App Store‌, but it would be required to pay Apple’s Core Technology Fee for each user. Spotify currently does not pay Apple any commission.

The DMA also permits Spotify to direct users to make purchases on its website while also providing information on in-app promotions, discounts, and deals, but again, Spotify would need to agree to Apple’s updated business terms and fees to implement these changes. Spotify has not clarified if it adopted Apple’s new terms or if its update has been submitted without doing so.

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Life Style

Landmark study links microplastics to serious health problems

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Plastics are just about everywhere — food packaging, tyres, clothes, water pipes. And they shed microscopic particles that end up in the environment and can be ingested or inhaled by people.

Now the first data of their kind show a link between these microplastics and human health. A study of more than 200 people undergoing surgery found that nearly 60% had microplastics or even smaller nanoplastics in a main artery1. Those who did were 4.5 times more likely to experience a heart attack, a stroke or death in the approximately 34 months after the surgery than were those whose arteries were plastic-free.

“This is a landmark trial,” says Robert Brook, a physician-scientist at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, who studies the environmental effects on cardiovascular health and was not involved with the study. “This will be the launching pad for further studies across the world to corroborate, extend and delve into the degree of the risk that micro- and nanoplastics pose.”

But Brook, other researchers and the authors themselves caution that this study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine on 6 March, does not show that the tiny pieces caused poor health. Other factors that the researchers did not study, such as socio-economic status, could be driving ill health rather than the plastics themselves, they say.

Plastic planet

Scientists have found microplastics just about everywhere they’ve looked: in oceans; in shellfish; in breast milk; in drinking water; wafting in the air; and falling with rain.

Such contaminants are not only ubiquitous but also long-lasting, often requiring centuries to break down. As a result, cells responsible for removing waste products can’t readily degrade them, so microplastics accumulate in organisms.

In humans, they have been found in the blood and in organs such as the lungs and placenta. However, just because they accumulate doesn’t mean they cause harm. Scientists have been worried about the health effects of microplastics for around 20 years, but what those effects are has proved difficult to evaluate rigorously, says Philip Landrigan, a paediatrician and epidemiologist at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

Giuseppe Paolisso, an internal-medicine physician at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Caserta, Italy, and his colleagues knew that microplastics are attracted to fat molecules, so they were curious about whether the particles would build up in fatty deposits called plaques that can form on the lining of blood vessels. The team tracked 257 people undergoing a surgical procedure that reduces stroke risk by removing plaque from an artery in the neck.

Blood record

The researchers put the excised plaques under an electron microscope. They saw jagged blobs — evidence of microplastics — intermingled with cells and other waste products in samples from 150 of the participants. Chemical analyses revealed that the bulk of the particles were composed of either polyethylene, which is the most used plastic in the world and is often found in food packaging, shopping bags and medical tubing, or polyvinyl chloride, known more commonly as PVC or vinyl.

Microscope image showing various black and white shapes, with arrows pointing to two jagged blobs.

Microplastic particles (arrows) infiltrate a living immune cell called a macrophage that was removed from a fatty deposit in a study participant’s blood vessel.Credit: R. Marfella et al./N Engl J Med

On average, participants who had more microplastics in their plaque samples also had higher levels of biomarkers for inflammation, analyses revealed. That hints at how the particles could contribute to ill health, Brook says. If they help to trigger inflammation, they might boost the risk that a plaque will rupture, spilling fatty deposits that could clog blood vessels.

Compared to participants who didn’t have microplastics in their plaques, participants who did were younger; more likely to be male; more likely to smoke and more likely to have diabetes or cardiovascular disease. Because the study included only people who required surgery to reduce stroke risk, it is unknown whether the link holds true in a broader population.

Brook is curious about the 40% of participants who showed no evidence of microplastics in their plaques, especially given that it is nearly impossible to avoid plastics altogether. Study co-author Sanjay Rajagopalan, a cardiologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, says it’s possible that these participants behave differently or have different biological pathways for processing the plastics, but more research is needed.

Stalled progress

The study comes as diplomats try to hammer out a global treaty to eliminate plastic pollution. In 2022, 175 nations voted to create a legally binding international agreement, with a goal of finalizing it by the end of 2024.

Researchers have fought for more input into the process, noting that progress on the treaty has been too slow. The latest study is likely to light a fire under negotiators when they gather in Ottawa in April, says Landrigan, who co-authored a report2 that recommended a global cap on plastic production.

While Rajagopalan awaits further data on microplastics, his findings have already had an impact on his daily life. “I’ve had a much more conscious, intentional look at my own relationship with plastics,” he says. “I hope this study brings some introspection into how we, as a society, use petroleum-derived products to reshape the biosphere.”

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Computers

How to Open Spotify Links If You Aren’t a Spotify User

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Spotify dominates the music industry. This becomes really obvious if you don’t use Spotify: You end up being sent, and inevitably clicking on, Spotify links all the time. It happens on social media, yes, but also in text exchanges with friends, in emails, and in DMs. The thought is a good one; someone enjoyed a piece of music and wanted to share it with you. The problem, though, is that the Spotify link is mostly useless if you don’t use Spotify.

What if you use other streaming apps, such as those offered by Apple, Amazon, and YouTube, to listen to music? Are you doomed to search for the track, album, or artist on those services manually? Is that forever your fate? Absolutely not. Here are a few tools that can help you turn Spotify links into links for your preferred music service. (Just note, these tools will work to locate songs, artists, and albums across platforms, but since playlists are usually unique to each platform, these methods won’t work with custom playlists.)

Google Chrome: An Extension to Automatically Redirect Links

If you use Google Chrome or a compatible browser like Microsoft Edge, the browser extension Music Link can automatically open all Spotify links in whatever music app you like. Just install the extension and click its icon to configure it. Choose which music service you prefer and you’re done: Any Spotify link you get from now on will redirect to your app of choice.

You can optionally uncheck whatever services you’re fine with getting links to. SoundCloud, for example, tends to let you play music regardless of whether you have an account, and a lot of its offerings aren’t on other platforms, so you might as well not redirect those links. For the most part, though, this is the kind of extension you can install and never think about ever again.

iPhone and iPad: Song.link for Apple Shortcuts

Chrome extensions may not always work on iPhones or iPads, but thankfully there’s an Apple shortcut for redirecting Spotify links. Just copy any Spotify URL to the clipboard then launch the shortcut Song.Link. This will find the URL in your clipboard and offer you links to the song on other platforms. There’s even a YouTube link, which is helpful if you don’t subscribe to any streaming service.

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Apple App Store in the USA now allows external purchase links

Apple App Store

Apple was recently denied an appeal in the Apple vs Epic trial, and now Apple is making some changes to the App Store in the UJSA to comply with the original ruling from 2021, Apple will now allow alternative purchase links in the app store.

Previously any sign-ups for anything or purchases had to be through Apple and their app store, developers only had the option to use this as a payment method, now Apple is also allows external links as payment methods, more details below.

In addition to using Apple’s convenient, safe, and secure in-app purchase system, apps on the App Store in the United States that offer in-app purchases can also use the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement (US) to include a link to the developer’s website that informs users of other ways to purchase digital goods or services. To use the entitlement, you’ll need to submit a request, enable the entitlement in Xcode, and use the required StoreKit APIs. Apple will review your app to ensure it complies with the terms and conditions of the entitlement, as well as the App Store Review Guidelines and the Apple Developer Program License Agreement.

You can find out more details about the changes coming to the Apple App Store and the payment options that will be available over at Apple’s developer website at the link below, Apple will apparently still charge developers a commission, although exactly how this will be done is not known as yet.

Source Apple, 9 to 5 Mac

Image Credit: James Yarema

Filed Under: Apple, Apple iPhone, Top News





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