Apple details new server notifications & enhanced receipts for App Store subscriptions

In a post on its iTunes Connect blog this evening, Apple today explained new server notifications from the App Store that are available for developers. The notifications and receipt enhancements center around subscriptions and come on the heels of a new ‘customer support’ role Apple announced last night for iTunes Connect.

The new notifications make it easier for both developers and customers to keep track of things such as auto-renew subscription status preferences, price consent changes, renewal failures, and more.

• Subscription Auto-Renew Status: Indicates if a customer’s subscription will renew at the end of the current subscription period. Use this to encourage customers to subscribe to a different service before their current subscription lapses.
• Subscription Auto-Renew Preference: The Product ID of the next renewal. Use this to promote a different service level before the current subscription period ends.
• Subscription Price Consent Status: Indicates if the customer has agreed to the price increase. Use this to keep up to date with customer consent after a price increase.
• Subscription Retry Flag: If the customer’s subscription does not renew because the App Store was unable to complete the transaction, this value will reflect whether or not the App Store is still trying to renew the subscription.
• Subscription Expiration Intent: The reason for the subscription expiration, for example, if a customer canceled their subscription or did not agree to a price increase. Use this value to decide whether to display appropriate messaging in your app for customers to resubscribe.
• Cancellation Reason: For transactions canceled by Apple customer support, this field indicates whether a customer canceled their transaction due to an actual or perceived issue within your app, or for another reason.

Apple further explains that the new features are aimed at helping “resolve billing issues and engage customers by displaying relevant messages.”

Now you can receive server notifications of key events and get enhanced receipts with real-time information about the status of auto-renewable subscriptions. You can use this information to resolve billing issues and engage customers by displaying relevant messaging.

More details are available on the iTunes Connect site.