Apple now lets “reader” apps link to websites for creating or managing user accounts, after the company gives access to an External Link Account Entitlement
that a LOT of their “services revenue” is a 30% commission from sleazy games exploiting gambling psychology to extract money from people, many of whom are children — is SO uncomfortable that they keep repeatedly asserting the opposite, to the world and themselves. Nilay Patel / @reckless : At this point Safari is only there because it's grandfathered in, someone at Apple has definitely proposed getting rid of the browser Marco Arment / @marcoarment : The most galling aspect of Apple's views here is how inconsistent they are with the reality of the App Store, which we all know contains tons of gross, scammy, misleading, untrustworthy, insecure, privacy-invading apps — often on the top charts, and often targeting children. https://twitter.com/... Thomas Baekdal / @baekdal : Can I just point out how ridicules it is that we should somehow be amazed by this. This should never have been something Apple had the power to allow or disallow. https://twitter.com/... Michelle Manafy / @michellemanafy : Apple today informed developers of “reader” apps that they are able to sign up for access to an “External Link Account Entitlement” that will allow the app to offer a link to a website so users can create or manage an account outside of the App Store. https://www.macrumors.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : With South Korea law, EU Digital Markets Act on its way and smart competition laws making their way through Congress, this change by Apple is a step but likely to be dated soon. https://www.macrumors.com/... Alexander Griekspoor / @mekentosj : @reneritchie My problem has never been with margin or paying Apple, in fact I happily pay the fees given how much business they bring. The issue is with the arbitrary categories and rules, the gatekeeper/monopoly, curbing of innovation etc. For example, how does Facebook pay for Xcode/UIKit? Rene Ritchie / @reneritchie : @mekentosj I feel you. I've always said the only way to know if it's hurting innovation is to see if there's a major category of apps that grow on Google Play but are disallowed on App Store. That's just started to happen with game streaming services... Rene Ritchie / @reneritchie : Normal apps, 70/30 (or whatever) creator/Apple works Normal service, 70/30 (or whatever) creator/service works “Reader apps” (I.e. double aggregators), 70/30/30 creator/service/Apple (or whatever) is impossible Hence years of arguments, deals, carve-outs, drama, etc. https://twitter.com/... Rene Ritchie / @reneritchie : @mekentosj “Reader apps” are unique in that they have double brokers involved. Just like Apple aggregates apps for the App Store, they aggregate books or music or shows or whatever. 30/30/70 is impossible, so either Apple has to give up its cut, or the service has to, so they argue Rene Ritchie / @reneritchie : https://developer.apple.com/ ... - Distributing “reader” apps with a link to your website - Requesting the External Link Account Entitlement - Configuring and enabling the entitlement in Xcode - Understanding app and link requirements - Implementing the in-app modal sheet - Etc See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s account-link entitlement creates a narrow exception to the App Store’s otherwise central role in app-to-customer interactions, a model critics had characterized as distribution users cannot readily avoid. It gives reader-app publishers a web route for account creation and servicing without making that route universal across app categories.
The exception foreshadows later, broader changes in Europe: Apple ultimately supported alternative app stores in the EU and later expanded web-linking rules for EU purchases. The arc is one of tightly scoped concessions rather than a wholesale abandonment of platform control.
First-order effects
- Reader-app developers can send iOS users to their own sites to create or manage accounts, shifting those support and onboarding interactions out of the App Store interface.
- Apple must administer access to the External Link Account Entitlement, preserving a permission layer over which apps may use the external account flow.
Second-order effects
- Reader-app publishers gain a more direct account relationship with users, while other developer categories gain a concrete precedent for seeking comparable external-link treatment.
- The category-specific entitlement sharpens the contrast with Apple’s later EU purchase-link rules, making geography and app type increasingly important to developers’ distribution design.
Third-order effects
- If such exceptions continue to expand, App Store governance shifts from a single uniform channel toward a set of regulated, category- and region-specific access rules.
- Apple’s gatekeeper leverage increasingly rests on setting the terms of external access, not solely on keeping user interactions inside the store.
The trend: Mobile platform control is being incrementally unbundled through narrowly defined external-link and alternative-distribution pathways.