We at Branded Editions are taking advantage of Apple’s recently updated App Store Review Guidelines to allow our publishers with reader apps to provide a link to their websites, where users can create and manage their accounts.

But what are reader apps? Reader apps are those apps whose prime function is to provide digital content such as magazines, newspapers, books, audio and music.

With reader apps, people can sign in to their account created outside the app, letting them view and enjoy previously purchased media content or content subscriptions on their Apple device. If you’d like your reader app to also provide a link to your website where people can create and manage their account, we can do that now too!

As a publisher of reader apps, if you are interested in using this, you can enable the entitlement to add external links to your application by implementing the in-app modal sheet according to Apple’s instructions and guidelines, so that you can direct users to your own website.

You cannot include a link to your website for account creation and management in your app’s metadata, but just from the External Link Account Entitlement. This entitlement needs to be one per app, as you cannot use the same one in more than one app.

According to Apple, this provides a more secure and transparent experience for a user leaving Apple’s ecosystem. If you’re wondering whether you can combine both in-app purchases and an external link, the answer is no. Apple will only allow you to use one or the other.

So, what are the next steps to follow?

  • Reach out to your BE project manager, who will be happy to answer any questions or provide more information regarding the External Authentication
  • Request the External Link Account Entitlement by submitting a request form to Apple. Please remember that just the Account Holder of the account will be able to request it.
  • After you have received the email confirmation, our developers will update your XCode project, entitlements plist file and info.plist file to list the entitlement and metadata.
  • We will implement the in-app modal sheet and submit your app for review in the App Store connect – It’s as easy as it sounds!