Apple opens retention messages in the subscription cancel flow to every developer

What subscribers see

Apple announced the feature on 4 November. After a subscriber taps Cancel Subscription, iOS shows a Confirm Cancellation screen with the developer's message on it. From there they can still cancel, tap Keep Subscription, or take an offer or a different plan when the message carries one.

Apple reviews every message against the App Review Guidelines. The header and body can't name an offer, a discount or a price, such as "50% off": Apple shows those itself, only to subscribers who qualify.

App Store Connect or the real-time API

• App Store Connect, under Monetization, Subscriptions, Retention Messaging. Up to 10 messages per app, each with a header, body text, an optional image (3840 × 2160 or 5244 × 2950 pixels) and an optional retention offer. Every subscriber on a plan sees the same words. There is no server to run and no access to request.
• The Retention Messaging API, which the developer account's Account Holder requests from Apple. Messages are uploaded and approved first. When a subscriber taps Cancel, the App Store calls the developer's server, which has 700 milliseconds to choose one: text, text with an image, a switch to another plan, or a promotional offer.

The two work together. When the server's answer doesn't arrive in time, Apple shows the App Store Connect message, and failing that, the API's default message. RevenueCat runs the real-time server for apps without a backend of their own, but Apple still has to grant the API access first.

Before you add a discount

RevenueCat looked at 22 million Apple retention messages across 309 apps with early access. Subscribers accepted about 1.1% of the discount offers and 0.6% of the plan switches they were shown.

In one test by Dipsea, an audio stories app, 50% off saved slightly more annual subscribers than a message with no offer, 22.1% against 18.8%. It brought in less than half the revenue per subscriber so far: $1.24 against $3.16.