Apple has added a warning in iOS 13 beta 2 that appears when you try to uninstall an app which still has an active subscription. “Do you want to keep the subscription for this app?” the message reads, before giving you a link to manage your Apple ID subscriptions. The feature was first spotted by MacStories editor Federico Viticci.
It’s a sensible move from Apple, after its App Store was hit by a plague of “free” apps that used a variety of shady tactics to extract money from unwitting users. Often these tactics revolve around aggressively coercing users into signing up to expensive subscriptions with unclear terms, in the hope that people either won’t notice or will forget to unsubscribe. If a user is uninstalling an app, then there’s a good chance they’re no longer interested in the subscription. Giving people a link to manage their subscriptions is a convenient way of reminding them to cancel.
The feature is the latest in a series of attempts made by Apple to make app payment terms clearer to its users. This year alone, Apple has changed its App Store guidelines to say that developers have to be more upfront with the true cost of subscriptions, it has added an extra confirmation step during signup, and it also reorganized its menus to make your active Apple ID subscriptions easier to see and manage.