| Source | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEbwRYALqcA |
|---|---|
| Readwise URL | https://read.readwise.io/read/01kw1f78pwmga9q2rbq47sd6ye |
| Readwise ID | 01kw1f78pwmga9q2rbq47sd6ye |
| Author | Adam Lyttle |
| Category | video |
| Site | YouTube |
| Published | 2026-02-06 |
| Saved | 2026-06-26T08:02:29.211000+00:00 |
| Tags | adam-lyttle, app-development |
Readwise Summary: This one tiny paywall feature is now getting apps rejected… and it used to be one of my biggest revenue drivers. Let’s break down what Apple changed, which features are officially gone and how bad the revenue hit really is
View @AivarsMeijers video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ihYolRHSao
View the updated (compliant) paywall code here: https://github.com/adamlyttleapps/Paywall-PurchaseView-SwiftUI
Check out the video that started it all: https://youtu.be/5w3k1Z6ZQzQ
Say “Hello 👋” to Mario on X: https://x.com/xmarioapps
Follow my journey here: Website: https://adamlyttleapps.com Twitter: https://x.com/adamlyttleapps Github: https://github.com/adamlyttleapps Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamlyttleapps TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@adamlyttleapps Substack: https://adamlyttleapps.substack.com
Shout out to my amazing video production team at https://clipwing.pro/
#AppDeveloper #Solopreneur #AppGrowth #appmonetization
Apple is now rejecting apps for this tiny toggle on your payw wall. And if you use it, your app will get rejected. This is the exact payw wall that boosted my revenue by 700%. But now Apple is rejecting one of its core features. So what happens if I have to remove it? In this video, I’m going to explore the impact, break down why it’s suddenly being rejected, and expose the horrible developer who introduced it to the indie app community. Oh, wait. That’s me. This
is the little toggle that’s causing all the problems. And for the past few weeks, I’ve been seeing more and more reports of apps being rejected for having a free trial toggle on the payw wall. And this is kind of an issue for me. If you’ve been following my journey, you will know how simple my monetization strategy really is. A weekly subscription with a free trial and an annual subscription with no free trial. This strategy has boosted my revenue from $10,000 a month to $70,000 a month.
And part of that strategy has been to communicate with the user the differences between the two subscription tiers. When the user selects the weekly option, the free trial enabled toggle is active. And when the user selects the annual option, the free trial enabled toggle is inactive. Simple, right? The toggle itself can also be manually turned on and off. And this changes which plan the user subscribes to. I introduced this payw wall into my apps
in 2024. And I documented the impact in my video, this payw wall doubled my mobile revenue. In that video, I also released a link to the source code, which I’ll link in this video as well. But before you run off to download the code and implement it into your own project, expecting to boost revenue and a life of freedom, I have a word of warning for you. that same payw wall from 2024 will get your app rejected today. And it started with this little free label on the weekly subscription
option. This label right here. Developers started to report app store rejections with Apple stating the word free in this context is misleading and overused. Mario on X suggested an elegant solution. Simply remove the label. A version of the payw wall was updated and the label free was removed. This fixed the App Store rejections and everything was looking good once again. The pay wall was compliant. Apple was no longer rejecting it and revenue was going up for a while. Then developers
started to report sporadic rejections for the use of a cooldown feature. This feature. This feature right here. When the payw wall first appears, you just can’t close it. A coolown animation appears for 5 seconds showing the progress of the timer. It’s only once the timer ends that the user can actually close the payw wall. This was deemed as somewhat of a dark pattern, but I don’t entirely agree with that label. Google defines a dark pattern as
a deceptive user interface design that tricks or manipulates users into taking action they didn’t intend, like buying things, signing up for subscriptions, or sharing personal data, benefiting businesses at the users’s expense. And in my original video, I made the case that ads use a similar cool down technique, too. So, what’s the difference between a cool down feature on an ad versus a cool down feature on a payw wall? Well, it turns out probably not the same thing in Apple’s eyes. It
kind of turns the payw wall into a hard payw wall. So, to stay compliant, the cool down feature has to go. And that brings me to the latest feature of the payw wall being rejected by Apple. The tiny little trial toggle box. That button that lets you switch between the weekly plan with free trial or annual plan with no free trial. I’ve been holding off creating this video until it was clear what exactly was happening. And the first DMs, the first time I got wind of this were from people who had
their app rejected because the toggle button didn’t actually do anything when you tapped it. The toggle state was being updated when you changed the subscription plan, but not when you turned off the toggle manually. So, a user could select the free trial enabled option, but accidentally sign up to an annual plan with no free trial. Whoops. So, yes, that is definitely a bug in their code and it’s clearly misleading. Probably unintentional, but misleading
nonetheless. So, maybe, just maybe, there’s still hope for this little toggle button. Maybe it’s not the end of the road after all. But then I saw this video posted by Abears. Fix your payw wall before the next release. And I knew immediately this was going to be a video about the free trial toggle. And I was right. Az is someone that I really look up to greatly. And my channel is heavily inspired by his style, his integrity, his passion, and his consistency. In the
video, he reports Apple rejecting his app for use of the free trial toggle. Avesz doesn’t come across to me as someone who takes shortcuts or intentionally misleads or leave sloppy bugs in the code. The purchase screen includes a toggle to add or remove a free trial from the subscription purchase. This design is confusing and may prevent users from understanding that they may be committing to an autorenewing subscription that will begin charging after the free trial period. This is legit. It’s over. Free
label gone. Cool down timer gone. Now the free trial toggle gone. To stay compliant with Apple, we need to remove the free trial toggle from our payw wall. But how much of an impact will that actually have on trial signups and revenue? Well, as it turns out, not as much as you think. Aves did an AB test on the free trial toggle and showed only a 10% increase in lifetime value. So if
you’re making around about $10,000 a month from your app, I guess that means you’re going to be generating around about $9,000 a month moving forward. And to be honest, I thought the impact would be a lot bigger. Truthfully, I don’t actually do any more AB testing on this thing anyway. The payroll works, so I stopped testing. Releasing the source code and documenting my process has helped others on their journey. And that collaboration, that community of sharing also applies to sharing when things are no longer working. So when issues were
reported, we work together as a community and we fix them. It’s what I love about building in public about being so open with this entire process. So where to from here? Clearly Apple has an issue with the toggle itself. So, I guess you could replace the entire part of the payw wall with a label that just says free trial enabled without the check box, but only appears when you select the weekly option. Then, when the annual subscription is selected, maybe
it could say no free trial or something like that. And that would make the payw wall compliant, at least for now anyway. But I would be interested to know your thoughts here. How can we best remove the toggle? Is it needed? Do we need to put a label in there? Or alternatively, do we just remove it all together and take the 10% hit?