Sub Club by RevenueCat David Barnard, Jacob Eiting

On the podcast: Another Apple WWDC conference is in the books, and as usual, we’re excited to dig into everything Apple announced — and what it means for iOS developers and RevenueCat users. This year’s announcements covered everything from small quality-of-life enhancements in App Store Connect to the deprecation of some of Apple’s oldest in-app payments code.
Key Takeaways:

🏪 StoreKit 1 is deprecated — After 15 years, the old and creaking first version of StoreKit is being deprecated by Apple. It’ll likely stick around as so many legacy apps still use it, but StoreKit 1 will not receive new updates and features. 

🧠 Apple Intelligence — AI, rather than spelling the end of apps, could usher in a new era for apps. By building AI directly into the OS, connecting to services in a privacy-conscious way, Apple is opening up the potential of AI to all apps on the App Store. 

👀 Vision Pro — While Vision Pro is now available in new markets and has received an update to VisionOS, it still feels like a “publicly available beta”, where the audience size remains small. Great for experimentation, but not a place to build a business (yet). 

🧘 Quality-of-life improvements — Apple announced plenty of quality-of-life updates such as reduced screenshot requirements (now only one size per platform!), deep links for custom product pages, and a better experience for TestFlight users. 

🏆 Win-back offers — A fourth offer type is now available, which applies to users whose subscriptions have lapsed, something which wasn’t easy before. Win-back offers also come with functionality we haven’t seen before with the other offer types. 

🔏 AdAttributionKit — In what seems to be a successor to SKAN, Apple has announced a new privacy-focused ad attribution framework. AdAttributionKit better standardizes what existed before and comes with some new features (such as compatibility with third-party app stores).
About Hosts:
David Barnard is a Growth Advocate at RevenueCat and creator of apps like Launch Center Pro and Weather Up.
Jacob Eiting is the CEO of RevenueCat and an expert on subscription apps and in-app purchases.
Charlie Chapman is a Developer Advocate at RevenueCat, an indie developer of apps like Dark Noise, and host of the Launched podcast.

Follow us on X:
David BarnardJacob EitingCharlie ChapmanRevenueCatSubClubResources:
WWDC 2024 Session RecordingsSign-up Form to Get Notified About Advanced Commerce APIsApple Docs: What’s NewEpisode Highlights
[2:00] Goodbye to an old friend: After 15 years, Apple’s StoreKit 1 (recently renamed “original API for in-app purchase”) has been deprecated.
[7:09] AI in the OS: With natural language abilities integrated at the OS level, Apple Intelligence could change how developers build and users interact with apps.
[16:42] Vision of the future: Apple Vision Pro 2.0 is a cool opportunity for developers to experiment with, but it’s still early days (and the addressable market is currently small).
[21:07] App Store Connect updates: Apple announced multiple quality-of life improvements for App Store Connect, including the ability to nominate your app to be featured on the App Store, new tools for generating marketing assets, deep links for custom product pages, an improved TestFlight user experience, and reduced screenshot requirements.
[39:04] Baby, come back: App Store Connect now lets you set up win-back offers, giving you a new way to re-engage lapsed subscribers and raise your LTV.
[49:03] Streamlined purchasing: Users can now complete their entire purchase within the App Store (or you can opt out of this feature if you’d rather direct users to the purchasing flow within your app).
[50:21] Advanced Commerce APIs: With complex SKU bundling and the ability to track digital content from multiple apps within the same developer account, the updated App Store will support more complex monetization use cases.
[52:49] SKAdNetwork 2.0?: Appl

On the podcast: What to do when there are no jobs to be done, how to build innovative features, and why copying Duolingo’s engagement strategy probably won’t work for your app.
Key Takeaways:

🏆 To win over a mass market, you need to discover your app’s trigger. Apps serving niche audiences often have a well-defined job-to-be-done. Apps aiming for broad appeal, however, need to identify the triggers in a user’s daily life they will optimize for, in the absence of a specific user goal.

🪄 A framework for user retention. Apps that serve a mass audience need to work extra hard to engage and retain users. While niche apps might be inherently more retentive, they too would benefit from making the app: magical, relevant, intuitive in real-time, novel, and pleasurable.

🥅 Why you might not want to make “the Duolingo” of your niche. Apps like Duolingo try hard to shame you for not using them but make completing the day’s goal quick and easy. This approach may not be suitable for all long-term goals and doesn't work well when your aim is to retain as many users as possible.

🧑🏼‍🎨 Innovation isn’t accidental, it’s designed - here’s a framework to help:
Always align with your mission.Visualize the specific user you’re building this feature for.Specify the triggers you’re addressing.Know the job to be done for the user.Think through all of these areas when prioritizing your backlog.

👍🏼 Some features should be considered must-haves. Features that all your competitors have, fulfill a promise you sell users on, or whose absence will drive users to a competitor, or cause high levels of frustration if missing, should be prioritized. Deciding whether to prioritize these over innovative additions is up to you.
🦄 The other feature category to build for is “delighters.” While it’s difficult to know whether a feature will delight users, they typically drive retention, complete a known job in a delightful or magical way, and create “aha” or “wow” moments for the user.

About Guest
👨‍💻 VP of Strategy and creator of core features at Welltory.
💡Asya leads her team to build thoughtful, mission-aligned features that delight 8+ million active users.
👋 LinkedIn
Follow us on Twitter‣ David Barnard‣ Jacob Eiting‣ RevenueCat‣ Sub Club
Episode Highlights
[0:44] The Welltory story: How (and why) Jane Smorodnikova founded Welltory.
[6:55] Trigger happy: Some apps don’t have an obvious “job to be done.” When this happens, finding and nurturing the trigger for users to open your app is crucial.
[10:18] Making magic: Welltory’s framework for building a delightful, sticky app: Make it magical, make it relevant, make sense in real time, make it novel, make it pleasurable.
[21:14] The Duolingo of wellness apps?: Why Duolingo’s retention strategy wouldn’t work for Welltory.
[26:16] An innovation framework: When deciding what new features to build, align with your mission, know your personas, identify their triggers, and figure out what immediate and high-level problems you’re solving for them.
[37:11] Driving retention: The secret sauce for retaining users for the long term? Make your app experience magical and novel, provide relief, personalize and gamify the experience, and give users bragging rights and social sharing features.
[40:32] Feature deal-breakers: Make sure you build both must-have and nice-to-have features to avoid frustrating users and prevent them from switching to a competitor app.

On the podcast: How developers can launch and optimize their app listings on the Google Play Store. A conversation from Google I/O 2024 with Sarah Karam, director of Apps Partnerships at Google.
Key Takeaways:
There are now more ways to optimize revenue with Google Play Commerce, such as installment subscriptions and automatically adjusted local pricing. 

On Android, the leading apps diversify their monetization. Instead of offering just subscriptions, for example, they offer IAPs to cater for diverse user preferences. Tipping, for example, has seen huge growth. 

The leading Android apps also adjust their overall approach to cater for the huge and diverse user base. Just replicating your iOS strategy will only serve a small fraction of potential customers. How can you serve someone on a $200 phone as well as a $2000 one? 

“The consumer rarely buys what you think you sell” and understanding this can lead to secondary product-market fit, unlocking new growth. Stop thinking about your app in terms of the feature(s) it offers and more about what problem it solves. 


About Guest
👨‍💻 Director of Google’s Apps Partnerships team.
🤖 Sarah is passionate about helping developers succeed on Google Play Store and the Android ecosystem.
👋 LinkedIn
Resources
Google Play Academy
Guidelines to Getting Featured on Google Play
Guides to Help Grow Your Business on Google Play
Google I/O 2024 Keynote
Engage SDK
Custom Store Listings
Google Play business community on X
Android Developer YouTube Channel

Episode Highlights:
[3:57] Feature presentation: Getting your app featured on the Google Play Store can be great, but it isn’t the most important thing (and you still need to market your app to take advantage of being featured).
[8:46] Proactive engagement: Google’s newly announced Engage SDK (currently in developer preview) will surface apps at relevant times for users in the context they’re most likely to engage.
[13:53] Easier ways to pay (and get paid): New commerce options — including newly accepted forms of payment, installment payments, and student and senior plans — allow Android developers to serve more users around the world.
[23:37] Custom is key: Google Play Store listings can now be customized by the keywords users searched to find the app.
[29:38] Diversifying payments: Apps that offer in-app payments (IAP) in addition to subscriptions tend to perform better than apps that offer subscriptions alone.
[31:54] iOS =/= Android: To take full advantage of the Play Store, developers need to think about the diverse devices, budgets, and preferences of the 2.5 billion Android users around the world.
[34:40] Baby steps: Small experiments (like offering a paid 7-day pass instead of a free trial) can help you determine what works best for your app and tailor your offerings for diverse markets.
[45:00] Penny for your app?: Tipping is a surprisingly effective way of letting users pay for your product.

On the podcast: How the Microsoft 365 team optimizes their apps for the app stores and the top paywall optimization tips for enterprise apps and start-ups. Part 2 of our conversation with Ramit Arora.
Key Takeaways:
💼 Use jobs-to-be-done to inform your app store optimization (ASO) keywords strategy. Optimize for keywords that align with what your potential audience is hoping to accomplish. To discover what these keywords are, use the same user research that informs your product roadmap. 

🔐 Use Apple Search Ads (ASA) to unearth highly profitable keywords for ASO. A mistake that some apps make is to rank for keywords that are easy to rank for, not for ones that will drive revenue. Use ASA to discover which keywords are driving subscription growth, not just downloads and engagement. 

💲 High-impact paywall experiments that work for Microsoft will probably work for you. These include making the more expensive (family) plan the default option, anchoring the price of yearly plans to the monthly equivalent (emphasizing value), and ensuring that free trial offers use the word “free” on the CTA button itself. 

About Guest:
👨‍💻 Product Manager on the Microsoft 365 (Office) Mobile and Mac team.
🚀 An expert in subscription management, growth, and monetization strategy, Ramit leads the apps like a start-up.
👋 LinkedIn
Episode Highlights:
[3:31] Choosing key keywords: Don’t go after keywords simply because they’re easy to rank for — select keywords that will actually drive value for your business.
[8:54] The golden ratio: Even Microsoft has to balance their LTV vs. CAC.
[10:58] Android vs. iOS: Right now, it’s more difficult to monetize on Android, but it’s a promising market.
[13:01] Testing, 123: Microsoft optimizes paywalls with friendly CTAs and GIFs that show (rather than tell) the value proposition.
[15:55] Premium presentation: Simple changes like switching the order of subscription options on your paywall can result in a lift in conversions and revenue.

On the podcast: Microsoft 365 app monetization and optimization, and how Microsoft is building successful apps–recorded live in Vegas at the Mobile Apps Unlocked (MAU) conference.
Key Takeaways:
📱 The App Store advantage: Microsoft's data reinforces that the App Store, despite the fees attached, offers significant advantages. The seamless experience from things such as pre-attached payment methods results in a conversion rate from trial to paid that is five times higher than on other direct channels.

🚀 On the App Store, think like a startup (even if you’re not): Despite Microsoft’s strong brand, success in the App Store requires the agility and innovation of a startup. The platform's democratic nature allows new startups to challenge established companies. Continual innovation is essential and you need to be at the top of your game with ASO.

🔗 Bundling apps can mean better retention: Combining multiple apps into a single subscription can boost user retention by meeting a variety of needs. Even if a use case is one-off, there will be other use cases met by other apps. This strategy generally involves developing a wide range of features rather than focusing deeply on a single application.

🧠 Integrate AI thoughtfully: When integrating AI, it's important to consider if it genuinely enhances the tasks users perform and brings a desktop-level experience to mobile devices. This ensures the technology is both practical and user-focused, and not simply jumping on the bandwagon. 
⚖️ As you scale, prioritization never becomes any less important: As the number of monthly active users grows, you need to think bigger and bigger in terms of impact. Focus on optimizations that affect large user groups. Simple improvements in app reliability, performance, and the purchase process can often impact the largest number of users.
About Guest
👨‍💻 Product Manager on the Microsoft 365 (Office) Mobile and Mac team.
🚀 An expert in subscription management, growth, and monetization strategy, Ramit leads the apps like a start-up.
👋 LinkedIn
Episode Highlights
[1:14] From desktop to mobile: Microsoft is famous for its desktop software, but it’s increasingly prioritizing its mobile apps to keep up with consumer trends.
[3:09] Paying by phone: Users prefer to make purchases using their mobile device — trial-to-paid conversion rates are nearly 5x higher on mobile than other channels.
[4:56] The start-up mindset: Think like a start-up to stay agile against the competition in the app stores.
[6:21] Value they can’t refuse: To retain users over the long term, Microsoft bundles multiple products and features into a single cost-effective app.
[8:22] Staying ahead of the curve: The key to becoming and staying a leading app? Neutralize the competition, differentiate, and incubate.
[17:19] Lighting up the small screen: Apps like Photoroom and Microsoft Copilot are using AI to make tasks historically done on a desktop easy on a mobile device.
[21:09] You can’t do it all: Prioritize the app optimizations and features that will have the biggest impact on your business.

On the podcast:The importance of passion for the product you’re working on, how to differentiate in a crowded market, and why achieving the ‘viable’ in Minimum Viable Product is harder than ever.Key Takeaways:
📉 Ad-based revenue models too often lead to a degraded user experience. For ad-supported products, the real customer is the advertiser, not the end user. This causes a conflict between doing what’s going to create the best product and what’s going to drive the most advertising revenue. 
 
🚀 The bar for what makes a “viable” MVP is always getting higher. While no app first ships as a fully-formed 1.0, it’s now rarely viable to launch an app as a barebones MVP (minimum viable product). There are just too many apps offering too much competition to not offer a compelling reason for a user to switch. 

🔍 The “Jobs to Be Done” (JTBD) framework allows you to dig deeper than surface-level features. Gathering user feedback is essential, but users rarely request what they truly want. JTBD demands going deeper than feature requests by addressing the underlying need that the user wants to fulfill. 

❓ To get to the root cause of a user problem, ask the “five whys”. When a user makes a request, get into the habit of asking “Why?”. The more times you ask, the more clarity you’ll have on what you actually need to build, giving you jobs-to-be-done that can best meet the needs of your users. 

🌀How to capitalize on “black swan events”. Adaptability and swift action are key to managing unexpected high-impact events. It's essential to pivot from past decisions without being anchored by sunk costs and to act and ship quickly to capture new opportunities.
About Guest:
👨‍💻 Seasoned Internet entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience building groundbreaking apps.
🌿Formerly an early employee at Mint, Val had a vision for a better, more user-centered financial health app.
💡“Try to pick a problem that you want to work on for 10 years — even if it were to fail. That’s how I feel. Even if Monarch were to fail, I would feel good that we moved the ball forward, we did something, we helped people along the way.”
👋 LinkedIn
Episode Highlights:
[7:54] Ads vs. subscriptions: Why subscriptions (not an ad-supported model) were Val’s first choice for Monarch.
[9:12] The real MVP: In today’s subscription app world, the bar for a minimal viable product has gone way up.
[13:46] Just ship it (or don’t?): Getting customer feedback during the design phase may take more time up front, but it means identifying your users’ key “jobs to be done” in fewer product iterations.
[23:10] The five “whys”: Ask yourself… what is your app really selling?
[24:56] Disappoint-Mint: How Val went from the Mint team to creating Monarch — and what happened when Mint shut down.
[34:17] Modern marketing: Talking to potential users on forums like Reddit can be an effective way to build trust and win fans.
[36:31] The butterfly effect: What’s next for the Monarch team and business.
[38:02] On a mission: Val and the Monarch team are passionate about helping users improve their financial health.