Apple Solves the Accidental App Store Subscription Problem

If you own an iPhone with Touch ID, you'll know how easy it is to accidentally trigger an App Store subscription. It turns out Apple knew about the problem and quietly decided to fix it.

As 9To5Mac reports, the problem stems from the way in which subscription prompts would pop-up on-screen. You naturally respond by touching the Home button to dismiss the pop-up, but instead the placing of your finger on the button instigates the Touch ID authentication and confirms the subscription sign-up. Basically, it does the complete opposite of what you intended.

The fix by Apple was first spotted by app developer David Barnard who tweeted about it:

Whoa! Apple added an additional confirmation step for subscriptions. This new alert comes after you confirm with Touch ID/Face ID. I hope they address this in a more elegant way in iOS 13, but I'm thrilled Apple took a definitive step to curb scam subscriptions. ðŸ'?ðŸ?» @pschiller pic.twitter.com/oktaEVdx0o

— David Barnard (@drbarnard) April 11, 2019

As you can see, the fix comes in the form of an additional pop-up box which gives users the opportunity to either confirm the subscription or cancel the accidental sign-up. As Barnard comments, it's not elegant, but it will stop a lot of frustration until iOS 13 arrives and Apple potentially comes up with a better solution.

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If your device hasn't received this update yet and you've accidentally subscribed to a service, don't worry, there's a couple of easy ways to cancel it. It seems likely everyone with an iPhone or iPad will start seeing the extra confirmation pop-up before the week is over, though.

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