What you need to know
- Twitter rolled out Super Follows yesterday.
- It's supposed to give people the chance to subscribe to accounts for exclusive content.
- In-app purchases mean the system looks a bit rubbish on iPhone.
Twitter's new Super Follows feature looks pretty terrible on devices like the iPhone 12, thanks to in-app purchases and the App Store which seem to list each account you can Super Follow as an individual in-app purchase.
As spotted by Jane Manchun Wong:
Each Super Follow is an In-App Purchase on the App Store, but because there are too many IAPs for the Twitter app, the App Store only shows 10 instead of the full list
Each Super Follow is an In-App Purchase on the App Store,
but because there are too many IAPs for the Twitter app, the App Store only shows 10 instead of the full list pic.twitter.com/PPT3bQDCJzEach Super Follow is an In-App Purchase on the App Store,
but because there are too many IAPs for the Twitter app, the App Store only shows 10 instead of the full list pic.twitter.com/PPT3bQDCJz— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 2, 2021September 2, 2021
As you can see from the image, each Super Follow option is listed as its own in-app purchase, this is because Apple's App Store doesn't let apps have multiple versions of the same subscription, a problem worked around by companies like Twitch with features like packages of subs or coins. Developers are also limited to setting up 10,000 in-app purchase products per account, from Apple:
Each developer account can create up to 10,000 in-app purchase products across all the apps in the account. You can use the same in-app purchases for all supported platforms (iOS, macOS, tvOS) of your app if they are part of the same app record in App Store Connect. There are four in-app purchase types: consumables, non-consumables, auto-renewable subscriptions, and non-renewing subscriptions.
That seems like a bulls**t.🤔 It's not scaleable at all. Twitter would need to make a new app version every time, they give super follow to somebody. Also, there is a limit of 10.000 IAP per App Store Account = there couldn't be more than 10k people who have super follow feature.That seems like a bulls**t.🤔 It's not scaleable at all. Twitter would need to make a new app version every time, they give super follow to somebody. Also, there is a limit of 10.000 IAP per App Store Account = there couldn't be more than 10k people who have super follow feature.— Michal Langmajer (@MichalLangmajer) September 2, 2021September 2, 2021
This is mental way to do it! Why couldn’t it be implemented like YouTube implements Super Chat? pic.twitter.com/IXnzaA46jKThis is mental way to do it! Why couldn’t it be implemented like YouTube implements Super Chat? pic.twitter.com/IXnzaA46jK— Stephen Radford (@steve228uk) September 2, 2021September 2, 2021
This could also mean that Twitter is limited in the number of Super Follows it can offer its users. Super Follows lets users subscribe to accounts with more than 10,000 subscribers for the chance to access exclusive content whilst paying up to $9.99 a month, a small portion of which goes to Twitter and 30% of which (on iOS) goes to Apple.
