Patreon's iOS stuff explained for you as a subscriber to me (Patreon)

Gonna keep this short cuz I hate talking about it.

First, if you are on Android or use Patreon on your PC, this does not affect you. At all. You're chill. Don't worry.

Some of you have already heard and if not, here's the tl;dr:

Through the Patreon iOS app, Apple is requiring Patreon to tack on a 30% fee to any new subscription. The fee goes to Apple and I have a choice of eating that cost so the price is the same for iOS users or adding it to the tier cost, making iOS subscriptions (only iOS subscriptions) more expensive.

Patreon is insisting Apple is forcing their hand, which is true! If they don't comply, they will delist the app. This is the same stuff that Apple and Epic, Spotify, and others got into a fight over.

However.Instead of doing what Spotify, Amazon, etc have done (which is to disable purchasing subscriptions entirely) which would be the best for every creator and user on the site, they are forcing the fee on everyone because:

They would never eat the fee themselves, that's silly.

It would mean no more income from the iOS app. That's bad for investors, which I'm sure were all human at some point but data is nebulous at best on what they're like now.

It would mean no more new users from the iOS app. That's a number that doesn't go up anymore, which is bad for the investors/wretches of the deep.

There's some other stuff about switching to subscription billing that sucks but it will not affect anyone reading this, so don't worry about it.

All you need to know is that Patreon is doing its thing again, which is saying they really care about creators and patrons, while doing only what is best for their bottom line.

As such, if you use the Patreon iOS app, please uninstall it. You can log into Patreon using Safari/Firefox where it will give you the same interface. (New iOS subscriptions acquired through a browser are also not subject to App Store fees.) Patreon's bullheaded behavior in this is because they are insistent on people using the iOS app and I fundamentally disagree that their software and metrics thereof are more important than any creator's well-being.

That's it! Have a good rest of your week. ✌