This has always seemed like a horrible user-hostile dark-pattern on Apple's part. When you subscribe, Apple says to go to Settings to unsubscribe or turn off auto-renew, but it's very opaque. It's also hidden behind a username/password prompt.
It would be much better if there were a Subscriptions option directly under 'iTunes & App Store' – even if there were still a password prompt behind this, at least people would know how to find it.
But Apple have long, long needed to modernise their entire iTunes Store experience, of which subscriptions are just one small problem. Does anyone know if it's still running on WebObjects? The whole experience has always felt slow and un-responsive, which felt normal when it first launched, but now feels very behind the times. It wouldn't surprise me if the subscriptions issue is a result of this too. Would be interested to hear if this is the case.
It's always felt like poor discoverability and lag were big reasons behind their social efforts (Ping/Connect) failing too. Not every social network needs a web presence, but presumably it'd help to be able to access/link to this content on the web at large, rather than it being buried deep inside existing apps.
Honestly, I'd like to know too. I have no first-hand knowledge here, which is why I was asking about it.
WebObjects has been discontinued, presumably for a reason, and while it was ahead of its time back in the day, it wouldn't be surprising to me if its age is starting to show when trying to deal with the huge amounts of traffic the iTunes Store must handle. But I really don't know. I only asked because I've seen it mentioned in this context before.
I've personally experienced a lot of flakiness with the Apple ID infrastructure though, especially with 2-factor auth enabled (their old 2-factor auth, not the new system which I haven't tried yet). Most recently when trying to purchase AppleCare after the fact, I just couldn't log in. I have no idea what's going on behind the scenes.
It's hidden behind a u/p prompt for a very good reason: that section of the site contains your personal info, payment information, shipping address, and so forth. It is absolutely necessary to require reauthentication to access that data.
That's a decision on their part which makes it a dark pattern. Subscriptions do not need to be in the same place. Although, I guess what you're subscribed to could be sensitive enough...
I think, given how Apple treat subscriptions (they email you multiple times warning you when a subscription is about to expire, renewable subscriptions are only for certain types of content), I would rather chalk this up to incompetence rather than maliciousness.
I think we're starting to seriously abuse the term "dark pattern". Placing subscription management (i.e. controlling what stuff hits your credit card) behind a reauthentication is not deceptive in any way.
Just to be clear, the dark pattern isn't the re-authentication itself, it's hiding the "Subscriptions" button behind a button that says "View Apple ID" where many people (myself included) may not think to look. The re-authentication just compounds the problem by hindering discoverability of where the "Subscriptions" button actually is, because you have to go through a password prompt to find it.
The Settings app built-in search doesn't work either. If you search for "Subscriptions" it doesn't appear, because it's behind hidden behind this password prompt (to be more generous, that entire screen is probably only generated once you've logged in, but it doesn't have to be that way).
Additionally, the "View Apple ID" button itself is also non-obvious: you have to click your email address first for it to come up as a pop-over. I recognise my email address in blue is a link to my account information, but a less experienced user might (reasonably) think otherwise. It would probably be better for your account name to have a right disclosure arrow next to it (taking you to a new view with your account options inside) to specifically indicate that touching it takes you to this new screen, because that's the way everything else in the Settings app works.
To solve all of this, you could just as easily put the "Subscriptions" button one level up in the "iTunes & App Store" screen, before the password prompt, and only prompt for a password after the user has clicked it. This would solve all of these problems.
If this sounds confusing, that's because it is. That's the real problem here.
There is intended to be a difference between poor UX and the godawful phrase "dark patterns." The amount of overintellectualization you can do about a given experience doesn't contribute to the darkness.
This, of course, is part of why it's such an awful phrase. It's too nerd-cool to avoid being overapplied by cool nerds.
This has always seemed like a horrible user-hostile dark-pattern on Apple's part. When you subscribe, Apple says to go to Settings to unsubscribe or turn off auto-renew, but it's very opaque. It's also hidden behind a username/password prompt.
It would be much better if there were a Subscriptions option directly under 'iTunes & App Store' – even if there were still a password prompt behind this, at least people would know how to find it.
But Apple have long, long needed to modernise their entire iTunes Store experience, of which subscriptions are just one small problem. Does anyone know if it's still running on WebObjects? The whole experience has always felt slow and un-responsive, which felt normal when it first launched, but now feels very behind the times. It wouldn't surprise me if the subscriptions issue is a result of this too. Would be interested to hear if this is the case.
It's always felt like poor discoverability and lag were big reasons behind their social efforts (Ping/Connect) failing too. Not every social network needs a web presence, but presumably it'd help to be able to access/link to this content on the web at large, rather than it being buried deep inside existing apps.