iOS subscription DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_STATUS notification: latest_expired_receipt vs latest_receipt

Question

I am working on adding subscription to my iOS app and I came across some very annoying inconsistencies:

My server is listening for the DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_STATUS notification from Apple:

{
    "auto_renew_status_change_date": "2019-06-05 13:42:43 Etc/GMT",
    "environment": "Sandbox",
    "auto_renew_status": "false",
    "auto_renew_status_change_date_pst": "2019-06-05 06:42:43 America/Los_Angeles",
    "latest_expired_receipt": "ewoJIn...",
    "latest_expired_receipt_info": ⊖{
        "original_transaction_id": "10000001010101010",
        "expires_date_formatted": "2019-06-05 13:43:13 Etc/GMT",
        ...
    },
    "password": "xxxxxxxxx",
    "auto_renew_status_change_date_ms": "1559742163000",
    "auto_renew_product_id": "com.my.product",
    "notification_type": "DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_STATUS"
}

During my tests the notification contained in almost all cases a latest_expired_receipt and a latest_expired_receipt_info.

BUT some message contained latest_receipt and a latest_receipt_info instead. Beside this difference the structure of the messages was identical ("auto_renew_status": "false", auto_renew_status_change_date before the expires_date_formatted, etc.)

Does Apple change the structure randomly to make implementing subscription even more enjoyable or is there any logic on when which structure is used?

Of course I can simply adapt my server code to check if latest_receipt OR latest_expired_receipt is available but this would be a quick and dirty solution. I would prefer to understand when to expect which content/structure...

Answer 1

Apple constantly make developer's life harder.

As stated in App Store Server Notifications documentation, top-level objects latest_receipt, latest_receipt_info, latest_expired_receipt, and latest_expired_receipt_info are scheduled for deprecation. This could be the reason for the notification to behave differently.

You should update your code to rely on latest_receipt & latest_receipt_info in unified_receipt object instead. Source: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appstoreservernotifications/responsebody

Answer 2

latest_expired_receipt_info - This array appears in the notification instead of latest_receipt_info for expired transactions. You can check the official Apple documentation here. Also note per Apple's docs: The following top-level objects are scheduled for deprecation: latest_receipt, latest_receipt_info, latest_expired_receipt, and latest_expired_receipt_info.

You might also consider a third-party service like Qonversion.io to avoid headaches implementing the subscriptions and get subscription analytics integrations out of the box.