From the 6th February 2025 there will be changes to how online content (on-demand resources, sessions marked available online and any courses that include one or both of these) is handled in the Gymcatch iOS and Android apps.

Google has determined that the current ability to view and purchase content that is consumed online is not compliant with their Payments Policy. Apple has determined that the current ability to purchase content using our on-demand feature is not compliant with their Payments Policy.

This means that we had two choices; either to implement Apple In-App Purchases and Google’s Play billing system, or stop those purchases being available in their mobile apps. As the former would entail commission payments to Apple and Google (30%) and funds having to come to us first as the app developer, we quickly concluded this option was unworkable for our clients.

We have therefore had to take the difficult decision to stop those purchases being available in the related mobile apps.

What does this mean for you?

These are the headline changes and how they will affect your business on Gymcatch:

Gymcatch web and embedded web apps are unchanged. All content is visible and purchasable. It does not matter what device your customers use so long as they access via a web browser such as Safari or Google Chrome.

On iOS, all content is visible but on-demand resources can not be purchased. The resource can be accessed after purchase on web within the iOS. Online sessions and courses are unchanged, they are still visible and bookable.

On Android, all online content has been removed. It is no longer visible nor purchasable. Android users will need to use the web via a browser such as Google Chrome.

You can read on for more details about the changes made below.

Changes to iOS

In the iOS app, customers will be able to view and book your livestream sessions and courses as normal. On-demand content will be visible in the iOS app but customers will not be able to purchase access to on-demand resources via the iOS Gymcatch app. If they have bought access via the web, then they will be able to access the resource links in their iOS app. It is just the purchase of on-demand content that Apple have required us to restrict.

Changes to Android

Google have taken a stricter approach with their policy and required that we fully remove all online content from the Android app. This means that livestream sessions, on-demand resources and courses featuring either or both of these are all completely removed from the Android app. Even if the customer has booked one of these sessions/courses or purchased access to an on-demand resource via the web they will not be able to view these in the Android app.

Additionally we have been required to remove any session, course or package (bundle, pass or membership) and hide any business from the search bar results that contain one or more of the following key terms:

Online
Virtual
Google
Teams
Zoom
Video
Recorded
Recording
Pre-recorded / prerecorded / pre recorded

Google has deemed that any object that contains these keywords is online content and thus to remain compliant we can not display these in the Android app. At this time this keyword filtering does not affect the iOS app nor the web.

We appreciate this is very frustrating for all and please rest assured we have been in extensive communication about this with Apple and Google for months, appealing on our customers behalf numerous times. We are also assured, and our own research confirms, that other booking platforms have the exact same requirements in place, so whilst frustrating, we are not an outlier - we can provide specific evidence of this if helpful.

We will, of course, keep a close eye on their policy and current legislative changes and challenges that may impact this ruling in the future.