For years, each time someone asked me what I would like to see added to iOS software on my iPhone, I always had a ready response – I want a subscription manager. And for a brief moment, when I took a look at the features added in the iOS 18.4 update recently published in beta version, I thought that Apple had finally listened to my request.
In the initial beta version iOS 18.4, the Wallet application added a new menu which included a subscription and payment option. Although this is not the autonomous subscription manager for which I claim, this addition to the portfolio looked like the same general idea – a place at a single counter to see what you are subscribed, when these subscriptions are renewed and a method of cancellation of subscriptions with a tap.
Alas, on the exam more closely, this is not quite what Apple added to the Wallet application. But that does not necessarily mean that the functionality cannot be extended to correspond to my vision. Because in this era of services based on the subscription, we need a way to remain aware of our monthly payments.
Subscription management – What I want
Before diving into what iOS 18.4 now offers and what I want to see Apple extend in the future, let us recognize that there is already a way to follow the subscriptions for which you have registered via the App Store. The problem is that it is not necessarily the easiest place to find, especially if you are not sure where to look.
You have two ways to go to your App Store subscriptions. From the App Store, press the image of yourself in the upper right corner of the application. This will bring you to your iTunes user account, where subscriptions are listed among the menu items.
Similarly, if you are in the settings, press the Apple account section with your image at the top of the screen. You will once again obtain information on your Apple account which will include a section of TAPPIRE subscriptions.
Whether you access it from the App Store or from the settings, the subscription screen will be the same. It lists your active subscriptions as well as their renewal data – the tapping any subscription raises the possibility of canceling it. Inactive subscriptions also appear, with the possibility of renewing them.
This is a fairly good base for a subscription manager, but I think that Apple’s offer could do more. To start, the subscription page displays only the services for which I registered – those that my wife has registered are entirely in another section – in the field of shared subscriptions of the family section of the parameters. A good manager would put all these charges in the same place.
I would also like to see integrated purchases because they can also be recurring payments. And although Apple’s current approach lists what I pay for each individual service every month, I would like to see a total total, which would help the budgeting options.
Subscription management – What iOS 18.4 adds
To this mixture, iOS 18.4 brings another Place to check the subscriptions, with this new menu in the Wallet application. However, although you can think that the application subscriptions would be included in the things followed by the application, this is not really the case.
Instead, this addition of wallet focuses more on pre -authorized payments. “The merchants that you authorize to invoice your Apple payment method for subscriptions, automotive refill, billing costs and more will appear here”, this is how Apple put it in the description of this screen. I suppose that if you use Apple Pay for things such as filling your suburban card or a gym subscription, these payments will appear in this part of the Wallet application.
Apple seems to have realized that the use of the word “subscriptions” in this addition of wallet could cause some confusion. Since the latest iOS 18.4, the menu item has been modified into “pre -authorized payments”. This shows more clearly what this part of the Wallet application follows, but it does not change the fact that you always follow recurring payments in several areas instead of one.
I think the possibility of monitoring and managing recurring payments in the Wallet application is an excellent addition in mind to give you a bigger overview of your expenses – an increasing objective of the Wallet application in recent years. But I also believe that Apple should rationalize things and bring all its different characteristics of monitoring payments under one roof.
This will probably not happen soon. At the very least, we will have to see if the addition of payments monitoring in the portfolio is a feature that users end up adopting. But if they do it, I think the clamor to strengthen expenses monitoring on your iPhone will increase. And that brings me a step in my dream iOS functionality.
