Joe Fedewa / How-To Geek
It seems like every app offers some sort of subscription these days. Once you’re paying for a subscription, you have to take extra care to get out of it. Uninstalling the app won’t get it done.
That’s a big part of why many apps have switched to subscription payment models. Paying $0.99 once and using the app for many years isn’t very profitable. However, a $0.99 monthly subscription makes more money over time, and people are likely to keep paying without even realizing it.
To be clear, there’s nothing inherently wrong with app subscriptions. Developers put a lot of work into their apps. $0.99 per user isn’t a recipe for long-term success for most indie developers. If you continue to use and enjoy an app, it makes sense to continue to support the developer.
That being said, you do need to take extra steps to cancel an app subscription. Uninstalling the app doesn’t cancel the subscription along with it—it literally just removes the app from your phone. You can still be paying a subscription for an app that isn’t even installed on your phone.
Canceling an app subscription requires going to the Apple App Store on iPhone or iPad or the Google Play Store on Android devices or the web. If the subscription was made through the service itself—like if you subscribed to Amazon Prime on amazon.com—you’ll need to cancel it from there instead.
In a perfect world, uninstalling an app would also cancel associated subscriptions. Until that day comes—if it ever does—you’ll need to go the extra mile to make sure you don’t keep getting charged. Subscriptions are here to stay, so keep an eye on them.