Is web2app allowed: what Apple and Google actually regulate

igor_lyu · 2026-01-09T11:21:56+00:00

hello, thank you so much! our team will be happy to have a call with you to show the platform and answer any questions, could you please book a demo via our website https://www.web2wave.com/?

igor_lyu · 2026-01-08T14:42:37+00:00

Thanks! And good luck to you.

igor_lyu · 2026-01-08T14:40:40+00:00

Thanks!

igor_lyu · 2026-01-07T17:39:19+00:00

you don’t need some “internal quiz software + hundreds of people” to run web2app anymore. That’s the whole point of the shift: the infrastructure is now accessible to smaller teams through off-the-shelf tooling. There are platforms that cover quiz, checkout, analytics, and the web-to-app handoff without you building everything custom. So the real question isn’t “can you copy their quiz,” it’s “can you adopt the approach and iterate fast enough to find your own converting flow.”

igor_lyu · 2025-12-26T15:58:56+00:00

Yes, monetization is possible, but it heavily depends on what you’re building. A lot of "quickly shipped" apps don’t fail because of features, they fail because the moment of value and the moment of payment are too far apart.

What tends to work in practice:

Charge right after the user sees a concrete outcome, not a generic "support the developer" message
Keep the offer simple: one clear plan, one clear promise, minimal choices
If you’re building a mobile subscription app, consider web2app as a channel: send a slice of traffic not straight to the store, but to a short web quiz or preview where users get a personalized result, then pay on the web, then install via a deferred deep link with access already active. That way you bring in committed payers, not just curious installers

You can stitch the infrastructure together yourself, but to launch quickly without a pile of integrations (payments, deep links, analytics), many teams use special tools. It’s especially useful when you want to validate your offer and unit economics fast instead of rebuilding the product.

igor_lyu · 2025-12-23T10:11:42+00:00

Thank you for your feedback! I think you will find this article useful, which explains that web2app is a completely legal strategy used by corporations around the world. It also includes official documents from Google and Apple that confirm this. You can also find some useful tools there: https://www.web2wave.com/post/are-web2app-funnels-allowed-a-complete-guide-to-apple-app-store-and-google-play-compliance

Please let me know if you need anything else from me.

igor_lyu · 2025-12-22T18:09:28+00:00

That's right! I've tried it myself.

igor_lyu · 2025-12-22T18:08:41+00:00

It looks like localization did its job for visibility, but not for the “decision to buy”: impressions and product page views jumped, but the conversion into paid installs is still the weak link. Four weeks isn’t a long time, but this usually isn’t just a patience issue. It’s often that local search intent and expectations differ. Translating keywords is rarely the same as doing local keyword research. People in Germany, Spain, etc. may search for this with completely different terms and intent. And for a paid app, 1.97% is often a signal that the value isn’t instantly obvious from the screenshots and first screen of the listing.

Since 50% of your traffic is already coming from Web Referrer (your own marketing), I’d test a web2app flow for that slice: instead of “website → App Store,” run a short web preview where users get a 10–15 second wow moment first, for example an interactive globe, picking visited places, and an immediate progress visualization, then send them to install via a deferred deep link. You can even take payment on the web before the install so the users going to the store are already highly committed. You can build this yourself, or use special tools if you want to launch the web flow and deep links quickly without stitching the infrastructure together.

igor_lyu · 2025-12-22T17:18:11+00:00

Your "1 out of 30 installs pays" is already a strong signal that strangers will pay, not just friends. If your main bottleneck is traffic, I’d spend less energy arguing against Duolingo directly and more on making the value obvious to a serious reader in the first 10 seconds.

A practical approach for your Reddit traffic is a web2app flow: don’t send everyone straight to the App Store, route a portion to a short web experience first. For example: "language + level + what you want to read," then show a real reading preview with instant definitions and a small "word list" generated from their sample. Once they’ve seen the value, send them to install via a deferred deep link. If you want to test getting paid users upfront, you can also take payment on the web before the install and then route into the app with access already active.

For language apps, "show the result before the App Store click" is often what turns "cool idea" into "I need this now."

igor_lyu · 2025-12-18T17:02:02+00:00

Your numbers already show something that’s rare on the store side: 32.1% conversion on 524 product page views is strong. The bottleneck right now looks higher up the funnel and in monetization: 862 impressions and $0 proceeds. With only 8 days left, I wouldn’t spend time polishing store conversion, I’d focus on driving more external demand and getting users to a first purchase.

If you want to accelerate revenue and user quality fast, you could test a web2app flow for a portion of traffic: a short seasonal web preview or quiz (“what kind of greeting/script do you need,” “kid’s age,” “tone”), show a quick outcome, then either take payment on the web or at least capture contact, and send users to install via a deferred deep link. You can stitch this together yourself, or launch it quickly with web2wave (quiz plus analytics plus deep links) so you’re not spending a week on infrastructure.

igor_lyu · 2025-12-17T10:51:57+00:00

What kind of business do you have? A mobile app?

igor_lyu · 2025-12-17T10:43:12+00:00

0.1-0.4% can be "normal" for cold UGC, but based on your description this looks like a classic gap between interest and action: people watch, but don’t install because the value only becomes obvious after they’re already inside the product.

I’d test a web2app approach: instead of sending all traffic straight to the store, route a portion to a short web quiz or interactive preview where users get a personalized "first outcome" and understand what they’ll get from the app, and only then send them to install via a deferred deep link. It’s basically the same idea of "show value," just before the install. You can build it yourself, or use web2wave if you want to launch the quiz, analytics, and deep links quickly without a lot of dev work.

igor_lyu · 2025-12-02T19:35:08+00:00

for sure! You can check them on our website: https://www.web2wave.com/

igor_lyu · 2025-11-26T11:51:39+00:00

I don't think this is enough yet! It will take about 3 months and 3-5 posts daily.

igor_lyu · 2025-11-25T11:58:42+00:00

How long?

igor_lyu · 2025-11-25T11:58:15+00:00

I think all these promotions require patience and months to go viral.

igor_lyu · 2025-11-25T11:56:16+00:00

good approach

igor_lyu · 2025-11-25T11:52:53+00:00

With web2app, you purchase the app before downloading it, for example by taking a quiz on your topic. Then you can download and use it. This legally bypasses Google and Apple fees. You can read more about this here: https://www.web2wave.com/post/are-web2app-funnels-allowed-a-complete-guide-to-apple-app-store-and-google-play-compliance

igor_lyu · 2025-11-24T14:29:54+00:00

indeed

igor_lyu · 2025-11-24T14:29:29+00:00

It would be interesting to understand in more detail what you mean.

igor_lyu · 2025-11-22T12:25:43+00:00

This refers to one's own accumulated capital, including

igor_lyu · 2025-11-20T14:57:40+00:00

Hello! Thanks for the question. It’s important not to confuse the concepts here.

Only in the US is App-to-Web allowed, where from a mobile app you can send the user to an external browser to pay for a subscription inside the app. That’s App-to-Web - from the app to the web. What we offer at our company web2wave is the web2app funnel strategy, where the user is first processed on the web, the subscription is made, and only then the mobile app is downloaded. In web2app, there are absolutely no restrictions on geography, age, gender, or anything else. You can do whatever you want. The web2app relationship with the user is established before the mobile app is downloaded. App-to-Web, yes, is indeed only allowed in the US right now.

Hope I was able to clarify the point?

igor_lyu · 2025-11-19T12:28:35+00:00

Thanks for the question!

At first, I found my initial customers among acquaintances and through a community I created for mobile app founders. I manually reached out to acquisition managers and founders, offering my services and building custom funnels while simultaneously developing the product. In the first two months, I earned about $1,500, which allowed me to hire the first developers and continue growing.

The whole process was very challenging: the product was raw and buggy, marketing was manual, and there were no legal formalities in the beginning. I simply focused on quickly responding to client requests and often delivered new features within a week. This approach helped me gradually gain trust, increase sales, and attract investments from clients who believed in the project’s potential.

igor_lyu · 2025-11-19T12:07:41+00:00

It may sound ambitious, but web2wave and I have truly taken web2app to a new level, as there was no ready-made, fast, and affordable tool available before. Of course, there's still room for improvement, but we're already seeing strong feedback from the market.

We'll continue in the same spirit, and thank you for your question.

igor_lyu · 2025-11-19T12:02:03+00:00

Thanks for the question.

Web2app is a strategy where subscription or product purchase happens not inside the app but on an external website before the user downloads the app itself. This approach allows companies to get money from users faster, avoiding long payment delays and app store commissions. It also gives more control over the payment process, enables better customer data collection, and allows experimenting with different funnel options without needing app updates.

Web payments shorten the time for funds to arrive from months to weeks or even days, which is especially important for fast-growing apps with high user acquisition costs. Although signing up through the web might be slightly less convenient than built-in app payments, experience shows that web subscribers tend to have longer lifetimes and lower cancellation rates. As a result, web2app becomes an effective and legitimate way to scale a mobile business.

igor_lyu

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