App Store Retention Messages: How to Design a Cancel Screen That Works

App Store retention messages give your iOS subscription a voice at the exact moment someone decides to leave. Since November 4, Apple lets you put your own text, an image or a special offer on its Confirm Cancellation screen, configured in App Store Connect with no code. For a young subscription product, that is the most valuable few lines of copy you will write this year, and the rules about what you can say are strict.

This piece covers what Apple shipped, how the pieces fit, what you are and are not allowed to write, and how to design a message that keeps the right people without annoying the rest. It comes from the product and subscription work our monthly design team does inside client sprints, where pricing screens and cancel flows get the same attention as onboarding.

What Apple launched on November 4

Apple's developer news post announced retention messages for auto-renewable subscriptions. The short version:

• Where it shows. When a subscriber taps Cancel Subscription, Apple shows a Confirm Cancellation screen. Your message appears there, in a section labeled "From the developer," above the Cancel Subscription and Keep Subscription buttons.
• What it can include. Header and body text are required. An image and one or more retention offers are optional.
• Who sees what. A subscriber eligible for an attached offer sees your text plus the offer. Everyone else sees your text, plus the image if you added one.
• Where you set it up. In App Store Connect, under Monetization, then Subscriptions, in a new Retention Messaging section.
• Limits. Up to 10 messages per app, one active message per subscription, and up to 10 retention offers per subscription billing plan type.

Apple's App Store Connect help page walks through every step. Messages go through App Review like other metadata, and editing an approved message creates a new draft while the published one keeps showing. You cannot roll back to an older version, so keep your own copy of every message you ship.

How App Store retention messages fit together

There are two ways to run this, and most startups should start with the first.

App Store Connect: no code

You write the message, pick the subscriptions it applies to, optionally attach offers and submit it for review. Offers have eligibility rules you set: a minimum paid subscription duration before someone qualifies, and an optional wait between offers. You choose pay as you go, pay up front or free, a duration and a price. This covers most early products completely.

The Retention Messaging API: real time

Apple's Retention Messaging API is a server to server service, available by request. When an active subscriber opens a subscription page with a Cancel button, the App Store calls your server with the subscription and the customer's locale, and you choose which preconfigured message to show. It adds a type App Store Connect does not have: a switch plan message that suggests another subscription tier instead of a discount.

Real time messages take precedence over messages set in App Store Connect, and you still need a default message for every product and locale as a fallback. Before production, your endpoint has to pass Apple's performance test. That is real engineering work, and it only pays off once you have enough subscribers and enough data to say which message suits which person.

What you can and cannot write

This is where most first drafts fail review. Apple's content guidelines are specific:

• No prices or offers in the text. Header and body cannot mention discounts, promotional offers or prices like "50% off" or "one month free," because every subscriber sees the text, including people who are not eligible for the offer. The offer itself carries the discount.
• Factual losses are fine. "After your subscription ends, you won't have access to premium features" is allowed.
• No pressure or scare tactics. Apple warns against claims that coerce subscribers or promise outcomes you cannot verify, and strongly discourages unsupported superlatives and statistics.
• Plain formatting. Standard capitalization and punctuation. No all caps, no stacks of exclamation marks.
• Every storefront covered. Localize the message for every language and storefront where the subscription is sold.

Read that list again and you will notice it is also good product writing. The guidelines push you toward the same honest patterns that make users trust any product, which we cover in UX patterns that build trust in AI products.

How to design a retention message that works

A cancel screen is not the place to argue. The person has already decided something is not worth it. Your job is to remind them of a specific value they may have forgotten, or offer a better fit, in a few seconds.

1. Find out why people leave first. Look at cancellations by plan and by how long people stayed. Someone leaving in week one did not get value. Someone leaving after a year may just need a break. One message rarely fits both, which is why offer eligibility matters.
2. Name the value in concrete terms. "Your saved projects and history are still here when you come back" beats "Don't miss out." Point at something the subscriber has actually used or built inside your product.
3. Announce what is coming, if it is real. Apple explicitly allows a message about upcoming content or features. Only use it when the release is genuinely close.
4. Use offers for the right people. Set a minimum paid duration so the offer rewards people who stayed a while, not people who subscribe to cancel. A free or cheaper period suits someone who is pausing. A discount suits someone who thinks the price is too high.
5. Design the image like an ad, not a screenshot. Apple supports two image sizes, 3840 by 2160 or 5244 by 2950 pixels. Keep text out of the image so it reads at a glance and does not need localizing.
6. Preview every state. App Store Connect has a preview for card and device views, and for each subscription and offer combination. Check the version ineligible subscribers see, because that is most people.

Products built on memberships and subscriptions live or die on this kind of clarity. Skylark, where we helped build a membership product for a luxury travel brand, and COY Creator, which gives creators their own sites with subscriptions, both depend on members knowing exactly what they get each month. The cancel screen is the last chance to say it well.

Case study · COY CreatorCreators call the shots.See the work

What to do this week

If you sell an auto-renewable subscription on iOS, this is a one or two day task, not a project:

• Write one message per subscription family in your main language, following the rules above, and submit it.
• Attach one retention offer to your main plan with a minimum paid duration, so only established subscribers see it.
• Localize for every storefront you sell in before you consider it done.
• Tag the offer with a clear identifier so you can see redemptions in Sales and Trends reports and StoreKit transactions.
• Review the numbers in a month and decide whether a second message or the real time API is worth building.

If you are still building your first version, design the subscription so these answers exist from day one: what each plan includes, what a subscriber loses on cancellation and which cheaper tier you would suggest. That work sits naturally in the scope of an AI MVP. And if you also sell to teams, pair this with our guide to App Store multiseat subscriptions, since group buyers cancel for different reasons than individuals.

The takeaway

App Store retention messages are a small, strict surface with a big effect: the last thing a subscriber reads before leaving. Keep the text honest and specific, put discounts only in offers, give offers to the people who earned them and preview every state. Start in App Store Connect this week and save the API for when you have the data to use it. If you want senior designers to rework your paywall, plans and cancel flow inside your sprints, book a call with us.

Questions founders ask

What are App Store retention messages?

They are short messages that appear on Apple's Confirm Cancellation screen when someone taps Cancel Subscription on an auto-renewable subscription. Since November 4, 2026, developers can configure them in App Store Connect with text, an optional image and an optional retention offer.

Can a retention message mention a discount or a price?

Not in the header or body text. Apple's guidelines say the text cannot reference promotional offers, discounts or specific prices, because every subscriber sees it. Discounts go in a retention offer attached to the message, which only eligible subscribers see.

How many retention messages can an app have?

Up to 10 per app. Each subscription can have only one retention message at a time, and you can create up to 10 retention offers for each subscription billing plan type.

Do I need the Retention Messaging API?

No. You can set up messages and offers in App Store Connect without code. The API, available by request, lets your server choose which message each subscriber sees in real time, including switch plan messages, and requires an endpoint that passes Apple's performance test.

Which devices show retention messages?

Apple's documentation says they are visible on iOS 15.1 or later, iPadOS 15.1 or later, visionOS 1 or later and macOS 14 or later.