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You’re reading the docs for Newly v1 (legacy), the classic newly.app builder. Using app.newly.app or Newly for Mac? Go to the Newly v2 docs. Credits, pricing and features differ between the two.

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Do I need authentication?

No — subscriptions work without authentication. Your app can process purchases in anonymous mode. However, there’s an important trade-off.

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With authentication

When your app has authentication (e.g. via Clerk or Supabase), Newly automatically:
  • Syncs purchases to the user’s account via their user ID
  • Enables cross-device purchase syncing — if a user subscribes on one device, their subscription is recognized on all devices where they’re signed in
  • Handles restore purchases automatically when a user signs in on a new device

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Without authentication (anonymous mode)

When there’s no authentication:
  • Purchases work normally on the device where they were made
  • Purchases do not sync across devices — if a user switches phones or reinstalls the app, their subscription won’t carry over
  • Users would need to use Apple/Google’s built-in restore purchases to recover their subscription on a new device
Without authentication, if a user reinstalls your app or switches to a new device, they will appear as a new (non-subscribed) user. Their subscription still exists in the App Store/Play Store, but the app won’t know about it until they manually restore purchases.
Set up authentication before adding subscriptions. This gives your users the best experience with automatic cross-device syncing. The AI agent will also recommend this order.
If you add subscriptions first and authentication later, the system will automatically adapt — it detects the auth context and adds user ID syncing to the subscription provider.

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Restore Purchases button

Apple requires a Restore Purchases button (App Store Review Guideline 3.1.1) for any app with in-app purchases or subscriptions. Make sure your app includes a visible way for users to restore previous purchases. If it doesn’t, ask the AI to add one.