Send Apps as Gifts & Schedule Delivery Dates from the App Store
The ability to gift apps has long been around in the App Store, but it briefly disappeared before making a reappearance again with an additional great new feature. As 9to5mac noticed, you can now schedule deliver dates for the gifted apps, allowing them to be automatically delivered at a certain set date in the future. This should make holiday and birthday shopping super easy for some of us, here’s how to use it if you haven’t before:
- Open the App Store and locate the app to send as a gift
- Tap the Sharing arrow icon in the upper right corner [>]
- Enter the recipients email and your name, provide a message if desired, and then choose either to send the gift “Today” or choose “Other Date” to schedule the delivery
- Choose “Done” to set the app gift in motion
Your iTunes Account will be billed for the gifted apps. The billing seems to take place immediately, just as if you bought the app for yourself, so if you’re planning on shopping for someones birthday next year you might want to keep that in mind.
Like the original method, you can still scroll down in the app description and gift from there, but the Share Sheet method is quicker. If you try out the feature now you may find it not to be working all apps yet as the feature is propogating throughout the App Store, you’ll know that’s the case because the Share button is unresponsive. If so, wait a few minutes (or hours) and it should be working as expected.
