The harsh reality of signing up for subscriptions on your iPhone

• Apple’s Subscriptions storage is so helpful
• Another smart feature that Apple offers
• Be careful when it comes to free trials
• What you can do going forward

The true scope of things you can do with your phone shouldn’t be lost on anyone. It’s a glorified computer in your pocket, and you can pretty much do anything you need with some simple (or advanced) software. The amount of work you can get done just from your phone makes you wonder why you ever sit down in front of a computer and put your neck through the strain. Of course, I’m overexaggerating a bit — but it is really impressive what you can accomplish with a phone in your hand.

Much of what you can do can also be done on your computer, but your phone makes it more accessible and easier to do. This includes online shopping, video messaging family and friends, and checking social media. Another thing that can be easier to do from your phone is signing up for things. You’re probably on your phone, like I am, a lot, scrolling through different websites and feeds. Maybe you see an ad for something and think it looks interesting. Rather than switching over to your computer to investigate it some more, you can just do all your research from your phone.

I’ve been known to see something promoted on Instagram or Facebook and buy it right then and there on my phone. This includes signing up for subscription services. Doing it from your iPhone is especially helpful, as Apple has a Subscriptions section in Settings that keeps track of everything you’ve signed up for on your phone. I learned an interesting lesson recently though about signing up for iPhone subscriptions, and it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

Apple’s Subscriptions storage is so helpful

That’s something in its favor

This is the current path to get to Subscriptions in iOS 26.

If you’ve ever signed up for a subscription while using your iPhone, your phone keeps track of it for you. If you open your iPhone, tap Settings, and then your name at the top, it will bring you to your Apple Account. The fourth option down is Subscriptions, right below Payment & Shipping. Here, you can see every subscription that is linked to your Apple account.

This is a great place to check in on periodically, as it shows not only when you signed up for a subscription but also when it’s set to renew. That’s especially helpful because, while Apple does email you about renewals, the notification only comes after the charge has gone through. So if you only meant to try out a free trial, you’ll get the email once your card’s already been hit. Part of the onus is on you, the consumer, to remember when your trial ends. But we’re all human, right? Let the software do the work for you.

Another smart feature that Apple offers

You might as well cancel as soon as you sign up

Since I’ve used my iPhone to sign up for plenty of subscriptions, I appreciate how easy Apple makes it to see all your relevant info in one place. It shows how much each subscription costs, when it renews, and the different plan options in case you want to scale it up or down. It also offers a Cancel Subscription button that lets you break free from your subscription. Under the Cancel Subscription button, there is text that will state what happens when you cancel your subscription.

For most subscriptions, if you’ve already paid, you’ll still get the full term of service. So, if you pay for a month of Peacock, you’ll still get access to Peacock for the entire month — whether you cancel the day after you’re charged or on the last day. As you can see in the picture above, even if I canceled Apple TV+, I would still get the full amount of the subscription that I paid for.

This is a nice addition that Apple has added because it helps you keep track of just how much you have left in your subscription. I’ve gotten to the point where, if I’m sick of a subscription, I’ll cancel it as soon as I can, knowing I’ll still get a payment term for it. But, unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.

Be careful when it comes to free trials

You might get less access than you thought

I recently signed up for a free trial of Apple Music. I wanted to test out the service and compare it to Spotify, which I’ve used for years. People have been raving about its lossless audio forever, so I figured I should check it out. Apple offered a free Apple One subscription upgrade when I signed up for Apple Music, so I had that for a full month. After about two to three weeks of using it, I realized I would probably just stick with Spotify, as much of the Spotify ecosystem was ingrained in my home and family (we have a family account and Spotify is synced up to all of our smart speakers).

I wasn’t using Apple Arcade much either, so the Apple One subscription wasn’t for me. I wanted to make sure I canceled before the $20 per month fee hit again. I went into my Subscriptions on my phone and went to cancel it, thinking I’d be able to use the services for another week to 10 days until my 30 days was up. However, when I got to the Subscriptions page, it said that I would lose Apple One as soon as I canceled the subscription. I still canceled it anyway, because I didn’t want to forget to do so, but this showed me that Apple didn’t want anyone who was not paying for their service anymore, and had no intention of paying for it, to enjoy it for free.

Apple apparently does this for all of its own subscription services if you cancel your free trial early. How dare any of us not want what Apple is offering?

What you can do going forward

Use other Apple resources

If you’re using an iPhone to keep track of your subscriptions, make sure you look at your Subscriptions page frequently. If you don’t want them to be auto-renewed, you should keep in mind which ones you don’t want and which ones you do. I like to use my Reminders app to keep tabs on when I need to cancel something. I’ll set a Reminder for a few days prior to the subscription renewing to tell me to go over and change it.

You can do the same thing in Calendar and set an event a few days ahead of time to get rid of the subscription. Apple doesn’t give you a natural option to set up alerts on the Subscriptions page — that would almost be too nice. But in all seriousness, I don’t like to pay for things I won’t eventually use, and I keep track of them by setting reminders for myself.