The App Store on iOS has a neat gift feature that lets you buy any app, and recently an in-app purchase, and give it to a friend. Sending gifts from the App Store is easy enough; you need a valid payment method, and the Apple ID for whoever you want to send the gift to.
Rules of gifting
Before you send gifts from the App Store you need to know a few things; the gifts cannot be refunded. It won’t matter if your friend downloads the app or if they already have it. If you later decide you don’t want to spend the money, you will not be able to get a refund.
There is no re-gifting. Once you’ve spent money on the app, it isn’t coming back and you cannot re-gift an unclaimed gift.
You will get a receipt for the purchase and your friend will likewise know that it was you who sent it. There is no way to send anonymous gifts.
You can only gift paid apps and not free ones though, that kind of goes without saying.
Gifts bought in one country store may not be redeemable in other countries. For example, if you gift an app from the UK store to a friend who uses the US store, they will not be able to redeem it. Since it’s a gift though, they can change their Apple ID country, redeem their gift, and switch back to their own regional store.
Gifts from the App Store
You can send gifts from the App Store from your iPhone or iPad. Open the App Store app on your device and go to the app page for the app that you want to gift. Tap the more options button next to the price tag for the app. From the menu that opens, tap Gift App. Enter the Apple ID for whoever you want to send the app to, enter your name, and a message.
You can choose when a gift is delivered. By default, it’s delivered when you send it but you can change the date. Tap Next, select a valid payment method, and you’re done.
For in-app purchases, the options are limited. Apple has allowed developers to enable gifting for in-app purchases but this is a recent development. It’s going to be a while before you can actually send in-app purchases as gifts. The holidays are around the corner so it’s unlikely that support for in-app purchase gifts will be added right now. Give it a month, or at least a few weeks so developers can add support for the new feature.
