What your users see
Your app opens a Refer a friend screen. A user who has not joined yet enters their email and name and taps one button. After that the screen shows:
- Their own code and link, each with a Copy button.
- A Share button that opens the phone's own share sheet.
- How many friends they have referred and what they have earned.
- Any reward codes they have earned, each with a Redeem button.
You set the headline, the reward text and the button colour in your dashboard, and changes reach your app straight away with no app release. The screen ships in English, and your app can replace any label to translate or reword it.
Rewards you can offer
Your choices apply to each new referrer who joins from your app.
- Free premium time, given automatically. The referrer gets free time the moment a referral counts.
- A reward you grant yourself. Insert Affiliate reports each user's referral count, and your app gives credits, tokens or anything else you choose when it goes up.
- Cash commission. Use your default commission, a different rate just for referrers, or no cash at all.
- A discount for the friend. Pick one of your existing offers for iOS, Android and web, and friends who use a referrer's code or link get it.
You can also limit how many rewards one referrer earns each month.
How free premium time is delivered
With RevenueCat or Adapty, the free time is added to the referrer's account, and rewards stack. With native App Store and Google Play purchases, or Iaptic, iPhone referrers get a one-time App Store offer code on the referral screen. On Android, subscribers have their next Google Play bill moved back, and everyone else gets a Google Play promo code. Apps on Apphud cannot use the automatic option, so they grant the reward themselves. The docs list what each setup needs.
How a referral is counted
You decide which action counts:
- A friend makes a purchase. This is the recommended option, and it counts new purchases, not renewals.
- A friend completes an in-app event, such as signing up.
- A friend installs the app.
Each friend counts once, and a referrer's count only ever goes up. A purchase counts once it has been verified through your purchase setup, the same as any affiliate sale.
Referral program vs affiliate program
A referral program rewards your existing users for inviting friends, usually with something inside the app. An affiliate program pays creators and partners commission on the sales they bring in.
In Insert Affiliate an in-app referrer is a normal affiliate. They get a dashboard login, appear in your affiliate list with a badge that shows they joined in the app, and can earn commission, in-app rewards or both. Each referrer counts towards your plan's affiliate limit.
So you can run a referral program for users next to an affiliate program for creators from one account. There is more in how in-app referrals turn users into affiliates.
Which apps it works with
In-app referrals are part of the Insert Affiliate SDKs for iOS (Swift), Android, React Native, Flutter, Unity and JavaScript. The feature sits on top of your normal Insert Affiliate setup, so start with the integration that matches how your app sells.
