Chapter 01 · Starting out
1.2The trial, and buying Frames
Try every feature free for 30 days, then buy Frames for $99.99 with a single payment.
There is no subscription or recurring charge. Purchase and restore use the App Store, and one purchase unlocks Frames on your devices. No Frames account is required, and Frames does not report information about your library.
Buying Frames on a Mac. Click the trial indicator beside the Frames mark, or choose Buy Frames… from the Frames menu below Settings. Choose Buy Frames — $99.99, once to purchase or Restore Purchase to restore an existing purchase. The menu item disappears after purchase. The Purchase card in Settings › General holds the same page as iPhone and iPad.
On iPhone and iPad. The foot of the Library shows the trial as a strip of thirty frames, one for each day. The days used are filled in amber, today’s frame is lit, and the strip turns red in the trial’s last week. Above it, Trial · day 12 of 30 stands beside 19 days left, or Last day on the final day. Tap the strip to open Settings › Purchase directly. You can also open Settings from the gear in the Library and tap the card at the top. Purchase shows the days left, the day of the trial and the date it ends, the same strip, and the price with what it includes. It offers Buy Frames — $99.99, once and Restore Purchase. After purchase, the Library’s trial info disappears and its space returns to the list.
On Apple TV. Open Settings from the Library and use the Purchase section. During the trial it shows the days left, the day and the end date, the strip and the price, and offers the same two buttons. After the trial, the lock screen offers them too.
A verified refund or purchase revocation removes purchased access; an active trial remains available. If the store cannot provide verified evidence, Frames keeps a purchase already remembered on this device for offline use.
The trial starts once, on the first launch on any device. Its earliest start date syncs through your iCloud account, independently of Library Sync, so a later installation uses the remaining days. Offline devices reconcile when iCloud becomes available. Changing the system clock does not extend it. Every mode, phase and tool is included. On a Mac, the trial indicator shows the days remaining:
| Days remaining | Appearance |
|---|---|
| 30 to 24 | Grey, for example Trial · 27 days |
| 23 to 8 | Amber, with Buy beside the count |
| 7 to 1 | Red |
The indicator shows Last day on the final day. Its glow increases as the trial ends and brightens under the pointer.
After the trial. Frames displays a purchase screen until you buy or restore a purchase. Your photographs remain catalogued, and every rating, verdict and version is preserved. A purchase unlocks the full library. Purchases made on another device are recognised without restarting Frames.
The purchase screen shows your own photographs drifting behind it, the non-zero counts for photographs, collections and developed photographs, and a filmstrip of what Frames does, each frame drawn from one of your photographs. On a Mac the strip includes one of your developments before and after, a photograph turned black and white, a look applied and the most common subject in your analysis index; a frame for masking joins them once one of your developments uses a mask. The Mac strip advances by itself and stops while the pointer is over it, and the arrows step through it. On iPhone and iPad the strip holds four frames, which you swipe through: finding the keepers, one of your developments before and after, your library in one catalogue, and importing from a card. The screen provides Buy Frames and Restore Purchase, and on a Mac also Quit. The order of the features changes between visits.
The offer, opened from the trial indicator on a Mac or the strip on iPhone and iPad, explains what is included: all of v1 and its subsequent updates, with no renewal, seat or cloud service.
The unlock. After a purchase or a restore, on Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, the trial’s frames advance across the screen, the strip folds into the Frames mark, and a shutter opens on the library. With Reduce Motion on, a short fade takes its place. Play the unlock again, beneath the purchase status in Settings, plays it again. On Mac, iPhone and iPad, double-clicking or double-tapping the purchase receipt does the same.
The glowing app icon. After buying or restoring Frames, enable Glowing app icon beneath the purchased status in Settings: General on Mac, or the Purchase page on iPhone and iPad. Switch it off to return to the original icon. The choice is saved on each device. On Mac it changes the Dock icon while Frames is running; on iPhone and iPad it changes the Home Screen icon. Apple TV keeps its standard icon. A verified refund or revocation restores the original icon.