How to give an app as a gift
By Charles Starrett
Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, December 22, 2011
Tip Category: iPad, iPhone, iPod
Searching around for some last-minute holiday gifts? If you’ve got any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch users left on your list, an app might be just the gift they’re looking for. To gift an app, simply open the App Store on your desktop computer or own iDevice, and find the app you’d like to send out. On the desktop, click on the downward-facing arrow next to the app price, and choose “Gift This App”, or if you’re on an iOS device, simply scroll to the bottom of the individual app’s page—if necessary—and tap on “Gift This App”. You’ll be taken to a page where you can enter the recipient’s email, a personal message, and choose whether to have the gifted app delivered by email or—if you’re on a desktop—via a physical page that you can print out and hand to the recipient yourself. Just make sure you don’t send the app to new owners until after they’ve opened their iOS device.
Recent Tips
- Introducing Siri to your family
- Searching the current page in Safari
- Getting a word definition in iOS
- Purchasing alert tones on your iOS device
- Quickly scrolling to the top of the screen in iOS
- Changing the iPad’s Picture Frame settings
- Boosting your iPad speaker using a cup
- Setting the default Mail address on iOS 5
- Deleting apps based on storage requirements
- Changing the departure time in Maps
- Enabling multitasking gestures on the iPad
- Deleting numbers in Calculator for iOS
- Running Retina-Resolution iPhone Apps on iPad
- Surviving an Apple launch day lineup
- Quickly accessing the camera in iOS 5.1
- Turning on the Emoji keyboard in iOS 5
- Working around a dead Home button
- Blocking Caller ID on the iPhone
- Quickly access last saved Mail draft on iOS
- Reopening closed tabs in Safari on the iPad
- Using the iPad keyboard’s ‘hidden’ keys
- Hiding app purchases in iTunes in the Cloud
- Adding formatting to emails in iOS 5
- Setting iMessage up across multiple devices
- Finding iTunes U content on an iOS device
- Making Address Book sync properly to iCloud
- Using an iOS device as an Apple TV remote camera
- Accessing Undo and Redo from the iPad keyboard
- Dialing an international phone number
- Making your iPhone’s LED flash for alerts
- See all Tips. »
Comments
If you have a comment, news tip, advertising inquiry, or coverage request, a question about iPods/iPhones/iPad or accessories, or if you sell or market iPod/iPhone/iPad products or services, read iLounge's Comments + Questions policies before posting, and fully identify yourself if you do. We will delete comments containing advertising, astroturfing, trolling, personal attacks, offensive language, or other objectionable content, then ban and/or publicly identify violators.
Recent News
- Pulp adds iCloud sync, new Home Page
- WordPress for iOS adds Push Notifications
- Sony launches Music Unlimited for iOS
- Apple device poll ends, computing poll begins
- Fruit Ninja adds new features and power-ups
- Apple to sell Nest Learning Thermostat
- Third-gen iPad to launch in Guam, Philippines May 29
- Apple tweaks App Store with Editors’ Choice, Free picks
- Panic releases Diet Coda
- Booq rolls out new Folio for iPad
Recent Reviews
- Pelican i1075 Hardback Case for iPad
- Skinit Skins for iPad (3rd-Generation)
- Spigen SGP Steinheil Ultra Optics Screen Protector for iPad (3rd-Gen)
- ZeroChroma VarioProtect for iPhone 4/4S
- BodyGuardz UltraTough Clear Skins for iPad (3rd-Gen)
- Wrapsol Original + Ultra Hybrid Protective Film for iPad 2/iPad (3rd-Gen)
- iBattz Mojo Removable Power Card Wallet
- dreamGEAR i.Sound Power View Pro S 2.1A Dual Charging Dock
- dreamGEAR i.Sound Universal Power View
- Sena Cases Florence Portfolio for iPad (3rd-Gen)
Recent Articles
- Removing music from iTunes after copying to iPod
- iOS Gems: Farm 123, Facebook Camera, Scribblenauts, Shoot the Zombirds + Virtua Tennis Challenge
- iTunes TV show size totals don’t match actual disk storage
- Consolidating Multiple iTunes Libraries
- Converting Purchased Videos to 1080p HD
- Find My Friends always reports home location
- Creating an iTunes Match library from an external hard drive
- Benefits of keeping apps in iTunes when using iCloud
- Recovering iTunes from an External Hard Drive
- Normalizing volume levels for Voice Memos
1
Just a reminder, you can’t gift apps across international boundaries. Meaning, if you are in the US and want to give an app to a friend in Canada, for example, you can’t. You also can’t gift Mac apps at this time, which is a total bummer.
Posted by g33kboi on December 22, 2011 at 9:50 AM (PDT)
2
Also, at least in the UK, you can’t gift apps unless you have a credit card registered against your account. Even if you have sufficient funds against your iTunes account to pay for the app anyway, it won’t let you gift without a CC. This is… irritating.
Posted by Jonathan on December 23, 2011 at 1:22 AM (PDT)
3
What happens if unknowingly I gave an app that the recepient already have? Will I get a refund or the recepient gets a credit to that amount or recepient gets to choose other app (including self top-up if insufficient)?
Posted by aLieN911 on December 27, 2011 at 1:34 AM (PDT)