I am working on launching my first app ever. Yes, super exciting, but also terrifying LOL.
I am working with an app dev company that has been extremely helpful thus far, but when it comes to the pricing structure I am looking to implement, they say that it cannot be done.
I find this hard to believe, as it seems like anything is possible, however, I have not the first clue how to operate the backend of Apple App Store and Google Play Store in regards to pricing and subscriptions we have available for in-app purchases.
I am not looking to do this behind my dev teams back whatsoever, but am looking for any advice y'all can provide in regards to what I am looking to do so I can share it with them and we can make it happen together!
I am launching an app for employers who are doctors to find associate doctors for their offices.
Therefore the pricing I am attempting to construct in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store is the following:
The app is free on each store. When the Employer downloads the app > creates an account > hits a paywall prior to entering. I am looking to charge the employer a one-time upfront higher fee and then a recurring smaller fee to help with retention rates and continue to have them stay and engage in our community.
So, with example numbers I am looking to charge an employer at that payment portal say a $299 initial one-time fee for their first month with us on the app and then say a $49/month auto-recurring fee after that, month 2 and beyond.
How would you go about setting something like this up in each respective Store (Apple and Google)?
I am genuinely curious if it is at all possible, because I spoke with Apple and Google this morning via phone and email and they said it was possible but didn't provide great direction in regards to actually setting it up and what that would entail for each of their Stores.
Thanks in advance!
Kindly,
John
Related
have the following scenario:
we have an app that users need to pay for. But we also want to sell the app bundled with a book meaning there is a code / voucher in the book that can be used to use the app for free. Unfortunately we haven't found any good way to address this scenario yet:
a) make the app a paid app and use Google / iOS Promo Codes for the books - not good, because the number of promo codes per app and quarter is limited
b) make the app itself free but require users to make an in-app purchase to access most of the content. Alternatively make it possible to enter a code to access that same content. The code comes with the book and is created and maintained by us.
negatives: a lot of effort to maintain the promo codes, handle the in-app purchases and Google / Android don't like it if content within the app is paid for outside - so we could end up being rejected.
I'm really wondering: are we the first one with this need? is there maybe already a solution to this problem we are not aware of? We do not want to rip Google / Apple of their 30% share of app sales. But there doesn't seem to be a supported solution for this.
any ideas? thanks
Thomas
Welcome to SO.
This could be done but i dont know if this is the optimal solution.
Make the app free and lock down at the sign-in, there give link to your play books.
In the app check if the user has purchased the book using
https://developers.google.com/books/docs/v1/using
So if user pays for the book and downloads it, On the next app launch give access to him to use the app.
You should be careful with Apple's in-app purchase guidelines, 3.1.1:
If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by
way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access
to premium content, or unlocking a full version), you must use in-app
purchase. Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or
functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR
codes, etc. Apps and their metadata may not include buttons, external
links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing
mechanisms other than in-app purchase.
I think for users that purchase the book, they would need to register outside of your app (e.g. on your website). If you had some authentication system you could store a flag on the users profile if they've unlocked the book or not and give them premium access to your app upon logging in.
You can make your app free and set non-consumeable book SKU in your app.
If you want to send the promo code, you can use Google Play Console.
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2016/01/create-promo-codes-for-your-apps-and-in.html
Google only allow a small amount of promo codes per app, 500/quarter. This is because they don't want to encourage developers to sell this promo code offline. But this is still an official feature supported by Google Play. You will be totally fine as long as you're less than 500/quarter.
we are developing an app that links people together.
For every successful 'match' we deduct a credit. People pay for credits or purchase a subscription.
Since the connection is digital we have to use in-app purchases in both Google and Apple markets and they take a cut of 30%.
Obviously we think this is rather steep and want to see if we can use alternatives.
Maybe some of you know more about this and can help us out answering the following questions:
How can Spotify sell its subscriptions through 3rd party PSP on Android?? Has it got to do with the fact that Google policy states:
Payment is for digital content that may be consumed outside of the app
itself (e.g. songs that can be played on other music players).
Would that mean that if users use the credits via our website to do the same thing as in the app, then we could use our own payment methods?
We understand Apple is very strict on this matter. However, if we approach our customers outside the app to subscribe through our website....would we get away with this??
Google policy states:
In-app virtual currencies must only be used within the app where they
were first purchased.
**
How should we interpret this? Does it mean that people who buy credits in the app cannot use the credits on another device or via our webbrowser?
If you have any tips or experience on this...please share.
I am working on an Android 4+ app that is free and includes some In-App Purchase items. Some testers are participating in the current beta-test and once the final version is published I would like to let these testers use the IAP items for free.
Is there some "easy" or official way to do this?
This will be my first app in the Play Store (only worked for iOS so far) and I do not know if there is any possibility to create promo codes or something like this to let users purchase non-free IAP items for free.
The only solution I found so far would be some kind of back door within the app, e.g. "Go to page XY, click twice on image A to bring up the unlock screen, enter your username and key..."
Of course this would work but I do not like this solution. Beside the additional work to implement such a solution it would not be really save. I do not know most of my testers in person and if one decides to publish his unlock key on the internet I cannot prevent all kind users from unlocking the app for free (at least not in the current version).
So, is there any way within the Play Store API to get this working?
Short answer: No!
Detailed answer and a possible way to do this:
Right in the Developer Console --> Settings --> License Testing Panel. There you can add up to 400 eMail adresses. Anyone who's using one of those eMail adresses is able to make test-purchases, this means they won't be charged but the Google Server will respond with something like "Yeah he/she bought this item".
Limitation: It's meant test purchases, mainly for applications that aren't published.
From the docs:
You can use any Google account as a test account. Test accounts are
useful if you want to let multiple people test In-app Billing on
applications without giving them access to your publisher account's
sign-in credentials. If you want to own and control the test accounts,
you can create the accounts yourself and distribute the credentials to
your developers or testers.
Though it's still possible to make test-purchases in published application. But there's one major drawback: The purchase will be cancelled automatically after 14 days.
Quote from the docs:
Test purchases are real orders and Google Play processes them in the
same way as other orders. When purchases are complete, Google Play
prevents the orders from going to financial processing, ensuring that
there are no actual charges to user accounts, and automatically
canceling the completed orders after 14 days.
To sum it up: The In-App Billing API doesn't offer an official way to do something like this. If you wanna do this you have to implement your own solution.
See also this SO-Post "Coupons for In-App Billing" which discusses this topic as well.
I have to develop an app implementing in-app purchase, whoses purchases are suscriptions to a service (with a fixed price).
My client didn't ask me to use Google's in-app billing API, and asked me to provide fields for the user to enter his bank details instead (and to directly interact with banks I guess). I haven't seen many apps doing this (except maybe Uber), and I'm wondering what am I supposed to do.
Should I tell him to use Google's in-app billing API instead ?
Or should I develop this from scratch / using a library ? (I really don't feel confident about this...)
Thanks in advance for your answers !
That sounds like a bad idea. I certainly would immediately uninstall any app that asked for my bank account information. If it were me I would try to convince the client to go with Google's service, or at least some trusted third party - does Amazon have an in app purchase system for Android? I've only used Google's. That system is set up to allow purchases without giving credit card or bank information to the app. It may even be a violation of Android developer terms to ask for banking information, you may want to look into that.
Have they given you any reasons why they don't want to use the Google service? Is it possible they just don't know about it?
Is it officially allowed (or tolerated at least) by Google to do it?
I've got some users suggesting to me that it could be a good idea to add a one click 'donation button' opening up their default Android bitcoin wallet app with my bitcoin adress pre-filled.
But hey, I don't want to see my apps suspended just because of this!
Did you see some apps or widgets doing this yet on Google Play?
The same question could be asked about Paypal donations I guess...
Thank you to share your opinion.
I don't know what Google's official policy is for certain, but a donation should be no problem. In theory.
http://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html only mentions that any purchase of in-app benefits must be handled via Google's in-app billing system.
https://play.google.com/about/developer-distribution-agreement.html#pricing-payments says essentially the same in legalese.
So as long as donors do not buy/gain anything, not even a thank-you or honourable mention, and that is made clear in your app, you're in theory safe. Disabling ads for donors is for example easily a violation of those terms.
The rules are however Google's to interpret and enforce. And sentences like
The Payment Processor must process all fees a Developer receives for any version of a Product distributed via the Store.
in 2nd link can easily be applied to donations if the app-review person sees fit, even just because he/she misinterpreted the donation button or
If Google decides that your donations are actually fees, they can & will suspend your app (probably without prior warning & time to fix the problem). There are cases of this you can find on the internet.
There is an appeals form you can find here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/2477981 but the answer in practice seems to be "No. Don't ask again.".
Also be aware that Google counts violations and can ban you as a person (not just your current account) from publishing apps on the Play store.
The answer to the question is: NO.
You can't accept bitcoin tips or donations in your Android app, even it is free.
The same is applied for any kind of payment processor, including Paypal.
This because it violates our payments policy.
Policy Issue: Payments
Alternative payment mechanisms to Google Play's in-app billing service
are only permitted if the products purchased are to be used outside of
the app. For example:
For physical goods or services, such as movie tickets, or a publication where the price also includes a hard copy subscription;
or
For digital goods that may be downloaded to devices and used outside of the app, such as songs that can be played on other music
players.
Donations to 527 designated tax exempt organizations are also permitted.
Google don't have clear statement about this but i near future it's possible to allow it
Source
Yes you can. There are already plenty of apps that do this. On another note, for bitcoin donations, use the coinbase api. Its probably the easier in my opinion.