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.
Related
I have to create an application for iOS and Android, from which I can buy some "items".
I don't understand how the in-app purchase work; can I buy and download the content I already paid for? Or can I buy just the unlocking of internal content without downloading it? If its just for unlocking internal content, is there any way to buy and download the content?
Thanks
The only thing you can't do with in-app purchase is selling actual goods - that's also allowed in case you have a website doing the same thing (eg ebay app). And there are some more rules for iOS in-app purchase.
As for the step by step idea about in-app purchase, here is a gist:
iOS app requests for SKProducts from app store (already setup via itunes connect portal by developer)
The retrieved products are displayed in the app along with localised pricing
User selects a product to buy
Purchase goes through via various steps - in-progress / success / failure. Depending upon the status, the app UI should be updated to keep the user informed.
Upon successful purchase, you can download content inside the app using your own server, or the content that's uploaded on Apple servers. You can unlock the content from within the app as well.
In a nutshell, you have a long way to go. The best way to start theoretically is to refer to In-app purchase programming guide. In addition, this book by Apple is also helpful. And for your needs, here is a sample code from Apple to begin with.
If you rather want a step by step tutorial, here is one authored by me. A rather easier one is the video lecture series with SWIFT and Objective C - prepared by me - which also accompanies code sample for SWIFT and Objective C to save time.
I am building a website for a client that is promoting an App on Kickstarter. As one of the rewards this client wants to reward sponsors with in-app purchases. I have searched Apple and posted on other forums but I can't find out if this is possible and if it is possible, how it is done.
Thanks.
You need to implement a promo-code dialog inside your app to do that, then send promo-codes to your Kickstarter users.
I don't think It's possible.
Here's the only Google documentation I could find.
You could make the app free for a short period until all backers have their copy and then raise the price but non backers will be able to download it too.
It would be possible however to use the alpha/beta functionality in the Google Play store to release the app to backers who have joined specific circles setup by you. I don't know if Google would have a problem with you using it like this.
It might be possible to distribute the app outside of the Play Store but I suspect that will become a big support problem as users struggle to get the app installed and keep it up to date.
For iOS part we haven't this functionality with Store Kit. This framework was created to securely process payments from users. You don't need to work with payments. Just deliver some product or an extra functionality to user with promo code. Implement a dialogue in your app where user can enter his code, send this code to your server, check it and give an access for user, if code was right. That's all you need. After making the product available, your app needs to make a persistent record of the "purchase" like you do with normal in-app purchases.
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 need a way to share my app to allow people to download it for free with a coupon code or promo code or checkout code. I would like to post the code to a board, and invalidate it after some time. My app uses licensing and in-app billing, so mailing the APK may not be appropriate. The last question I saw regarding this was 6 months old, so I did not know if there was a newer solution available.
There is not a way to do this with the current feature set in the Play store.
You could produce a similar effect using the Licensing service (http://developer.android.com/guide/market/licensing) and perhaps in-app purchases. However sadly you will have to do most of the work yourself.
Google has recently enabled support for promotion codes for paid apps and in app purchases. You will first need to setup a promotion through your Google play store developer console:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6321495
Or add support for in app purchase codes through in app promotions:
https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_promotions.html
Note however that there are limits to the amount and type of codes that can be created:
For each app, you can create up to 500 promo codes per quarter. To
reach that limit, you can use any combination of paid app and in-app
promo codes.
Here are some ways you could reach your promo code limit for an app:
500 paid app promo codes, or
500 promo codes for one in-app product, or
250 paid app promo codes + 250 promo codes for one in-app product, or
100 promo codes for five in-app products
As others have said, this is currently not supported by the Android Market/Play. There is, I believe, a feature request, you can vote/star it. If you are already using in-app billing, it is fairly easy to implement this yourself though. All you need is a database with Web access, so you can check if the coupon code is valid. You might want to implement some sort of restore functionality, so people can reuse the code if they switched devices. And/or set up an upper limit for coupon use, so that you can prevent people from sharing the coupon code.
I think I have a part-way ok way to do it. I use the licensing service, which is not terribly hard (10 times easier than in-app billing), and embedded an expiration time into my app, and post the debug version on a web site. Before the expiration, it ignores the license server response. After the expiration, it reports "Unlicensed App" with the option to purchase.
You can do this if you distribute your app through a third-party app market, such as Appia. However, this functionality is not built into Google Play.
If you wish to provide users with a coupon so that they can download a paid app for free on Google Play store, that can't be done. You either need to use another market or distribute the paid app yourself.
If I have an iPhone app, Android app, and Blackberry app, is there any way to implement a monthly or yearly subscription-based billing scheme such that a user need only pay for one subscription in order to use my app on any device? The problem is that each app store seems to have the stipulation that any fees required to use the app must be paid through them so they can take their cut.
Dropbox does this, but I think they can get away with it because their apps will work for free, and the subcription only offers more storage space. Is their any way to do this type of billing for an app which requires a subscription in order to be used at all? If not, will simply adding some sort of free functionality get me around this?
Thanks.
[EDIT]
Let me be clear, my question is about how this can be done legally. I'm basically running up into the same issue that caused the Financial Times to stop offering its paper through a native iPhone app. The difference between them and me, though, is that I don't mind paying the app markets their cut. I just want to know if this is possible; a user can either order their subscription through Android Market or the App Store, and if a user isn't paying through both stores then I think I'm violating the terms of one of the stores.
You could try Bango.But you need to implement a possibility to transfer the Bango User IDs between your different apps on the different devices. They offer a service where they bill a recurring fee to the user. They offer a SOAP-Based API (amongst others) you can use from your app.
But beware: there are some legal restrictions concerning inapp payment in the Apple AppStore and the Android Market and maybe also in the Blackberry AppWorld.