Disable one in-app purchase as of a certain date - android

I have an Android app that has several features available as in-app purchases. We have published the app on both Google Play and the Amazon App Store. We need to stop offering one of the features as of a certain date. However, customers who have already purchased the feature should be able to use it past that date, even if they install the app on a new device. They should also still be able to purchase other features.
I was thinking that we could simply update our app so that the UI offered no option for purchasing the feature in question. However, that would not prevent a user with an older version of the app from purchasing the feature. So it seems like in addition to removing the feature purchase logic from the app (but not the feature itself), we need to do something to turn off the purchase at the store end. But whatever that something is, it must still allow the app to check whether the user had previously purchased the feature.
I've been unable to figure out from the Google Play or Amazon App Store documentation how to set this up. My understanding, from what I've read, is that removing the item (from either store) will cause checks for previous purchases to fail. Is it possible to do what I've described? We need solutions for both stores.
P.S. I did find one related question on SO: Are Google Play in-app purchases still valid if the app or the product is removed? However, it has no answer and also is a little too narrowly framed. (I'm not assuming that the product has to be removed and I also need to know about the Amazon store.)

I was thinking that we could simply update our app so that the UI
offered no option for purchasing the feature in question. However,
that would not prevent a user with an older version of the app from
purchasing the feature. So it seems like in addition to removing the
feature purchase logic from the app (but not the feature itself), we
need to do something to turn off the purchase at the store end.
For Amazon Appstore, you would need to contact their support team to get the in-app item in question suppressed (it's not a self-service as of today). Once suppressed, that in-app item would no longer be purchasable. It would not affect existing users who purchased that item in the past.

When it comes to in-app purchase I always opt for implementing everything in my own server. when a user buys something, I instantly consume it and notify my server. Then instead of querying Google or Amazon, I query my own server which gives me a lot of flexibility. If I face something like your problem I just add few lines of code!
Since you already published your app this may not work for you unless you willing to force users to update the app to the newer version. (Hoping you can do that!)
You mentioned that you don't know what happens if you deactivate the product and there is no documentation, well you can try it on a test project and see what happens! It shouldn't be that hard. If that doesn't work as you expect there is nothing you can do, your logic is in your app and it's already published so...

Related

Can in-app functionality be bought outside of Google Play store?

I've come across a collection of android apps that utilise a questionable practice.
With the help of misleading ads user gets tricked into buying an app via SMS service (with prices up to 10 EUR). Afterwards the user then can enter an activation code in the free app distributed on Google Play store.
The entire operation is in grey-area, because it is the user itself who sends the SMS and is responsible for the cost. Due to the nature of the ads, its mostly unsuspecting older people that get tricked into this, because they assume that they must do it or they'll have problems with their device.
In app functionality being sold outside of the app store would most likely be a violation of Apple Store and the app could be reported.
I am wondering if there's similar rules for Play Store, so that this practice could be reported to Google.
The short answer is that Google allows this practice for now, but they are already working on changing it. From my experience, Google allows devs to use any payment/licensing model that their app requires. However, this is subject to change and the end results will be something similar with Apple's policy.
From their support page, it seems that from January 2021, they require that all new apps will use the GooglePlay IAP API. Existing apps have until the end of September to make the switch. As with any other policy, there are some exceptions, but please check the official page to receive the correct information.

Transfer In App Purchases from one app to another on Android

Okay, something really dumb happened to my friend.
He submitted an Android application a few weeks ago that offers In-App Purchases to the user.
Now, he needed to update the .apk to fix a bug, but he actually lost the keystore that he used to sign the application the other day (what a dumbass...). He tells me it's definitely lost. He exhausted all options to find or restore it, but without success. So, as he understands, the only way to submit the update is to actually create a new application in the Google Play Developer Console. He is so dumb, I always tell him to do backups of important files, he just won't listen (wow, really, such a blockhead...)!!!! sigh...
Luckily, he only had a handful of users who actually purchased something in his app during that time. However, I would like to know (for my friend) if there is any way to transfer the In App Purchases from the same user from the old app to the new one, so that the users who bought something in the app and now want to update it, won't get punished for his stupidity and have to purchase the same items again....
AFAIK, there is no way to do that. The only option is to refund them and ask them to buy again in the new app. I believe refunding can be done by logging in to Merchant account.
Google Play does not provide any form of content delivery. You are
responsible for delivering the digital content that you sell in your
applications. In-app products are always explicitly associated with
one and only one app. That is, one application cannot purchase an
in-app product published for another app, even if they are from the
same developer.
And BTW, Does the app have any backend? Where in he saved data of all purchases made?

How to test in-app-purchases easily, without publishing or signing it first?

Background
My app has some in-app billing (like this one), and I wish to test it out before publishing it.
I've watched some google IO lectures and read some articles, and prepared everything.
According to what i've learnt (talked about here), all I need to do is just add my email to the test accounts, and it won't be charged.
The problem
It seems that in the developer console, the in app items cannot be activated.
I think it's because the app isn't published yet, but that's the whole point of testing - I want to test the app before publishing it...
As I've also found out, in order to test in-app billing, I have to do a lot of things to take care of for making it work, also having many restrictions and annoyances:
sign the app and upload it to the play store . if you don't use a signed app, you get this message ("This version of the application is not configured for Market Billing...") .
make credit cards be used to the devices, even if they won't cost anything.
let others do the testing instead of myself, as my account cannot be used for that. not only that, but instead of adding exactly which you wish to add, you have to create a google group and there put the people who will be able to use the app, and all will have to have a google+ account... You will also need to wait some time till the testers will be able to use in-app-billing of your app and till then they will get an error "User is not eligible for this purchase" .
because of #1, I need to have some kind of mechanism to reset the purchases, within the app itself, but i also shouldn't forget to remove/hide this features for the end users, so that they won't reset it by mistake
because of #1, if I wish to be able to debug the app, I need to change it on the manifest, and choose to debug the app within Eclipse, and also remember to uncheck this flag before actually releasing the app.
since the app is on the play store, you cannot modify in-app purchases items (their Id for example), as opposed to many thing you can modify before publishing the app. It's no longer a development as flexible as it can be using simple development. It's like your app should be sealed with what you choose even though you haven't published it yet.
The question
Why is it this way?
How come there isn't a simple way to allow to test the in-app-billing ?
How would you deal with the problems I've written about?
Is it possible to test the in-app purchases before the app is published?
How come I can't use my own google account ?
Also, suppose I do make a (fake) purchase, how do I reset it (all/specific purchases) in order to check it out again? Is it true I can't do it anywhere besides the app itself?
Am I missing anything?
you dont have to publish the app inorder to test it all you have to do is upload the apk to your developer console, just dont publish it. If your account is linked to your developer console you cannot use that account and have to create a test account to test the IAP's
You will have to public the app but publish in beta mode so that you can test the in app purchases. Beta mode will enable to test the functionality with limited user set.
Yes, you can test your app without publish (and without publish in beta mode too). There are instruction http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_testing.html#billing-testing-test. Please remember that after 1 point it's maybe need to wait about hour or two.
It seems that in the developer console, the in app items cannot be activated.
it's ok, just check that you mark it as active. It look like not active before you publish the app, but you can test it.
I can use my own google account, right?
I strongly recommended have additional account only for test purchases.
Also, suppose I do make a (fake) purchase, how do I reset it (all/specific purchases) in order to check it out again?
You'll must to fill billing information for your test account. But when you make test purchase, there are no any real money transaction. Every in-app can be tested once again after the app consume it.
I'm also working on how to test In-App-Billing for Android in best way since days.
With real transactions to me it seems to be really too complicated and a lot too much effort. So i'm currently thinking of 'only' testing this stuff with static responses (http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_testing.html#billing-testing-static).
In theory i guess once this works, it should also be fine in production as in the source code only the SKU id gets changed for live release..

Android: get in-apps list from Android Market

I'm implementing in-app billing for my app.
I've downloaded the sample application provided by Google Code, I've adapted it for my app and it works perfectly.
Now, I want to retrieve from Android Market the list of the in-apps published for my app and list them in my activity.
I need this because I won't publish my in-apps all at a time, but I want to publish some of them now, some of them next month and so on. I would like to avoid publishing a new apk version on Google Market as the people who downloaded the first version won't find the new available in-apps if they don't update their app.
Is this possible?
The In-App manager in the developer console does have an export to csv, so it is possible, in theory, to progmatically download the list. It would probably require you having to write to code to "log in" to the developer console, store the access token, and then download file. (I don't think it would be trivial)
Another approach might be to store the list on a common server that's easier to access.
In either case, you are left with having to find the optimal interval in which to check for updates to your products. ie, do you make the user wait each time you start the app, or do you have a manual action in the app where the user can check for updates.
Personally, unless your products are changing really frequently, I'd stick with the static list in the apk file. You are probably going to be pushing out bug fixes, so updating the product list in those times, wouldn't be an issue. As for notifying the user, they will get notified via the update manager that a new version of your App exists. If the release notes are interesting enough, users will update.

In-App Billing Security and Design questions

I have a few questions connected to Android In-App Billing:
Is it possible to make a purchase from non-Market app? I understand that it would be a vulnerability, but I have no opportunity to find out if it's possible or not.
How can I get purchase state for a particular product? As far as I understand it can be done using RESTORE_TRANSACTIONS request, but it's not recommended to use very often. That's not a theoretical problem. My application allows users to buy content using in-app billing. Content can be downloaded from a server, and server must allow content downloading only if it was purchased. But it can't check if content was purchased or not without using signed response from Android Market.
How can I get price and description of an item from Android Market? Seems that I know the answer and it's "there's no way it can be done", but maybe I'm wrong. It would be very useful to have a possibility of retrieving item's price.
It's very interesting to me how you solved/are going to solve these problems in your apps. Answer to any of these questions will be appreciated.
In order:
1- Nope. The in-app billing process is part of Market. If the app comes from elsewhere, there's no way for Market to verify the origin/authenticity of the application.
2- It's your responsibility to store the purchase state for a particular product. From the doc:
You must set up a database or some other mechanism for storing users' purchase information.
RESTORE_TRANSACTIONS should be reserved for reinstalls or first-time installs on a device.
3- Unfortunately, at this time you're right. File a feature request!
In the meantime, one option is to set up a website with appengine, store listings of all your content & pricing there, and then manually sync prices listed on your appengine server with the updated prices in Market. Then have your Android app pull the data from the AppEngine server. This is much better than hardcoding price values into the app itself, since you don't need to have everyone update the app immediately to see accurate pricing whenever you change something. The only caveat of this method is that if the user is in a different country, in-app billing will display an approximated price in their native currency, and there's no way for you to determine exactly what price will be displayed to them.
Related, One of the Android Developer Advocates is giving a talk on LVL/IAP at IO, called "Evading Pirates and Stopping Vampires using License Verification Library, In-App Billing, and App Engine." - It would definitely be worth your while to watch when they release the session videos on the website.

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