In my app i have several managed products which have a certain price. In the release week I want to make some of them free of charge. As the minimum price on Google Play Developer console is 0.5€, I'm not sure how to make those products free of charge and at the same time save its SKUs to the Google Play servers (as it happens on default purchase flow). I want that, because a user may delete the app and reinstall it later.
Is that even possible?
See In-app Promotions — Where Developers can create promo codes which users can redeem for content or features.
Promo codes let you give content or features away to a limited number of users free of charge. After you create a promo code, you can distribute it subject to the terms of service. The user enters the promo code in your app or in the Google Play Store app and receives the item at no cost.
You cannot change the price of an in-app product once it is published, and you can't sell an item for free. You will have to implement this yourself, maybe by keeping a record of SKUs that a user has access to that is separate from what Google Play gives you. When a user clicks "buy" for a product, pays for it, and consumes it, then add that SKU to the list. If you want to offer a free product, simply add that SKU to the list as well without going through the IAB flow.
Related
I have my paid app in Playstore and AppStore. Now as per our requirement I want to convert a paid app as a yearly subscription.
For example, Users purchase the app at $50 and that will be their first-year subscription. Is that possible?
I notice both Playstore and AppStore only have two options for downloading the app that is,
Users can download the app for free.
Users need to pay some amount to download the app, and users can use that app for a lifetime.
So there is no subscription option for downloading the app.
But Playstore and AppStore provide subscription options as In-app purchases.
To achieve my requirement, I have a thought to implement the below idea,
Once users paid and download the app, we will allow the user to use the app for one year. Then after one year, we will ask for the subscription(In-app purchase) when opening the app (without any free content in the app for the user), the user needs to pay to continue to use it. If payment is successful then I allow the user to login the app, if-else the user needs to exit the app.
Will the AppStore and PlayStore accept the above idea?
Is this possible? If not, please suggest a solution for us?
The main goal is users need to pay $50 per year.
Thanks in advance.
re the Play Store. If you want to have a subscription you need to make your app Free and then add your subscription(s).
See in Google Play console
Monetise,
Products,
App Pricing,
In-App products,
Subscriptions
App Pricing - make it Free. Note you can't change back to Paid after making it free, so make sure you understand that before making it free.
Subscriptions - Enter your subscription details and make the subscription active.
Any app that is marked as Free will have an install button on Google Play. If it is a paid app then the user will be prompted to pay for it before they can download it.
A subscription can have a trial period. The user is only charged when the trial period ends or you option to control the trial within your app via your own server etc.
I can’t comment re the Apple Store.
The problem I am facing is, A user can get the free trial benefits without any restriction of my In-App purchase by creating and logging in with new Apple or Google ID on their device.
I can maintain the list of users who already have consumed the free trial as the app requires sign-in and I can map that purchase with the account, but the Apple and Google won't recognise that user as the existing user for that purchase and will give the free trial benefit again without charging anything.
The one solution I came up with is to keep two Product ID on respective stores like:
my_in_app_subscription_with_trial: It will give any new user the benefits of Free trials.
my_in_app_subscription_without_trial: It will start the subscription the moment the user buys it. I can use this for those users who already have consumed the free trial.
or
Is there any way to give users free trial of In-App Subscription conditionally while requesting for Subscription from Respective Stores?
Any suggestions other than the above-mentioned?
I looked at this question Android in-app purchase of a subscription with a free trial - how to avoid abuse?
But the above scenario is taken care by Google and Apple.
On Google Play, you can call queryPurchaseHistory API in Play Billing Library. If you have seen the previous history record of your subscription item, then you know the user has used his free trial.
Login with a different Google ID through Google Sign-in won't help. Actually, the in-app purchases are tied to the account which downloaded your app. The user really have to completely log out the owner account from device and sign in with a new account to make this abuse.
I was unable to find clear reply on Google's help.
App is Free to use. It's absolutely useful.
Also it's possible to buy subscription and get more in-app options.
Then is this app Paid or Free ?
As far as I understand it's paid.
But when I select Paid option in Developer Console, then it requests to provide price of the App. But App, by itself, is free to use.
What price should I enter then ?
Or is it Free ?
The difference between paid and free is at the time of installation. Do you have to pay to install the app or can you download it for free. In other words, does the button in the store say "buy" or just "install"?
It does not matter whether the app has in-app purchases (1) or ads later on. Both free and paid apps can have that but most app that rely on subscriptions and in-app purchases will be free.
The official developer's guide explains it here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6334373
For an overview of all the monetization options check out the course linked on https://play.google.com/console/about/guides/monetize/
The important points for the decision:
Paid apps are not available everywhere. See https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/table/3541286 for a list of countries and limitations.
Paid apps cannot be set to a price of 0. This means no "This week free" type of promotion. There is in fact a minimum price you can set.
Paid apps can be converted to free apps but never back. Whether existing customers will like you for that or how you could compensate them is a different question.
Free apps must stay free forever. You can only unlist them and publish them under a new name.
(1) Some regions do make a difference between free apps with in-app purchases and free apps without them when it comes to availability. Basically, Google will not let you download an app with in-app purchases when they can't sell you those in-app purchases in that country.
It's like this:
Free: Completely free. No cost to download. You can still run ads, if you wish. You can, also use IAP here, if you'd like.
In App Purchases: Means that the user can pay money for things within the app. Upgrades, level unlocks, subscriptions, things like that. Your app can be free, but still have this option.
Paid: You are charging people to download the app. $.99 is the USD minumum. You can, also us IAP here, if you'd like.
In other words, you can combine Free/Paid and In App Purchases, if you wish. But free to download, still means free.
First I had created one app, which I uploaded into the Play store with some price, and I got some downloads. Now I want to add in-app purchases to my app and I want make my app free.
If I update my .apk (with in-app purchase) into the Play store then it will send notification to the users who have purchased my app.
If they are updated then it will show in-app purchases also so they have to purchase some modules.
So I want to set in-app purchases as active for users who have purchased my app.
Is there a specific process for accomplishing this?
You can make a paid app be free
Is there a specific process for accomplishing this?
No, their is no official way to do this, Because In-App you have to add items on google play and its show to every user util he/she pay for that In-App Item.
but you can handle by your own way.
Like if user already pay then you have to hide in-app(or whatever your app flow) for that perticular user and enable that future for them.
So no need to pay again for same
in sort you can handle by JAVA code(because you have list of paid user)
If app have same package and current version is new then installed then its update app(make sure both version are signed with same certificate/keystore)
Important:
If you change an app from Paid to Free and save the change, the change is permanent. Once changed to free, the app can't be changed back to a paid app. If you want to charge again for a paid app that you’ve changed to a free app, you would need to create a new app with a new package name and set a price for the new app.
Android Developer Help
first of all you have to add vending inapp billing files in your package, then in manifest you have to give permission. thats from application side, now you have to configure product id and licence key. Below is very useful link which i also had applied, Hope it works for you too :)....
Sample Project && configuration
My little contribution is that setting the app to use in-app purchases is in the Content Rating (of all places) There is one checkbox!!! Lost an hour at least on this.
Suppose I have a game for purchase on Android Market; is it possible to allow the buyer to send a limited amount of invites or codes to their friends, which will allow them (the friends) to download the game free of charge?
Or is my best bet to make the game free and use in-app purchases and/or codes for account creation (it's a network-based game)?
EDIT: Google has added support for promo codes.
Kaka, I am afraid that there is no direct way.
Here is one way to implement it (albeit involves manual refunds) :
1. You can generate a hashcode as free key which gets generated and sent to the user whenever he buys the product.
2. User can then share the hashcode with few friends.
3. Friends buy the product from Android Market and login to the app. They then enter the "free code" sent by User 1 and submit it in App.
4. You refund the amount if the "free code is valid and is not exceeded the count" manually in Android market.
Not the best solution but works if the number of users are less and you can handle the refunds yourself.
Unfortunately there's not way to let a user install a paid app for free (presumably in case it's exploited to cut Google out, thus costing them their 30%)
Your second option - a free app with in-app purchases - is by far the better option.