I am implementing an In-App billing feature in our Android App.
App is a free app, with few features but for one feature user has to pay.
Goal is to make one of the feature available only for the people who purchase it via In-App billing.
is it correct way to ship all the feature as part of the free app and hide the paid feature and make this feature available (unhide) only for the paid users?
Or
When user pays via In-App billing should i have to download new version/required files to make this feature available? if this is the correct way, how to accomplish this?
Yes you ship all functioning code, but you check if the item has been paid before you let the user use it: API.
https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/index.html
Related
I am developing an Android app with two modes
Trial - free with limited functionality. The user has no time limit here. They can continue to use the app for forever but will not have access to full functionality.
Paid - full functionality. The user can make a one time payment to gain full functionality.
I have seen some posts indicating that you could publish two different apps to the Play store, but I would prefer to publish one app and use an internal flag to limit functionality when in Trial mode.
What is the best way to do this on Play Console? Should I set the App pricing as free and then add an In-app product for the paid version? Then from my app I can have a button that makes the request for the purchase?
The Play store indicates that once an app is published as free then it cannot be changed to paid? Is there some way to indicate paid app that has trial with limited functionality?
I don't want to use Subscription since the payment is one-time to get the full App.
Are there other good options to follow?
Using the Google Play Billing Library is the Google recommended way to do this (integrates with GPay nicely), otherwise you can use other payment processors and setup a server configuration to verify users purchases.
Using only an internal flag is not recommended as if users ever clear app data/uninstall their purchase is lost.
I have a free app running on google play store.
I want to add In-app billing feature in my application.But still I want to keep my app free(i.e.,Not paid apps).So is it possible.I have google merchant account.
You can add in-app billing but if you have existing users you will not want to restrict features that are already available to them for free. The usual use of in-app billing is to have a free app with a basic tier of features that remain free indefinitely, and then to create a value-added tier of features that can be accessed by making an in-app payment. If you deviate from that model by charging for features that people were told they could obtain free, then you will have lots of angry users and bad reviews. I don't know whether Google would also look askance at it, but the effect on users should be enough to make you avoid it.
The one exception would be if you offer a timed free trial up front, and all of your users were told from the start that the trial would expire and could only be continued by making an in-app payment.
Yes, you have to worry about Google's policies, but treating your users well should be just as important, and will certainly affect the perception of your app.
Yes i think there is but it needs evualated/approved by Google before you can use it
I want to be able to get the state of the user purchases but on the current app they are in from when it was paid to free.
For example App SuperCars was paid app but the latest update makes it free with in-app purchases. I want previous users who paid for the app to have access to paid content but new users to have no access in which they would need to pay.
Can anyone give me an example of how I would do this? How do I get the user paid sate??
After looking around and contacting certain people I've found out that it's not supported by Google, I'm disappointed at the developing Apps for Google Play, lots of features still missing.
Think about it, essentially you have launched a new product. Its not the same product, its a modified more useful product. Infact you should release this as a different product, different package, and check if your other product is also installed. If yes, provide the in app features free. Let both products coexist.
One more way is to update the older product (with a bug fix) that broadcasts its "paid" status. Then when you install the new app (free with inapp purchases) you can know that they have already paid for the app.
But if they have uninstalled the older app, then they have to install the older app to use it free.
So essentially you customers have 2 choices
Install the older product, pay for it. And install and use the 2nd product free.
Install the newer product and use in-app purchases.
DONT look for a way for google play to give you a status of a user's paid progress of a previous version of the app. Sorry, this looks like a crazy api to implement (even for google :)).
I have created a free app that includes a in-app billing in order to unlock some features
and I need to use it. I need to buy it?
I have another app, that's not freeware and i have introduced my email address in the developer console in order to use it for free, but it doesn't work with in-app billing. why? I need to purchase my own app? :crazy:
thank's
You don't have to buy your own stuff :)
See Testing In-app Billing
This question might be off topic, but I wanted to ask the fellow developers.
Is there a way on Google play I could change my free app to a paid app?
What would happen to the existing users if it is allowed? Would they be asked to pay when the new update is available?
You cannot change a free app to a paid app on the Google Play store. You could re-upload under a different name, but this would obviously fracture your user base.
You could add in-app payment processing to your free app and charge for enhanced features. Per
http://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1153479
"By using the in-app billing feature you can add revenue-generating features to your applications, enhancing the revenue potential of paid applications and turning free applications into new revenue sources."
Now, could you disable functionality that was already available in the free app, and then charge via in-app payments to have it restored? Technically I do think it could be done, since you are in control of your implementation of those features, although you would have to investigate whether that would be a violation of Google's policies.
However, doing it might alienate your users, and if word got around they might even stop updating your app to avoid the "trap." So a much better approach would probably be to add enticing new functionality that enhances the existing functionality, and then charge for it.
You cannot. Check this
"Once your app has been offered for Free, the app can't be changed to Paid. If you want to charge for the app, you need to create a new app with a new package name and set a price."
Its not possible, we need create paid app always then you can make it free