Our app has in app purchase feature. Targer OS is iOS and android both.
I wanted to know that can the user buy the products listed in app purchases from our app website. Edit: products to ultimately utilised inside app even if purchsing from app website ( product similar like say a power of a game level/or virtual currency)
I have searched on the net and apple documentation says that:
Selling outside is permitted but value should not be less than listed in the in app purchase and no link to outside should be visible in thd app for purchase.
Is it true?
But I was not able to find much about android.
Do anyone of you have experience in this?
Please guide.
From https://play.google.com/intl/en/about/developer-content-policy.html
In-app purchases: Developers offering virtual goods or currencies
within a game downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's
in-app billing service as the method of payment. Developers offering
additional content, services or functionality within another category
of app downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's in-app
billing service as the method of payment, except: where payment is
primarily for physical goods or services (e.g., buying movie tickets,
or buying a publication where the price also includes a hard copy
subscription); or where payment is for digital content or goods that
may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g., buying songs that can
be played on other music players).
Related
Inside my dating app is it possible to offer a different billing method than google play? I ask because I heard that now it's forbidden to offer anything else than google play billing but I see close to all app (tinder, etc.) are still offering their own credit card payment
Only if it fulfils the requirements here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9858738?hl=en
Here are the exceptions:
Developers offering products within a game downloaded on Google Play or providing access to game content must use Google Play In-app Billing as the method of payment.
Developers offering products within another category of app downloaded on Google Play must use Google Play In-app Billing as the method of payment, except for the following cases:
Payment is solely for physical products
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).
In-app virtual currencies must only be used within the app or game title for which they were purchased.
Developers must not mislead users about the apps they are selling nor about any in-app services, goods, content, or functionality offered for purchase. If your product description on Google Play refers to in-app features that may require a specific or additional charge, your description must clearly notify users that payment is required to access those features.
Apps offering mechanisms to receive randomized virtual items from a purchase (i.e. "loot boxes") must clearly disclose the odds of receiving those items in advance of purchase.
Here are some examples of products not currently supported by Google Play In-app Billing:
Retail merchandise, such as groceries, clothing, housewares, and electronics.
Service fees, including taxi and transportation services, cleaning services, food delivery, airfare, and event tickets.
One-time membership fees or recurring dues, including gym memberships, loyalty programs, or clubs offering accessories, clothing, or other physical products.
One time-payments, including peer-to-peer payments, online auctions, and donations.
Electronic bill payment, including credit card bills, utilities, and cable or telecommunications services.
We are going to build a mobile app for iOS and Android (might build a web app later) where users can upload videos and their friends and followers can watch them. The videos can be either free or also be tagged with a price. If I tag a video with $1 when uploading it, my friends and followers will have to first pay $1 to watch and after paying that $1 they can watch it any time after that.
My client wants to use Authorize.net to do the payments. In iOS there are restrictions like we must use IAP for such feature. Similarly is there any restrictions on Android as well, that we must use Google In-app Billing or is it OK to use Authorize.net to do the payments?
Taken from this page:
Payments
Apps that employ in-store or in-app purchases must comply with the
following guidelines:
In-store purchases: Developers charging for apps and downloads from
Google Play must use Google Play’s payment system. In-app purchases:
Developers offering products within a game downloaded on Google Play or providing access to game content must use Google Play In-app
Billing as the method of payment.
Developers offering products within another category of app downloaded on Google Play must use Google Play In-app Billing as the
method of payment, except for the following cases:
Payment is solely for physical products
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).
In-app virtual currencies must only be used within the app where they were first purchased.
Developers must not mislead users about the apps they are selling nor about any in-app services, goods, content, or functionality
offered for purchase. If your product description on Google Play
refers to in-app features that may require a specific or additional
charge, your description must clearly notify users that payment is
required to access those features.
So I guess the answer is no, you have to use Google Play in-app billing if you want to publish the app in the play store. But the policy states that digital content under some circumstances is excluded, I guess this applies to videos as well, although I'm not to sure about it. Depends on whether the videos can be played outside of the app (at least so it seems).
I haven't found a solid answer to this on either the documentation of android/google play, SO, or on google searches.
In iOS is it not allowed to handle money transactions within the app, making you only do in-app purchases. I want to know if in Android this is the same case.
I know Android does not have a review process like iOS so this will be harder to "catch" even if its not allowed, but I wanted to do it correctly from the start.
The documentation suggests to do in-app purchases, but they take a 30% of the sale. Also, this seems to only be a suggestion.
So, here's the direct question. Can I sell images inside my app, handle the credit card transaction, handle the billing and charge the amount of money within my app in Android, without having to give 30% of the sale to google, and without having to use in-app purchases? I have seen apps like the Amazon Kindle app do this, but I don't know if they have to report/share 30% of the sale in the background.
Hopefully this isn't off topic since its a developing-related question, even though its not about specific code.
Edit: Just to clarify. The "goods" to be purchased in the app would be images, which can then be edited within the app and printed from within the app to a printer. The images will be downloaded from the app as an encrypted file so they can only be used with this app.
Yes! If the images that are being sold, once purchased, are available outside the app. According to Google Play Developer Program Policies :
Developers offering virtual goods or currencies within a game downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's in-app billing service as the method of payment.
Developers offering additional content, services or functionality within another category of app downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's in-app billing service as the method of payment, except:
where payment is primarily for physical goods or services (e.g., buying movie tickets, or buying a publication where the price also includes a hard copy subscription); or
where payment is for digital content or goods that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g., buying songs that can be played on other music players).
I'm trying to develop a parking application in which the user can pay for the parked time. I went through this document on In-app products and confused how to do the payment. Right now we have planned to do the payments via a third party gateway called "creditcall". Will google play allow this?
No you cannot use 3rd-party gateways, you must use Google's ip-app purchase system. They recently updated their terms of use.
Developers offering additional content, services or functionality
within another category of app downloaded from Google Play must use
Google Play’s in-app billing service as the method of payment, except:
where payment is primarily for physical goods or services (e.g. buying movie tickets, or buying a publication where the price also
includes a hard copy subscription); or
where payment is for digital content or goods that may be consumed outside of the application itself (e.g. buying songs that can be
played on other music players).
Source: https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html
This is the key document from Google: https://play.google.com/intl/en/about/developer-content-policy.html. The current version goes like this (bolding mine):
In-app purchases:
Developers offering virtual goods or currencies within a game downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's in-app billing
service as the method of payment.
Developers offering additional content, services or functionality within another category of app downloaded from Google Play must use
Google Play's in-app billing service as the method of payment, except:
where payment is primarily for physical goods or services (e.g., buying movie tickets, or buying a publication where the price also
includes a hard copy subscription); or
where payment is for digital content or goods that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g., buying songs that can be played on
other music players).
The exception in second point is worth exploring further. If your service or digital content is available outside of the app, it can be sold through other payment providers. Example would be: Skype credit, Spotify subscription, additional features available both on your web and app client. But if the in-app purchase is linked only to the app, Google Wallet must be used.
Hope this helps.
Can anyone please tell me is there any need to pay Google play for m-commerce application.If yes,please tell me how much we have to pay for that.I want to know the case of apple too.I am new to this area..So please help me.
For Apple: If your app sells physical goods, there is no need to pay apple, but you should implement your billing system. If you sell non-physical goods (like digital content), you have to use In App Purchases. Apple gets 30% and you get 70%.
For Google Play:
In-app purchases: Developers offering virtual goods or currencies
within a game downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's
in-app billing service as the method of payment. Developers offering
additional content, services or functionality within another category
of app downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's in-app
billing service as the method of payment, except: where payment is
primarily for physical goods or services (e.g., buying movie tickets,
or buying a publication where the price also includes a hard copy
subscription); or where payment is for digital content or goods that
may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g., buying songs that can
be played on other music players). Developers must not mislead users
about the apps they are selling nor about any in-app services, goods,
content or functionality they are selling.