I have to develop an app implementing in-app purchase, whoses purchases are suscriptions to a service (with a fixed price).
My client didn't ask me to use Google's in-app billing API, and asked me to provide fields for the user to enter his bank details instead (and to directly interact with banks I guess). I haven't seen many apps doing this (except maybe Uber), and I'm wondering what am I supposed to do.
Should I tell him to use Google's in-app billing API instead ?
Or should I develop this from scratch / using a library ? (I really don't feel confident about this...)
Thanks in advance for your answers !
That sounds like a bad idea. I certainly would immediately uninstall any app that asked for my bank account information. If it were me I would try to convince the client to go with Google's service, or at least some trusted third party - does Amazon have an in app purchase system for Android? I've only used Google's. That system is set up to allow purchases without giving credit card or bank information to the app. It may even be a violation of Android developer terms to ask for banking information, you may want to look into that.
Have they given you any reasons why they don't want to use the Google service? Is it possible they just don't know about it?
Related
I am fully aware of Google rules regarding in app payments, but I am still not sure if my case pass these rules or it violate them, so I wanted to make sure and see if anyone have a better answer.
Basically I have a website where people register and buy a subscription for a X service, recently I built an Android app to correspond to the service of the website, my Android app shows a message to the users saying that if they want to buy premium subscription they have to go to my website, register and buy it there, the question is does it violate Google rules?
Thank you for any help.
Yes it does.
You are not allowed to hint that users can spend money somewhere else. Its also not allowed to link to external resources where the user can spend money.
Netflix is an example for this.
Netflix users can use the App with the account they created on the website.
Users that create an account from the App are forced to go through in app purchases.
Netflix App is not allowed to hint that users can get it cheaper through the Netflix website.
we are developing an app that links people together.
For every successful 'match' we deduct a credit. People pay for credits or purchase a subscription.
Since the connection is digital we have to use in-app purchases in both Google and Apple markets and they take a cut of 30%.
Obviously we think this is rather steep and want to see if we can use alternatives.
Maybe some of you know more about this and can help us out answering the following questions:
How can Spotify sell its subscriptions through 3rd party PSP on Android?? Has it got to do with the fact that Google policy states:
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).
Would that mean that if users use the credits via our website to do the same thing as in the app, then we could use our own payment methods?
We understand Apple is very strict on this matter. However, if we approach our customers outside the app to subscribe through our website....would we get away with this??
Google policy states:
In-app virtual currencies must only be used within the app where they
were first purchased.
**
How should we interpret this? Does it mean that people who buy credits in the app cannot use the credits on another device or via our webbrowser?
If you have any tips or experience on this...please share.
Is it officially allowed (or tolerated at least) by Google to do it?
I've got some users suggesting to me that it could be a good idea to add a one click 'donation button' opening up their default Android bitcoin wallet app with my bitcoin adress pre-filled.
But hey, I don't want to see my apps suspended just because of this!
Did you see some apps or widgets doing this yet on Google Play?
The same question could be asked about Paypal donations I guess...
Thank you to share your opinion.
I don't know what Google's official policy is for certain, but a donation should be no problem. In theory.
http://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html only mentions that any purchase of in-app benefits must be handled via Google's in-app billing system.
https://play.google.com/about/developer-distribution-agreement.html#pricing-payments says essentially the same in legalese.
So as long as donors do not buy/gain anything, not even a thank-you or honourable mention, and that is made clear in your app, you're in theory safe. Disabling ads for donors is for example easily a violation of those terms.
The rules are however Google's to interpret and enforce. And sentences like
The Payment Processor must process all fees a Developer receives for any version of a Product distributed via the Store.
in 2nd link can easily be applied to donations if the app-review person sees fit, even just because he/she misinterpreted the donation button or
If Google decides that your donations are actually fees, they can & will suspend your app (probably without prior warning & time to fix the problem). There are cases of this you can find on the internet.
There is an appeals form you can find here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/2477981 but the answer in practice seems to be "No. Don't ask again.".
Also be aware that Google counts violations and can ban you as a person (not just your current account) from publishing apps on the Play store.
The answer to the question is: NO.
You can't accept bitcoin tips or donations in your Android app, even it is free.
The same is applied for any kind of payment processor, including Paypal.
This because it violates our payments policy.
Policy Issue: Payments
Alternative payment mechanisms to Google Play's in-app billing service
are only permitted if the products purchased are to be used outside of
the app. For example:
For physical goods or services, such as movie tickets, or a publication where the price also includes a hard copy subscription;
or
For digital goods that may be downloaded to devices and used outside of the app, such as songs that can be played on other music
players.
Donations to 527 designated tax exempt organizations are also permitted.
Google don't have clear statement about this but i near future it's possible to allow it
Source
Yes you can. There are already plenty of apps that do this. On another note, for bitcoin donations, use the coinbase api. Its probably the easier in my opinion.
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.
I want to know if its possible/legal(not against terms of service) to use the google checkout api for an android app to support in app purchases. The types of items being purchased would be something like extra coins where they can be purchased multiple times.
I know that this would require getting the user's credentials or pointing them to the checkout page or something. I want to know if its possible to do this within the app by opening a webview to the checkout process, and then getting a callback to a custom url on my server that will allow the app to see that the purchase was successful. Something like what the android market does for app purchases.
Thanks for any responses. I don't currently have code to show as I am researching into this before devoting time to create something I won't be able to use. Also maybe android will support native in-app purchases in newer versions of the sdk.
Spoke to (Android evangelist) Reto Meier at Google Tech Days about this and he said it is perfectly OK to do inter-app purchases in the market. You should comply to other regulations - most common is that you need to only buy content that is consumed on the mobile. Virtual "coins" are on quite thin ice, some countries ban issuing "virtual money" but you can do essentially the same with just little different paradigm. Hope this helps.
Android market documentation explicitly states that you can do check it.
http://developer.android.com/guide/market/billing/billing_admin.html#billing-refunds
Important: You cannot use the Google Checkout API to issue refunds or
cancel in-app billing transactions. You must do this manually through
your Google Checkout merchant account. However, you can use the Google
Checkout API to retrieve order information.