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.
Related
Google Play IAB charges 30% transaction fee while Google Pay is free for both business owners and customers. If we can use a WebView to show a Google Pay flow instead of using Google Play's billing, it will be enormous amount of revenue boost. We may still need Google Play to manage the subscriptions, but for one time purchases, it seems certainly replaceable.
It depends on what you are selling.
The following answer provides a very good overview: Google Play/App Store in-app purchase policies
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).
Is it possible to build an Android app subscription system without link to Google Play in app billing? If using Google Play in app billing, Google Play will charge 30% of the transaction fee. If it is possible to implement the app subscription without link to Google Play,anyone has good tutorial for that? Thanks!
Yes, you could use, for example, the paypal api, but you wont be able to publish it to the play store.
Developers charging for apps and downloads from Google Play must do so by using Google Play's payment system. 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).
Source: Are there alternatives to using Google's in-app-billing , as a way to avoid publishing private info?
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).
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.
I want to use an alternative way for in-app purchases in my Android application such as Fortumo or PayPal libraries. Don't they violate Android Developers Terms of Services? Or will it cause the suspending of my developer account?
Can I also sell electronic currencies in my application using Android native In-App-Purchase?
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. If your product description on Google Play refers to in-app
features to which a specific or additional charge applies, your
description must clearly notify users that payment is required to
access those features.
Source: https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html
Consult a lawyer, not SO. IANL, but the Market agreement states that
All fees received by Developers for Products distributed via the
Market must be processed by the Market's Payment Processor.
AFAIK, the only authorized payment processor is Google Checkout/Wallet, so you decide whether using PayPal violates the agreement.
Direct in-app payment would violate Google's terms. However there are a large number of developers (e.g., KKBox) which do not want to pay Google 30% split. What they do is essential setting up a login page with passcode. On the other hand, they sell those passcode as pay-as-you-go or subscription. I believe this does not violate the terms of Google.