Does google in-app purchase provide non-renewing subscription? Or do I have to simulate that using managed in-app products? I am following the language of the official docs which distinguishes managed in-app goods vs subscriptions.
Please see this post which indicates the answer is as you are already lead.
Does android playstore support non-renewing subscription?
You would have to enforce your own expiration logic for a managed in-app good that specifies a duration.
Related
I've developed an Android app and need clarity on what is required to offer it, via Google Play Store, as a subscription app (i.e. offer use of the app for a monthly fee). For now, no in-app purchases or in-app subscriptions are planned; the only subscription is for use of the app itself. All of the documentation I've read about subscriptions from the Google Play Store seems only to discuss in-app subscriptions.
My questions:
1) Is an overall app subscription treated/processed the same as an in-app subscription (i.e. via the app)?
2) If not, what portions of the Google documentation/guides on subscriptions do I implement? Everything that isn't expressly mentioned as being for in-app subscriptions/purchases?
3) Do I need a back-end server to manage/track app subscription info, or can subscriptions at the app level be managed via Google Play Console?
4) Is there a guide/example/tutorial somewhere that clearly explains how to implement what seems like a basic solution, a subscription app with no in-app purchases?
Examples of what I found during research:
Create a subscription - Play Console Help indicates:
Create a subscription
Using Google Play Billing, you can offer in-app products that charge users for content or services on a recurring basis, known as subscriptions. Subscriptions can include items like a collection of apps, games, or other content for a recurring fee within your app on Google Play.
In Google Play Console, subscriptions are only mentioned (from what I can see) under Store presence->In App Products->Subscriptions
I reviewed other questions on SO related to subscriptions, but virtually all appear to be focused on in-app subscriptions. One exception was Implementing a Yearly Subscription. Per the answer from GNUzilla, I understand the need to create a payment profile in Play Console. The second part of GNUzilla's answer references the now deprecated AIDL interface, so I instead reviewed the guide page for its replacement, Use the Google Play Billing Library | Android Developers. However, this also appears focused on in-app subscriptions. For example,
Enable the purchase of an in-app product
...
To start a purchase request from your app, call the launchBillingFlow() method from the UI thread. Pass a reference to a BillingFlowParams object containing the relevant data to complete the purchase, such as the product ID (skuId) of the item and product type (SkuType.INAPP for a one-time product or SkuType.SUBS for a subscription).
Is an overall app subscription treated/processed the same as an in-app subscription (i.e. via the app)?
There is no such app subscription feature Google has implemented. It always will be in-app subscriptions. User will download the app free/paid and login/signup into the app then the developer will show the subscriptions plan based upon the business case.
If not, what portions of the Google documentation/guides on subscriptions do I implement? Everything that isn't expressly mentioned as being for in-app subscriptions/purchases?
In-App subscriptions. Check here https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_subscriptions
Do I need a back-end server to manage/track app subscription info, or can subscriptions at the app level be managed via Google Play Console?
Yes, you need the backend for managing the real-time notifications. If you don't want to have the backend then you will miss lots of scenarios like your app don't what is the current subscription status. It is also good from a security point of view to verify the purchase in the backend.
Is there a guide/example/tutorial somewhere that clearly explains how to implement what seems like a basic solution, a subscription app with no in-app purchases?
You can check google documentation here. In the future, I will also publish the blog regarding this.
In the Android Play Store: Is it possible to distribute an app for free, but provide multiple in-app purchases to unlock features, and also combine a (yearly/monthly) subscription to unlock yet another set of features?
All information I could find was the explanation to use one of the billing methods, but I couldn't find any information about combining multiple billing systems in 1 app.
You should be able to do whatever you want. Here's the documentation on subscriptions: https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_subscriptions.html and the Billing API for all the other things: https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/api.html
I was thinking to implement Google play in-app purchases into my app. But i have heard Google wallet abandons inapp purchases on March 2 2015.
So anybody knows what exactly will be abandoned. Can i implement in-app purchases in my app and if i do so how will handle all the orders which will come in Google wallet(Google checkout).
As of now i have put in-app billing inside my app and released. But now i saw in this link here that Google wallet is abandoning inapp purchases, so not sure what exactly they are abandoning. Please someone help me out with this.
Android / Google Play in-app purchases are not affected.
The deprecations announcement applies only to the web-based in-app payments API.
More details here:
https://support.google.com/wallet/business/answer/6107573
There is a lot of confusion surrounding this, it doesn't affect in app purchases at all so don't worry.
Check out https://plus.google.com/+RonAmadeo/posts/DqN6UX6zryx
and
https://support.google.com/wallet/business/answer/6107573
How can I setup yearly subscription using in-App Billing in Android app?
Most software are sold in subscription model these days. As business software are going to the cloud people are paying for software on annual subscription. There should be an easy way to provide subscription model in mobile phone app.
Goolge have added support for in app billing.
should be simple if you already have in app billing implemented
I found the answer here.
https://market.android.com/support/developer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=140504
Currently, Android Market doesn't support subscription billing. Please note that collecting payments through your application is not allowed under the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement.
Can we have in-app purchase and subscription options in android apps? If yes, how do we implement it?
Subscriptions are now supported with in-app billing.
http://developer.android.com/guide/market/billing/billing_subscriptions.html
Try MoVend:https://movend.com/. It provides different purchase options like paypal, in-app billing, etc.
It's called In-App Billing on Android:
http://developer.android.com/guide/market/billing/billing_overview.html
I don't believe it supports a subscription model if you use this system.
Bachbill supports in-app billing for Android. We implemented it using Tic-tac-to as an example and the code and more information are available in this link:
http://wiki.bachbill.com/confluence/display/devreference/Android+example+3.+Adding+In-app-purchase+to+the+Tic-tac-toe+game