I'm developing a music app where people can download and play music to their smart phones. Seeing that many users in my country have no credit cards and paypal is not allowed, I have come up with the following solution to allow in-app purchases:
1) For local members(Uganda), I have a voucher system where people will buy vouchers from vendors around the country. They can then enter the purchased voucher within the app, then it will update the 'credit'. People will be able to download the music/albums using credit.
2) For international members, for the reason of cross-platformness....i want people to be able to purchase using Paypal (buy button) loaded in a child-browser/in-app browser. if successful, this should update the user's credit.
Will this violate the terms and conditions? Can someone shed some light on this, as I don't want to finish the application just to have it rejected.
My app is developed using HTML5, PhoneGap build.
iOS
Unfortunately, as I understand your design, it would not be allowed on Apple's App Store.
Disclaimer: I don't work for Apple, so I'm only providing links to their stated terms of service for In-App Purchases, and app approval guidelines.
As I understand it, In-App purchases for iOS can use 3rd-party payment solutions (e.g. Paypal) if the user is buying real goods (a shirt, or a toy). However, if the user is buying digital goods, like music, then the app must use Apple's In-App payment technology.
https://developer.apple.com/in-app-purchase/In-App-Purchase-Guidelines.pdf:
What To Sell
There are four supported categories of In-App Purchase items that you
may sell: • Content • Functionality • Services •
Subscriptions
Music would be "Content".
And, from the Approval Guidelines for the iTunes App Store:
11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will
be rejected
So, I think you'd need to have your PhoneGap app use Apple's StoreKit framework (you could try a wrapper like this one for PhoneGap apps).
Android
It looks to me like your original design is ok for the Google Play Store:
Paid and Free Applications
App purchases: Developers charging for applications and downloads from Google Play must do so by using Google Play's payment
system.
In-app purchases: Developers offering additional content, services or functionality within an application downloaded from Google
Play must use Google Play's payment system as the method of payment,
except:
- where payment is primarily for physical goods or services (e.g. buying movie tickets; e.g. 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)
If you're letting them buy music that can be played outside the application, then I think it meets the second exception listed above.
Related
I have a web app that works in conjunction with a locally installed desktop app.
Users have the option to upgrade to a premium membership for a monthly fee.
Both apps provide 100% of the functionality of my product(this is important for my question).
To widen my distribution I'm considering adding an android app.
Now, I know that Google generally forces android apps to use their in-app billing.
However, reading the developer terms I see this:
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).
It seems like the bolded part applies to my product, since
it's not a game
the premium membership can be consumed entirely without the android app(using my desktop or web app)
Am I allowed to publish my android app to Google Play using my own payment processor or will google crack down on me?
You should be fine.
As long as the purchase isn't for something that can only be used inside the app, you're good. Since your purchase option applies across all platforms, you fall under that exception.
Of course, Google being Google, they could take down your app. However, you should just need to appeal that decision and talk to an actual person to get it sorted out.
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).
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).
I'm looking for some advice on an app that I am hiring a developer to work on for me - its my first app and his first solo app, so I at least am still getting a feel for the ropes a bit.
My question lies in the area of in-app purchases. My app will use an in-app purchase system that will be used to purchase "credits" for lack of a better word. Each time a credit is purchased it will enable data stored in the app to be emailed to a particular email address.
I had originally thought it would be good to have an external web-based shopping cart to deal with it, but I understand there are APIs available to embed these shopping cart systems into the app. Additionally I also understand that any "digital consumables" that unlock features of the app are subject to the commission that iTunes/Android charge, does anyone have any initial thoughts on whether the ability to email would be included in this?
Many thanks in advance.
Savvas, that's not true at all ... AFAIK , in Android there's some exceptions you can read here: http://play.google.com/intl/en/about/developer-content-policy.html
Paid and Free Applications
App purchases: Developers charging for applications and downloads from Google Play must do so by using Google Play's payment system.
In-app purchases: Developers offering additional content, services or functionality within an application downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's payment system as the method of payment, except:
where payment is primarily for physical goods or services (e.g. buying movie tickets; e.g. 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)
So for example, for buying a coffee, you can use your own payment gateway.
I am pretty sure that both iPhone and Android agreements require you to use their own payment services for all in app purchases.
That means you can't roll your own paypal/visa/any other payment system and have your users use that if you plan on distributing the app via the Google Play Store or the App Store.
That being said, you can still roll out your own payment system if you distribute your app via other channels (for android you can have a look at the Amazon app store and other solutions. For the iPhone there is no official third party app store since Apple prohibits it. Cydia is an alternative app store that many people have though in their jailbroken phones)
Personally I am a big fan of Urban Airship. Works great on iOS and Android.
How are purchases of physical products handled in android? Are there any limitants and/or considerations? As I read in this article:
http://developer.android.com/guide/market/billing/index.html
Android developers are only considering digital products not physical. Nevertheless,I just found an office depot app which let us choose physical products from their store, add them to a shopping car and check them out. Furthermore, when cheking out we also have the chance to add a payment account i.e. credit card, meaning we must use security either for storing credit card data or to send it. When working with In-App, they say that the end-user makes his purchases by using its linked android market account (as well as the developer ..and a merchandise account also) but in the other case with office depot, I guess the developer must build the entire billing platform, doesn't he?
You can use in-app billing to sell only digital content. You cannot
use in-app billing to sell physical goods, personal services, or
anything that requires physical delivery.
Source
Thats for googles in app-billing. You may use other payment methods (self-built or external such as paypal). But these are not allowed in the android market afaik. So you have to distribute your app yourself too, or use alternative markets.
Edit:
Oh found something:
Developers charging for applications and
downloads from Android Market must do so by using an authorized
Payment Processor. Developers offering additional content, goods, or
services for an application downloaded from Android Market must offer
an authorized Payment Processor as the payment option.
The following are exceptions for the two requirements above:
Where payment is primarily for a physical good or service (e.g. buying
movie tickets; e.g. buying a newspaper app where the price also
includes a hard copy subscription)
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
So i was wrong. It seems to be allowed to use other payment providers if you are distributing physical goods.