Currently I have a paid app published on Google Play, and a free version of the same app is being developed.
The question is, if the user has free version installed, and then installs the paid version; will the user end up with 2 versions? If yes, is this usual when it comes to user experience? What are the standards (Android market) ways to uninstall free version after purchasing paid version apart from in-app billing?
As long as the package name is different you can upload free, paid and more of your apps. Each app will be treated as different apps.
Its upto you to continue to give updates as u give for paid apps.
Have you looked at some of the in-app billing related best practices at:
http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_best_practices.html (search for "billing")
http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/v2/billing_integrate.html (search for "best practice")
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I have a free and a paid version of the same app on Google Play. Two different applications.
The paid version is the same as the free one except it has some bonus features.
I want to stop maintaining 2 applications and only support the free version.
My question is how can I give any kind of token (using inapp purchases mechanism or anyhow) to my paid app users so that using that token they can enter it somehow into the free version and I will then unlock the features in there.
I have requirement to keep both free (limited features) and paid versions of my android app on Google Play store.
What is the best way to do this?
Can I use single APK in anyway?
Do I have to manage two projects in my development environment because of having different package names?
Use the licensing library and make the paid features an in app purchase that are disabled until bought.
I'm having two versions of my app. Free and Pro. I'm going to remove the free version and change status of the Pro version from paid to free and use in app billing to unlock advanced features instead of having two different apps. Users already paid should start off with all features enabled.
Is there a way to check if a user has purchased the app after changing it to free?
From what I have read, LVL can't do this.
Is it possible with IAB v3?
There are several postsbelow here on StackOverflow concerning this topic. The short answer is that there's no fool-proof way to do it.
Some possibilities:
Check for some prexisting object exclusively from the Pro Version(db, pref, etc)
This won't work for new devices, only if it's a simple upgrade on an existing install
Use the old Pro app itself as the "key" to unlock(check PackageManager)
Suffers from the same problem as above, and even uglier
Create a unique id for each Pro customer, save it server-side and check on startup
Necessitates internet access for validation, not very secure, users hate data collection
A hybrid of more than one method would probably work best, but it depends highly on the implementation. No matter what you come up with, there will be some issues, and I don't think there's a way to 100% cover every existing customer.
How to migrate from a paid android application to an application paid for with in-app billing?
Converting an Android application from a free/paid model to in-app paid unlocking
Changing paid Android App to free with In App Billing - grandfathering existing customers
How can I use the paid version of my app as a "key" to the free version?
So Ive decided to turn my free app into a paid app, the question I have is how does this affect people who previously downloaded my app, for example If I release an update in the future will the people who already dowloaded the app when it was free have to pay to download the update? this I would like to avoid as I dont want bad ratings in android market, thanks in advance!
Once an app is free on the Android Market it cannot be made a paid app. You can unpublish it, and you can publish the app under a new package name for a fee, but your existing users will not auto-update to it.
#mah is right, though there is a way around that limitation - instead of replacing your free version with a paid version, you could implement in-app purchasing to license the additional functionality. Now, you can have the free, limited version and it is simple for the user to upgrade within the app to the full, paid version.
I was wondering if there is any way to progammatically determine if the android app has been paid for?
I am going to implement the Android LVL library code in my app. But I also want to let the users first try out the app and then buy it if they like it. So how can I determine if the app has been bought and hence fully licensed.
If you want to let users try your application out first before buying release a limited free version. (Limited by features not time)
Then also release a paid application. I would recommend 'up selling' your application from the free one. i.e. promote and encourage the upgrade from the free one by saying it has more features, better this, better that..
The LVL then only belongs in the paid version, not the free one.
This can be done with the new In-app Billing API but not with the existing LVL, as LVL can only be used to verify upfront purchases from the Android Market (read paid apps.)
Effectively LVL and In-app Billing server responses are the same and can be verified in the same manner.