Merge "Docs: Updated to include new Subscriptions functionality." into klp-modular-docs
This commit is contained in:
Andrew Solovay
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Android (Google) Code Review
Android (Google) Code Review
commit
a209406faa
@ -11,25 +11,32 @@ meta.tags="monetization, inappbilling, subscriptions"
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<div id="qv">
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<h2>Quickview</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>Users purchase your subscriptions from inside your apps, rather than
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directly from Google Play.</li>
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<li>Subscriptions let you sell products with automated, recurring billing
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(monthly or annual).</li>
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<li>You can offer a configurable trial period for any subscription.</li>
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<li>Subscriptions let you sell products with automated, recurring billing
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at a variety of intervals.</li>
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<li>You can offer a configurable trial period for monthly and
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annual subscriptions.</li>
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<li>You can manage subscriptions through the Developer Console, or by using
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the
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<a href="https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/">Google Play
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Developer API</a>.</li>
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<li>Users purchase your subscriptions from inside your apps, rather than
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directly from Google Play.</li>
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<li>You can defer billing for a particular user's subscription, to manage
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accounts or offer rewards.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>In this document</h2>
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<ol>
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<li><a href="#overview">Overview</a></li>
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<li><a href="#overview">Overview of Subscriptions</a></li>
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<li><a href="#administering">Configuring Subscriptions Items</a></li>
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<li><a href="#cancellation">Cancellation</a></li>
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<li><a href="#payment">Payment Processing</a></li>
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<li><a href="#cancellation">Subscription Cancellation</a></li>
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<li><a href="#payment">Payment Processing and Policies</a></li>
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<li><a href="#strategies">Purchase Verification Strategies</a></li>
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<li><a href="#play-dev-api">Google Play Developer API</a></li>
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</ol>
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<h2>See also</h2>
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<ol>
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<li><a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_integrate.html#Subs">Implementing Subscriptions (V3)</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/v1_1/">Google Play Android Developer API</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/">Google Play Developer API</a></li>
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</ol>
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</div>
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</div>
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@ -44,14 +51,15 @@ and business models.</p>
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<h2 id="overview">Overview of Subscriptions</h2>
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<p>A <em>subscription</em> is a product type offered in In-app Billing that
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lets you sell content, services, or features to users from inside your app with
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recurring monthly or annual billing. You can sell subscriptions to almost any
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recurring, automated billing at the interval you specify. You can sell subscriptions to almost
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any
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type of digital content, from any type of app or game.</p>
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<p>As with other in-app products, you configure and publish subscriptions using
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the Developer Console and then sell them from inside apps installed on
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Android devices. In the Developer console, you create subscription
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products and add them to a product list, then set a price and optional trial
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period for each, choose a billing interval (monthly or annual), and then
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period for each, choose a billing interval, and then
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publish. For more information about using the Developer Console, see
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<a href="#administering">Configuring Subscription Items</a>.</p>
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@ -63,17 +71,17 @@ This ensures a consistent and familiar purchase flow for your users.</p>
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<img src="{@docRoot}images/in-app-billing/v3/billing_subscription_v3.png" style="float:right; border:4px solid ddd;">
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<p>After users have purchase subscriptions, they can view the subscriptions and
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<p>After users have purchased subscriptions, they can view the subscriptions and
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cancel them from the <strong>My Apps</strong> screen in the Play Store app or
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from the app's product details page in the Play Store app. For more information
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about handling user cancellations, see <a href="#cancellation">Subscription Cancellation</a>.</p>
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<p>In adddition to client-side API calls, you can use the server-side API for
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<p>In addition to client-side API calls, you can use the server-side API for
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In-app Billing to provide subscription purchasers with extended access to
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content (for example, from your web site or another service).
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The server-side API lets you validate the status of a subscription when users
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sign into your other services. For more information about the API, see <a
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href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/gp-purchase-status-api.html">Purchase Status API</a>. </p>
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href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/gp-purchase-status-api.html">Google Play Developer API</a>. </p>
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<p>You can also build on your existing external subscriber base from inside your
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Android apps.</p>
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@ -102,8 +110,10 @@ href="http://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/bin/answer.py?hl=en
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subscriptions, see the <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/versions.html#Subs">Version Notes</a>.</p>
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<h2 id="administering">Configuring Subscription Items</h2>
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<p>To create and manage subscriptions, use the Developer Console to set up a
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product list for the app then configure these attributes for each subscription
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<p>To create and manage subscriptions, you can use the Developer Console to set
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up a
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product list for the app, then configure these attributes for each subscription
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product:</p>
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<ul>
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@ -113,8 +123,8 @@ product:</p>
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<li>Language: The default language for displaying the subscription</li>
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<li>Title: The title of the subscription product</li>
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<li>Description: Details that tell the user about the subscription</li>
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<li>Price: USD price of subscription per recurrence</li>
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<li>Recurrence: monthly or yearly</li>
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<li>Price: Default price of subscription per recurrence</li>
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<li>Recurrence: Interval of billing recurrence</li>
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<li>Additional currency pricing (can be auto-filled)</li>
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</ul>
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@ -122,6 +132,10 @@ product:</p>
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see <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_admin.html">Administering
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In-app Billing</a>.</p>
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<p>You can also create and manage subscriptions using the
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<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/gp-purchase-status-api.html">
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Google Play Developer API</a>.</p>
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<h3 id="pricing">Subscription pricing</h3>
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<p>When you create a subscription in the Developer Console, you can set a price
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@ -139,20 +153,30 @@ original price, but new users will be charged at the new price.</p>
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<h3 id="user-billing">User billing</h3>
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<p>In the Developer Console, you can configure subscription products with
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automated recurring billing at either of two intervals:</p>
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automated recurring billing at your choice of intervals:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Monthly — Google Play bills the customer’s Google Wallet account at
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the time of purchase and monthly subsequent to the purchase date (exact billing
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intervals can vary slightly over time)</li>
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intervals can vary slightly over time).</li>
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<li>Annually — Google Play bills the customer's Google Wallet account at
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the time of purchase and again on the same date in subsequent years.</li>
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<li>Seasonal — Google Play bills the customer's Google Wallet account at
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the beginning of each "season" (you specify the season beginning and end
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dates). This
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is intended for annual purchases of seasonal content (such as sports-related
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content). The subscription runs through the end of the season, and restarts
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the next year at the start of the season.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Billing continues indefinitely at the interval and price specified for the
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subscription. At each subscription renewal, Google Play charges the user account
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automatically, then notifies the user of the charges afterward by email. Billing
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cycles will always match subscription cycles, based on the purchase date.</p>
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automatically, then notifies the user of the charges afterward by email. For
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monthly and annual subscriptions, billing cycles will always match subscription
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cycles, based on the purchase date. (Seasonal subscriptions are charged
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annually, on the first day of the season.)</p>
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<p>Over the life of a subscription, the form of payment billed remains the same
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— Google Play always bills the same form of payment (such as credit card
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@ -164,7 +188,7 @@ provides a purchase token back to the purchasing app through the In-app Billing
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API. Your apps can store the token locally or pass it to your backend servers,
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which can then use it to validate or cancel the subscription remotely using the
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<a
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href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/gp-purchase-status-api.html">Purchase Status API</a>.</p>
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href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/gp-purchase-status-api.html">Google Play Developer API</a>.</p>
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<p>If a recurring payment fails (for example, because the customer’s credit
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card has become invalid), the subscription does not renew. How your app is
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@ -182,18 +206,57 @@ app to notify your backend servers of subscription purchases, tokens, and any
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billing errors that may occur. Your backend servers can use the server-side API
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to query and update your records and follow up with customers directly, if needed.</p>
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<h3 id="deferred-billing">Deferred Billing</h3>
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<p>Using the
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<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/gp-purchase-status-api.html">Google
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Play Developer API</a>, you can defer the next billing date for a
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subscriber. The user continues to be subscribed to the content, and has full
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access to it, but is not charged during the deferral period. This allows you
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to do things like:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Give users free access as part of a bundle or a special offer (for
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example, giving free access to web content to users who subscribe to a
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print magazine)</li>
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<li>Give free access to customers as a goodwill gesture</li>
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</ul>
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<p>The longest you can defer billing is for one year per call. Of course, you
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can call the API again before the year is up to defer billing further.</p>
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<p>For example, Darcy has a monthly subscription to online content for the
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<em>Fishing Gentleman</em> app. He is normally
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billed £1.25 on the first of each month.
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On March 10, he participates in an online survey for the app publisher. The
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publisher rewards him by deferring his next payment until June 1. Darcy is not
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charged on April 1 or May 1, but still has access to the content as normal. On
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June 1, he is charged his normal £1.25 subscription fee.</p>
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<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> The API always defers the billing date
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by a whole number of days. If you request a deferral period that includes a
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fractional number of days, the API rounds the period up to the next full day.
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For example, if a user's subscription is set to renew on 15 June 2015 at
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14:00:00 UTC, and you use the API to defer the renewal date to 15 August 2015 at
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02:00:00 UTC, the API will round up to the next full day and set the renewal
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date to 15 August 2015 14:00:00 UTC.</p>
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<p>You can also offer free trials to new subscribers, as described in
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<a href="#trials">Free trials</a>.</p>
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<h3 id="trials">Free trials</h3>
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<p>In the Developer Console, you can set up a free trial period that lets users
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try your subscription content before buying it. The trial period runs for the
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period of time that you set and then automatically converts to a full
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subscription managed according to the subscription's billing interval and
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price.</p>
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price. Free trials are supported for monthly and annual subscriptions only, and are not supported for seasonal subscriptions.</p>
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<p>To take advantage of a free trial, a user must "purchase" the full
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subscription through the standard In-app Billing flow, providing a valid form of
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payment to use for billing and completing the normal purchase transaction.
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However, the user is not charged any money, since the initial period corresponds
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However, the user is not charged any money, because the initial period
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corresponds
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to the free trial. Instead, Google Play records a transaction of $0.00 and the
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subscription is marked as purchased for the duration of the trial period or
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until cancellation. When the transaction is complete, Google Play notifies users
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@ -220,8 +283,10 @@ purchases will use the updated trial period. You can create one free trial
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period per subscription product.</p>
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<h3 id="publishing">Subscription publishing</h3>
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<p>When you have finished configuring your subscription product details in the
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Developer Console, you can publish the subscription in the app product list.</p>
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Developer Console or via the API,
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you can publish the subscription in the app product list.</p>
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<p>In the product list, you can add subscriptions, in-app products, or both. You
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can add multiple subscriptions that give access to different content or
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@ -263,10 +328,13 @@ query and directly cancel the user’s subscription from your servers.
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<p class="caution"><strong>Important:</strong> In all cases, you must continue
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to offer the content that your subscribers have purchased through their
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subscriptions, for as long any users are able to access it. That is, you must
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not remove any subscriber’s content while any user still has an active
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subscriptions, as long any user is able to access it. That is, you must
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not remove any content while any user still has an active
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subscription to it, even if that subscription will terminate at the end of the
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current billing cycle. Removing content that a subscriber is entitled to access
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current billing cycle. Alternatively, you can use the <a href="#refunds">refund
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and revoke</a> API to revoke each subscriber's subscription (one by one) and
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refund their subscription payments.
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Removing content that any subscriber is entitled to access
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will result in penalties. Please see the <a
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href="http://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=140504">policies document</a> for more information. </p>
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@ -280,19 +348,26 @@ to cancel the associated subscriptions at any time in the <strong>My Apps</stron
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screen of the Play Store app. If the user chooses to cancel the uninstallation,
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the app and subscriptions remain as they were.</p>
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<h3 id="refunds">Refunds</h3>
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<h3 id="refunds">Refunding and revoking subscriptions</h3>
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<p>With subscriptions, Google Play does not provide a refund window, so users
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will need to contact you directly to request a refund.
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<p>With subscriptions, Google Play does not provide a refund window, so users
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will need to request a refund. They can request a refund from the <strong>My
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Orders</strong> page in the Play Store, or by contacting you directly.</p>
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<p>If you receive requests for refunds, you can use the server-side API to
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cancel the subscription or verify that it is already cancelled. However, keep in
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mind that Google Play considers cancelled subscriptions valid until the end of
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their current billing cycles, so even if you grant a refund and cancel the
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subscription, the user will still have access to the content.
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<p>If you receive requests for refunds, you can use the
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<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/gp-purchase-status-api.html">Google Play
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Developer API</a> or the Merchant Center to cancel the subscription, verify that it
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is already cancelled, or refund the user's payment without cancelling it. You
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can also use the
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<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/gp-purchase-status-api.html">Google
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Play Developer API</a> to <em>refund and revoke</em> a
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user's subscription. If you refund and revoke a subscription, the user's
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subscription is immediately cancelled, and the user's most recent subscription
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payment is refunded. (If you want to refund more than the most recent payment,
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you can process additional refunds through the Merchant Center.)</p>
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<p class="caution"><strong>Important:</strong> Partial refunds for canceled
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subscriptions are not available at this time.</p>
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<p class="caution"><strong>Important:</strong> Partial refunds are not available
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at this time.</p>
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<h2 id="payment">Payment Processing and Policies</h2>
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@ -317,9 +392,9 @@ subscription and denotes
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each recurring transaction by appending an integer as follows: </p>
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<p><span style="color:#777"><code style="color:#777">12999556515565155651.5565135565155651</code> (base order number)</span><br />
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<code>12999556515565155651.5565135565155651..0</code> (initial purchase orderID)<br />
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<code>12999556515565155651.5565135565155651..1</code> (first recurrence orderID)<br />
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<code>12999556515565155651.5565135565155651..2</code> (second recurrence orderID)<br />
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<code>12999556515565155651.5565135565155651..0</code> (first recurrence orderID)<br />
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<code>12999556515565155651.5565135565155651..1</code> (second recurrence orderID)<br />
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<code>12999556515565155651.5565135565155651..2</code> (third recurrence orderID)<br />
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...<br /></p>
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<p>Google Play provides the order number as the value of the
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@ -334,19 +409,28 @@ content.</p>
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<p>To verify a purchase, the app passes the purchase token and other details up
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to your backend servers, which verifies them directly with Google Play using the
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Purchase Status API. If the backend server determines that the purchase is
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Google Play Developer API. If the backend server determines that the purchase is
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valid, it notifies the app and grants access to the content.</p>
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<p>Keep in mind that users will want the ability to use your app at any time,
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including when there may be no network connection available. Make sure that your
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approach to purchase verification accounts for the offline use-case.</p>
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<h2 id="play-dev-api">Google Play Android Developer API</h2>
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<h2 id="play-dev-api">Google Play Developer API</h2>
|
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|
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<p>Google Play offers an HTTP-based API that lets you remotely query the
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validity of a specific subscription at any time or cancel a subscription. The
|
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API is designed to be used from your backend servers as a way of securely
|
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<p>Google Play offers an HTTP-based API that lets you perform such tasks as:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Remotely query the validity of a specific subscription at any time</li>
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<li>Cancel a subscription</li>
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||||
<li>Defer a subscription's next billing date</li>
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<li>Refund a subscription payment without cancelling the subscription</li>
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<li>Refund and revoke a subscription</li>
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||||
</ul>
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||||
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||||
<p>The API is designed to be used from your backend servers as a way of securely
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managing subscriptions, as well as extending and integrating subscriptions with
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other services.</p>
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||||
|
||||
<p>For complete information, see <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/gp-purchase-status-api.html">Purchase Status API</a>.</p>
|
||||
<p>For complete information, see
|
||||
<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/gp-purchase-status-api.html">Google Play
|
||||
Developer API</a>.</p>
|
||||
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||||
@ -14,14 +14,27 @@ and features, and more. You can use In-app Billing to sell products as</p>
|
||||
<div class="sidebox">
|
||||
<h2><strong>New in In-App Billing</strong></h2>
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li><strong>Seasonal subscriptions</strong>—You can now set up a
|
||||
recurring <a href="billing_subscriptions.html#user-billing">seasonal
|
||||
subscription</a> that starts and ends on the same date each year (for
|
||||
example, a sports subscription that starts every September 1 and ends every
|
||||
April 10).</li>
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||||
<li><strong>Deferred subscription billing</strong>—You can
|
||||
<a href="billing_subscriptions.html#deferred-billing">defer</a> a
|
||||
subscriber's next billing date until the date you choose. The user still has
|
||||
access to the content but is not charged during the deferral period.</li>
|
||||
<li><strong>Google Play Developer API</strong>—The
|
||||
<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/gp-purchase-status-api.html">Google
|
||||
Play Developer API</a> allows you to perform a number of publishing and
|
||||
app-management tasks. It includes the functionality previously known as the
|
||||
<em>Purchase Status API.</em> </li>
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||||
<li><strong>Refund/Revoke subscription</strong>—You can use the
|
||||
Google Play Developer API to <a href="billing_subscriptions.html#refunds">refund
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||||
and revoke</a> a user's subscription. If you do this, the user's
|
||||
subscription ends
|
||||
immediately, and his or her most recent subscription payment is
|
||||
refunded.</li>
|
||||
<li><strong>In-app Billing Version 3</strong>—The <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/api.html">latest version</a> of In-app Billing features a synchronous API that is easier to implement and lets you manage in-app products and subscriptions more effectively.</li>
|
||||
<li><strong>Subscriptions now supported in Version 3</strong>—You can query and launch purchase flows for subscription items using the V3 API.</li>
|
||||
<li><strong>Free trials</strong>—You can now offer users a configurable <a href="/google/play/billing/v2/billing_subscriptions.html#trials">free trial period</a> for your in-app subscriptions. You can set up trials with a simple change in the Developer Console—no change to your app code is needed.</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user