Ease of using an Android application to purchase virtual goods

Question

I just downloaded the Android example for my billing in the app, and I don’t understand how they want me to create a user stream. I have some articles that I want to customize in my application.

Should I make a button for the article and tell her something like "Article_name.99" and send them to the payment screen after they click on it? And if they have already paid for this article, how can I control it?

Or should I take them to the buy app screen and choose what they will buy and confirm?

Thanks!

Answer 1

First, be sure to read and understand the extensive Dev Guide article on in-app billing .

Secondly, you can use any thread that you think is most suitable. The stream that you describe seems good for your situation: a list of articles in which free articles have a “free” or “read” button, and premium articles have a price, and when you click on the price of a paid article, an invoice window opens and leads them through flow of purchases, and then to the article with a successful purchase.

You can have a separate area for paid content, or you can use subscriptions, for example, for monthly or annual payment, users can access all premium content. In-app billing supports all of this. There is no “right” way, exactly what you, according to the developer, is most suitable for your application.

Finally, you should use what is called a “managed” type of purchase, where the purchase is tied to a Google user account and remembered by Google. You still need to have an application that stores it for yourself and allows the user to view the articles they bought. But with managed mode, if the user uninstalls and then reconfigures your application or installs the application on another device, your application can request Google servers for past purchases and allows the user to see premium articles that they have already purchased.