Best way to upgrade free app to paid app?

Bill Kantz

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I have released my app on Google play and Amazon. In a month I have about 300 installs. What I am missing are ratings. So I decided to add a splash screen that displays every thirty sessions and asks the user to rate the app. Once rated the splash will go away for good.

That got me thinking it would also be a good place to add an upgrade to a paid app with no ads. I thought the easiest way was to add the paid app on GP and have the free app open the GP store on the paid app for install.

This method would be simple but having 2 entries for basically the same app would divide the installs and the ratings.

So is this OK or is it better to keep one entry and use in app purchase for upgrade.

Looking for some opinions or experiences.

Thanks,
Bill
 

hookshy

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This method would be simple but having 2 entries for basically the same app would divide the installs and the ratings.

I would not be so worried by spliting users between paid and free version here are the reason:

300 intalls on free version + 0 intalls on paid version = 300 installs on free version :)

I hope you do have a clear view now....
This was the funny guy of me ....

Now speaking seriously it seems paid version is hardly to get installs and will not affect at all the free version there are apps with 50 000 or 100.000 instals on free version and barrey you could see 100 to 500 installs ...

 

susu

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I've used this method too: 1 free app & 1 paid app without ad. I can say it worked. Totally, the user downloaded about 80% free and 20% paid app which is quiet good for me. However, you need to consider to use In-App Purchase because some bad users will buy your app then backup the apk file then return to get money back. They even share the apk file of paid app to their website/blog :(

Ps: I can say there're many users willing to buy your app as long as it's good.
 

ac9ts

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I have a free and paid version of an app. The free version has limited functionality BUT all the paid functions can be selected. On the paid version, obviously, they work. On the free version, a message is displayed suggesting they try the paid version for those functions to work. Basically, this is what can be done but you can't do it until you buy the full version.

AFAIK, you can not make a free app into a paid app directly. It might be easier to create a separate paid version and enhance that one and use some of the things mentioned above. You can also put adds and splash screens on the free version and advertise that those "annoyances" are not on the paid version.
 
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MarcTG

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I have released my app on Google play and Amazon. In a month I have about 300 installs. What I am missing are ratings. So I decided to add a splash screen that displays every thirty sessions and asks the user to rate the app. Once rated the splash will go away for good.

That got me thinking it would also be a good place to add an upgrade to a paid app with no ads. I thought the easiest way was to add the paid app on GP and have the free app open the GP store on the paid app for install.

This method would be simple but having 2 entries for basically the same app would divide the installs and the ratings.

So is this OK or is it better to keep one entry and use in app purchase for upgrade.

Looking for some opinions or experiences.

Thanks,
Bill

An easy way to get some quick ratings/reviews is to look for groups on facebook that have people that test, rate apps or exchange reviews...you also want to get +1 for your app and not just reviews... Can you share a link to your app? I will gladly review it and give you a +1 :)

Having a second paid app is the easy way to do it. Remember that if your minimum SDK is less than 16 you have to use the licensing library to secure your paid app. If you set the minimum SDK to 16, then you won't need to use the license library on Google play (Google will automatically secure it)... 82.6% of devices on Google Play are running on versions of Android with API 16+ (https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html).

Can you please share the code that you are using to check whether or not a user has rated your app?

Thanks
 

Bill Kantz

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Bill Kantz

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SuSu & ac9ts,

Thanks for your input. I am still weighing options between in app purchase and separate listing for the paid app. One question I have if you use a separate listing for the free app you have to worry about uninstalling the free app which is even more complicated because my app is a widget.
 

ac9ts

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For me, I used a different package name so, actually, both can be installed at the same time. Since they have different package names, they also have their own storage space, etc. My example was for an app. I'm not sure how widgets work (I haven't made one yet).
 

Peter Simpson

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I personally use In-App Billing 3 to great effect...
 

Bill Kantz

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For an update I ended up using both In-App billing and added a Paid Version and are getting some unusual results. I setup in-app on the free version. I then added a paid version of the app to Google Play. Right now the paid version is selling better than the free app with in-app billing. The free app started with an installed base of 500 the paid started at 0 installed and neither are advertised. 5 days later sales are 80% Paid app and 20% In-App sales. This one has me puzzled. Interesting what another week will bring?
 

susu

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For an update I ended up using both In-App billing and added a Paid Version and are getting some unusual results. I setup in-app on the free version. I then added a paid version of the app to Google Play. Right now the paid version is selling better than the free app with in-app billing. The free app started with an installed base of 500 the paid started at 0 installed and neither are advertised. 5 days later sales are 80% Paid app and 20% In-App sales. This one has me puzzled. Interesting what another week will bring?

Did you name your app like: Appname Lite/Free vs. Appname Pro/Full ? If yes that's a reason :D
 
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