Google Play developer "conditions"

[LucaMs]

You are "too" fast

I could write 70 apps in about... 70 years

 

[AHilton]

Google Play's Developer Agreement says that you are only allowed to use payment processing outside of Google Play if the user is paying for goods consumed outside of the Google Play environment. The examples they give are ordering movie tickets through your app and music purchase services.

I wonder if this would apply to a service subscription? For example, the app would be free/no ads but it wouldn't 'work' without a paid subscription to a service (access codes being distributed to the customers for their users to enter into the app so it'll be 'registered'). The app is simply for data collection and communicates with a server. Customers (companies) subscribe to the service to access a website for reporting, claims proof, etc. so that the 'goods' would be consumed outside of the app. All payment is done through the website as well as some app upgrades, etc.

The only reason to use Google Play (in this circumstance) is to make it easier for the customers' users to 1) Find (a tiny bit of advertising/drive-by finds by those searching for other things) 2) Install (not having to have "install from unknown sources" set, for example)

I've been developing corporate apps that have just been distributed outside of Google Play but I've often wondered if some of these apps could be posted to Google Play.

 

[Roycefer]

Google Play has a payment mechanism in place for subscriptions. I think the same Developer Agreement logic applies there, as well. I suspect that if you plan to offer subscriptions through your Google-Play-distributed app, you have to do so through Google Play unless the subscription is for physical goods consumed outside the Google Play environment (I suppose, like a physical magazine).

Feel free to consult the Developer Agreement, though. It's not written in obscure legalese. It's pretty plainly-written.

 

[AHilton]

I took a look at the Developer Agreement and other docs from Google and Apple. They don't expressly forbid it. Still, it's entirely up to Google (and Apple on that end of the app market) and they can do what they want at any time. So, I took a hard look into what lots of other apps are doing and found that there are many lasting (not here today / gone tomorrow) examples out there for this kind of thing. That's good enough to start planning down that path and seeing if a couple of my clients are wanting to take some of their apps to that distribution model. We'll see how it goes if they do decide to go ahead.