What are In-App Purchases?
In-App Purchases (IAPs) are a great way to monetize your app. Rather than charging a flat fee to download your app, you can offer access to specific in-app sections. This allows you to offer some content to the general user, but also offer ‘premium’ content/features of your app for a price.
Adding in-app purchases and subscriptions to your Android app on the Google Play store has a number of required steps to get up and running. Google uses its Google Play Billing System to provide In-App Purchases (IAPs) which you’ll need to get set up correctly. In this article we’ll walk through how to:
Set up your app in the Google Play Console for in-app purchases and subscriptions
Add app testers and make sure they can make in-app purchases without getting charged
After setting your app up to support IAPs and subscriptions, if you need help with managing some of the more complex parts of the purchase process such as purchase token verification, creating paywalls, and managing the subscription lifecycle with Google’s Real-Time Developer Notifications, please contact Support@Buildfire for additional assistance.
Google Play Developer Console
Log into the Google Play Developer Console from the Google account you use to publish app to the Google Play store. If you don't have one, you will to set one up. https://play.google.com/apps/publish/
Click on "Create App"
3. Fill out the App Details Page
4. Fill out the required details for your app. The list of forms to fill out can be found under the Dashboard tab, in the Set up your app section (you may need to click on a dropdown to expand the list of tasks)
5. From the "Monetization setup" page, copy the Billing Key, we will be using this in the Buildfire Control Panel - This will be what validates your ap to use these services.
After you have obtained your Google Billing Key you will want to add this to your Buildfire Control Panel.
Upload your License/Billing Key to the Commerce section of your app’s control panel.
Note: Make sure you remove any spaces.
VERY IMPORTANT: Now that you have your Merchant account activated and your License/Billing Key uploaded, you will need to contact us. Before you can add the In-App Purchase products to your app in your Google Developer account, we must first upload a version of your app that has your License/Billing Key included.
Once this version has been uploaded, you are ready to start creating your In-App Purchase products, however, there are two different types that we currently support; Single (Managed Products) and Subscriptions. Depending on what type of product you are charging for, the steps may be slightly different. We’ve put together specific articles to walk you through them. Here’s how:
Related Articles
In addition to this article, we recommend checking out the following related articles so that you have a better insight into how to use the system to its fullest advantage:
Still have questions? No problem! Reach out to us and we’d be happy to help :)