1 page.title=In-app Billing Overview 2 parent.title=In-app Billing 3 parent.link=index.html 4 @jd:body 5 6 <div id="qv-wrapper"> 7 <div id="qv"> 8 <h2>Quickview</h2> 9 <ul> 10 <li>Use In-app Billing to sell digital goods, including one-time items and 11 recurring subscriptions.</li> 12 <li>Supported for any app published on Google Play. You only need a Google 13 Play Developer Console account and a Google Wallet merchant account.</li> 14 <li>Checkout processing is automatically handled by Google Play, with the 15 same look-and-feel as for app purchases.</li> 16 </ul> 17 <h2>In this document</h2> 18 <ol> 19 <li><a href="#api">In-app Billing API</a></li> 20 <li><a href="#products">In-app Products</a> 21 <ol> 22 <li><a href="#prodtypes">Product Types</a> 23 </ol> 24 </li> 25 <li><a href="#console">Google Play Developer Console</a></li> 26 <li><a href="#checkout">Google Play Purchase Flow</a></li> 27 <li><a href="#samples">Sample App</a></li> 28 <li><a href="#migration">Migration Considerations</a></li> 29 </ol> 30 <h2>Related Samples</h2> 31 <ol> 32 <li><a href="{@docRoot}training/in-app-billing/preparing-iab-app.html#GetSample">Sample Application (V3)</a></li> 33 </ol> 34 </div> 35 </div> 36 37 <p>This documentation describes the fundamental In-app Billing components and 38 features that you need to understand in order to add In-app 39 Billing features into your application.</p> 40 41 <h2 id="api">In-app Billing API</h2> 42 <p>Your application accesses the In-app Billing service using an API that is 43 exposed by the Google Play app that is installed on the device. The Google Play 44 app then conveys billing requests and responses between your 45 application and the Google Play server. In practice, your application never 46 directly communicates with the Google Play server. Instead, your application 47 sends billing requests to the Google Play application over interprocess 48 communication (IPC) and receives responses from the Google Play app. 49 Your application does not manage any network connections between itself and 50 the Google Play server.</p> 51 <p>In-app Billing can be implemented only in applications that you publish 52 through Google Play. To complete in-app purchase requests, the Google Play app 53 must be able to access the Google Play server over the network.</p> 54 55 <p>In-app billing Version 3 is the latest version, and maintains very broad 56 compatibility across the range of Android devices. In-app Billing Version 3 is 57 supported on devices running Android 2.2 or higher that have the latest version 58 of the Google Play store installed (<a href="{@docRoot}about/dashboards/index.html">a vast majority</a> of active devices).</p> 59 60 <h4>Version 3 features</h4> 61 <ul> 62 <li>Requests are sent through a streamlined API that allows you to easily request 63 product details from Google Play, order in-app products, and quickly restore 64 items based on users' product ownership</li> 65 <li>Order information is synchronously propagated to the device on purchase 66 completion</li> 67 <li>All purchases are managed (that is, Google Play keeps track of the user's 68 ownership of in-app products). The user cannot own multiple copies of an in-app 69 item; only one copy can be owned at any point in time</li> 70 <li>Purchased items can be consumed. When consumed, the item reverts to the 71 "unowned" state and can be purchased again from Google Play</li> 72 <li>Provides support for <a 73 href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_subscriptions.html">subscriptions</a></li> 74 </ul> 75 <p>For details about other versions of In-app Billing, see the 76 <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/versions.html">Version Notes</a>.</p> 77 78 <h2 id="products">In-app Products</h2> 79 <p>In-app products are the digital goods that you offer for sale from inside your 80 application to users. Examples of digital goods includes in-game currency, 81 application feature upgrades that enhance the user experience, and new content 82 for your application.</p> 83 <p>You can use In-app Billing to sell only digital content. 84 You cannot use In-app Billing to sell physical goods, personal services, or 85 anything that requires physical delivery. Unlike with priced applications, once 86 the user has purchased an in-app product there is no refund window.</p> 87 <p>Google Play does not provide any form of content delivery. You are 88 responsible for delivering the digital content that you sell in your 89 applications. In-app products are always explicitly associated with one and 90 only one app. That is, one application cannot purchase an in-app product 91 published for another app, even if they are from the same developer.</p> 92 93 <h3 id="prodtypes">Product types</h3> 94 <p>In-app Billing supports different product types to give you flexibility in 95 how you monetize your application. In all cases, you define your products using 96 the Google Play Developer Console.</p> 97 <p>You can specify these types of products for your In-app Billing application 98 <em>managed in-app products</em> and <em>subscriptions</em>. Google Play 99 handles and tracks ownership for in-app products and subscriptions on your 100 application on a per user account basis. <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/api.html#producttypes">Learn more about the product types supported by In-app Billing Version 3</a>.</p> 101 102 <h2 id="console">Google Play Developer Console</h2> 103 <p>The Developer Console is where you can publish your 104 In-app Billing application, and manage the various in-app products that are 105 available for purchase from your application.</p> 106 <p>You can create a product list of 107 digital goods that are associated with your application, including items for 108 one-time purchase and recurring subscriptions. For each item, you can define 109 information such as the items unique product ID (also called its SKU), product 110 type, pricing, description, and how Google Play should handle and track 111 purchases for that product.</p> 112 <p>You can also create test accounts to authorize 113 access for testing applications that are unpublished.</p> 114 <p>To learn how to use the Developer Console to configure your in-app 115 products and product list, see 116 <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_admin.html">Administering 117 In-app Billing</a>.</p> 118 119 <h2 id="checkout">Google Play Purchase Flow</h2> 120 <p>Google Play uses the same checkout backend service as is used for application 121 purchases, so your users experience a consistent and familiar purchase flow.</p> 122 <p class="note"><strong>Important:</strong> You must have a Google Wallet 123 merchant account to use the In-app Billing service on Google Play.</p> 124 <p>To initiate a purchase, your application sends a billing request for a 125 specific in-app product. Google Play then handles all of the checkout details for 126 the transaction, including requesting and validating the form of payment and 127 processing the financial transaction.</p> 128 <p>When the checkout process is complete, 129 Google Play sends your application the purchase details, such as the order 130 number, the order date and time, and the price paid. At no point does your 131 application have to handle any financial transactions; that role is provided by 132 Google Play.</p> 133 <img src="{@docRoot}images/in-app-billing/v3/iab_v3_checkout_flow.png" height="382" id="figure1" /> 134 <p class="img-caption"> 135 <strong>Figure 1.</strong> Applications initiate In-app Billing requests 136 through their own UI (first screen). Google Play responds to the request by 137 providing the checkout user interface (middle screen). When checkout is 138 complete, the application resumes. 139 </p> 140 141 <h2 id="samples">Sample Application</h2> 142 <p>To help you integrate In-app Billing into your application, the Android SDK 143 provides a sample application that demonstrates how to sell in-app products and subscriptions 144 from inside an app.</p> 145 146 <p>The <a href="{@docRoot}training/in-app-billing/preparing-iab-app.html#GetSample">TrivialDrive sample for the Version 3 API</a> sample shows how to use the In-app Billing Version 3 API 147 to implement in-app product and subscription purchases for a driving game. The 148 application demonstrates how to send In-app Billing requests, and handle 149 synchronous responses from Google Play. The application also shows how to record 150 item consumption with the API. The Version 3 sample includes convenience classes 151 for processing In-app Billing operations as well as perform automatic signature 152 verification.</p> 153 154 <p class="caution"><strong>Recommendation</strong>: Make sure to obfuscate the 155 code in your application before you publish it. For more information, see 156 <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_best_practices.html">Security 157 and Design</a>.</p> 158 159 <h2 id="migration">Migration Considerations</h2> 160 <p>If you have an existing In-app Billing implementation that uses Version 2 or 161 earlier, it is strongly recommended that you migrate to <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/api.html">In-app Billing Version 3</a> at your earliest convenience.</p> 162 163 <p>If you have published apps selling in-app products, note that:</p> 164 <ul> 165 <li>Managed items and subscriptions that you have previously defined in the Developer Console will 166 work with Version 3 as before.</li> 167 <li>Unmanaged items that you have defined for existing applications will be 168 treated as managed products if you make a purchase request for these items using 169 the Version 3 API. You do not need to create a new product entry in Developer 170 Console for these items, and you can use the same product IDs to purchase these 171 items. They will still continue to be treated as unmanaged items if you make a 172 purchase request for them using the Version 2 or earlier API. 173 </ul> 174 175 176 177 178 179
