1page.title=In-app Billing Overview
2parent.title=In-app Billing
3parent.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
11recurring subscriptions.</li>
12    <li>Supported for any app published on Google Play. You only need a Google
13Play Developer Console account and a Google payments merchant account.</li>
14    <li>Checkout processing is automatically handled by Google Play, with the
15same 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
38features that you need to understand in order to add In-app
39Billing features into your application.</p>
40
41<p class="note"><b>Note</b>: Ensure that you comply with applicable laws in the countries where you
42distribute apps. For example, in EU countries, laws based on the
43<a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2005:149:0022:0039:EN:PDF">Unfair
44Commercial Practices Directive</a> prohibit direct exhortations to children to buy advertised
45products or to persuade their parents or other adults to buy advertised products for them.
46See the
47<a href="http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/enforcement/docs/common_position_on_online_games_en.pdf">position
48of the EU consumer protection authorities</a> for more information on this and other topics.
49</p>
50
51<h2 id="api">In-app Billing API</h2>
52<p>Your application accesses the In-app Billing service using an API that is
53exposed by the Google Play app that is installed on the device. The Google Play
54app then conveys billing requests and responses between your
55application and the Google Play server. In practice, your application never
56directly communicates with the Google Play server. Instead, your application
57sends billing requests to the Google Play application over interprocess
58communication (IPC) and receives responses from the Google Play app.
59Your application does not manage any network connections between itself and
60the Google Play server.</p>
61<p>In-app Billing can be implemented only in applications that you publish
62through Google Play. To complete in-app purchase requests, the Google Play app
63must be able to access the Google Play server over the network.</p>
64
65<p>In-app billing Version 3 is the latest version, and maintains very broad
66compatibility across the range of Android devices. In-app Billing Version 3 is
67supported on devices running Android 2.2 or higher that have the latest version
68of the Google Play store installed (<a href="{@docRoot}about/dashboards/index.html">a vast majority</a> of active devices).</p>
69
70<h4>Version 3 features</h4>
71<ul>
72<li>Requests are sent through a streamlined API that allows you to easily request
73product details from Google Play, order in-app products, and quickly restore
74items based on users' product ownership</li>
75<li>Order information is synchronously propagated to the device on purchase
76completion</li>
77<li>All purchases are “managed” (that is, Google Play keeps track of the user's
78ownership of in-app products). The user cannot own multiple copies of an in-app
79item; only one copy can be owned at any point in time</li>
80<li>Purchased items can be consumed. When consumed, the item reverts to the
81"unowned" state and can be purchased again from Google Play</li>
82<li>Provides support for <a
83  href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_subscriptions.html">subscriptions</a></li>
84</ul>
85<p>For details about other versions of In-app Billing, see the
86<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/versions.html">Version Notes</a>.</p>
87
88<h2 id="products">In-app Products</h2>
89<p>In-app products are the digital goods that you offer for sale from inside your
90application to users. Examples of digital goods includes in-game currency,
91application feature upgrades that enhance the user experience, and new content
92for your application.</p>
93<p>You can use In-app Billing to sell only digital content.
94You cannot use In-app Billing to sell physical goods, personal services, or
95anything that requires physical delivery. Unlike with priced applications, once
96the user has purchased an in-app product there is no refund window.</p>
97<p>Google Play does not provide any form of content delivery. You are
98responsible for delivering the digital content that you sell in your
99applications. In-app products are always explicitly associated with one and
100only one app. That is, one application cannot purchase an in-app product
101published for another app, even if they are from the same developer.</p>
102
103<h3 id="prodtypes">Product types</h3>
104<p>In-app Billing supports different product types to give you flexibility in
105how you monetize your application. In all cases, you define your products using
106the Google Play Developer Console.</p>
107<p>You can specify these types of products for your In-app Billing application
108— <em>managed in-app products</em> and <em>subscriptions</em>. Google Play
109handles and tracks ownership for in-app products and subscriptions on your
110application 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>
111
112<h2 id="console">Google Play Developer Console</h2>
113<p>The Developer Console is where you can publish your
114In-app Billing application, and manage the various in-app products that are
115available for purchase from your application.</p>
116<p>You can create a product list of
117digital goods that are associated with your application, including items for
118one-time purchase and recurring subscriptions. For each item, you can define
119information such as the item’s unique product ID (also called its SKU), product
120type, pricing, description, and how Google Play should handle and track
121purchases for that product.</p>
122<p>You can also create test accounts to authorize
123access for testing applications that are unpublished.</p>
124<p>To learn how to use the Developer Console to configure your in-app
125products and product list, see
126<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_admin.html">Administering
127In-app Billing</a>.</p>
128
129<h2 id="checkout">Google Play Purchase Flow</h2>
130<p>Google Play uses the same checkout backend service as is used for application
131purchases, so your users experience a consistent and familiar purchase flow.</p>
132<p class="note"><strong>Important:</strong> You must have a Google payments
133merchant account to use the In-app Billing service on Google Play.</p>
134<p>To initiate a purchase, your application sends a billing request for a
135specific in-app product. Google Play then handles all of the checkout details for
136the transaction, including requesting and validating the form of payment and
137processing the financial transaction.</p>
138<p>When the checkout process is complete,
139Google Play sends your application the purchase details, such as the order
140number, the order date and time, and the price paid. At no point does your
141application have to handle any financial transactions; that role is provided by
142Google Play.</p>
143
144<h2 id="samples">Sample Application</h2>
145<p>To help you integrate In-app Billing into your application, the Android SDK
146provides a sample application that demonstrates how to sell in-app products and subscriptions
147from inside an app.</p>
148
149<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
150to implement in-app product and subscription purchases for a driving game. The
151application demonstrates how to send In-app Billing requests, and handle
152synchronous responses from Google Play. The application also shows how to record
153item consumption with the API. The Version 3 sample includes convenience classes
154for processing In-app Billing operations as well as perform automatic signature
155verification.</p>
156
157<p class="caution"><strong>Recommendation</strong>: Make sure to obfuscate the
158code in your application before you publish it. For more information, see
159<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_best_practices.html">Security
160and Design</a>.</p>
161
162<h2 id="migration">Migration Considerations</h2>
163<p>The In-app Billing Version 2 API is deprecated and will be discontinued in January 2015.
164If you have an existing In-app Billing implementation that uses API Version 2 or
165earlier, you must migrate to <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/api.html">In-app Billing Version
1663</a>.</p>
167
168<p>If you have published apps selling in-app products, note that:</p>
169<ul>
170<li>Managed items and subscriptions that you have previously defined in the Developer Console will
171work with Version 3 as before.</li>
172<li>Unmanaged items that you have defined for existing applications will be
173treated as managed products if you make a purchase request for these items using
174the Version 3 API. You do not need to create a new product entry in Developer
175Console for these items, and you can use the same product IDs to purchase these
176items. They will still continue to be treated as unmanaged items if you make a
177purchase request for them using the Version 2 or earlier API.
178</ul>
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