5/25/2017

Google In App Billing - A Royal Pain In The A**

So, I have played around with Google's In App Billing for a while, an here's why I will abandon it:


  • You need to add a "developer payload" to each purchase to prevent piracy, which by the way is pretty widespread on the Android market.
  • The payload should obviously not be tied to the device (the user might get a new one, but wants to keep the purchased items), but it must be tied to the user ID, otherwise hackers will just "replay" network traffic and get items for free.
  • This means that I need to get the user's identity (additional permission required, which may scare off users), or I have to make users sign up on my own server (again, additional permission for networking required)


Google, through their Play Services, which handles the billing, already have the user's identity. So, in my view, their API should provide this kind of security. Why do they impose the burden on the developers, and force them to request extra permissions? This makes no sense at all!

So, I am going back to providing a free version and a "pro" version, thus avoiding the above hassle.

Why am I not using ads to monetize my app? Well, there have been too many malicious ads, and I do not want to put my customers at risk. I need their trust!

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