xref: /frameworks/base/docs/html/google/play/billing/billing_overview.jd

page.title=In-app Billing Overview
parent.title=In-app Billing
parent.link=index.html
@jd:body

<div id="qv-wrapper">
<div id="qv">
  <h2>Quickview</h2>
  <ul>
    <li>Use In-app Billing to sell digital goods, including one-time items and recurring subscriptions.</li>
    <li>Supported for any app published on Google Play. You only need a Google Play publisher account and a Google Checkout Merchant account.</li>
    <li>Checkout processing is automatically handled by Google Play, with the same look-and-feel as for app purchases.</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>In this document</h2>
  <ol>
    <li><a href="#api">In-app Billing API</a></li>
    <li><a href="#products">In-app Products</a>
       <ol>
       <li><a href="#prodtypes">Product Types</a>
       </ol>
    </li>
    <li><a href="#console">Google Play Developer Console</a></li>
    <li><a href="#checkout">Google Play Purchase Flow</a></li>
    <li><a href="#samples">Sample Apps</a></li> 
    <li><a href="#migration">Migration Considerations</a></li>
  </ol>
   <h2>Related Samples</h2>
  <ol>
    <li><a href="{@docRoot}training/in-app-billing/preparing-iab-app.html#GetSample">Sample Application (V3)</a></li>
    <li><a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/v2/billing_integrate.html#billing-download">Sample
    Application (V2)</a></li>
  </ol> 
</div>
</div>

<p>This documentation describes the fundamental In-app Billing components and 
features that you need to understand in order to add In-app 
Billing features into your application.</p>

<h2 id="api">In-app Billing API</h2>
<p>Your application accesses the In-app Billing service using an API that is 
exposed by the Google Play app that is installed on the device. The Google Play 
app then conveys billing requests and responses between your 
application and the Google Play server. In practice, your application never 
directly communicates with the Google Play server. Instead, your application 
sends billing requests to the Google Play application over interprocess 
communication (IPC) and receives responses from the Google Play app. 
Your application does not manage any network connections between itself and 
the Google Play server.</p>
<p>In-app Billing can be implemented only in applications that you publish 
through Google Play. To complete in-app purchase requests, the Google Play app 
must be able to access the Google Play server over the network.</p>

<p>Currently, Google Play supports two versions of the In-app Billing API. 
To determine which version you should use, see <a href="#migration">Migration 
Considerations</a>.</p>
<h4><a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/api.html">Version 3</a> (recommended)</h4>
<ul>
<li>Requests are sent through a streamlined API that allows you to easily request 
product details from Google Play, order in-app products, and quickly restore 
items based on users' product ownership</li>
<li>Order information is synchronously propagated to the device on purchase 
completion</li>
<li>All purchases are âmanagedâ (that is, Google Play keeps track of the user's 
ownership of in-app products). The user cannot own multiple copies of an in-app 
item; only one copy can be owned at any point in time</li>
<li>Purchased items can be consumed. When consumed, the item reverts to the 
"unowned" state and can be purchased again from Google Play</li>
</ul>
<h4><a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/v2/api.html">Version 2</a></h4>
<ul>
<li>Requests are sent via a single API interface ({@code sendBillingRequest})</li>
<li>Responses from Google Play are asynchronous, in the form of broadcast intents</li>
<li>No consumption model provided. You have to implement your own solution</li>
<li>Provides support for subscriptions and unmanaged in-app purchase items, 
as well as managed in-app products</li>
</ul>
<p>Both versions offer very broad compatibility across the range of Android 
devices. In-app Billing Version 3 is supported on devices running Android 2.2 or 
higher that have the latest version of the Google Play store installed 
(over 90% of active devices). Version 2 offers similar compatibility. See 
<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/versions.html">Version Notes</a> for 
more details.</p>

<h2 id="products">In-app Products</h2>
<p>In-app products are the digital goods that you offer for sale from inside your 
application to users. Examples of digital goods includes in-game currency, 
application feature upgrades that enhance the user experience, and new content 
for your application.</p>
<p>You can use In-app Billing to sell only digital content. 
You cannot use In-app Billing to sell physical goods, personal services, or 
anything that requires physical delivery. Unlike with priced applications, once 
the user has purchased an in-app product there is no refund window.</p>
<p>Google Play does not provide any form of content delivery. You are 
responsible for delivering the digital content that you sell in your 
applications. In-app products are always explicitly associated with one and 
only one app. That is, one application cannot purchase an in-app product 
published for another app, even if they are from the same developer.</p>

<h3 id="prodtypes">Product types</h3>
<p>In-app Billing supports different product types to give you flexibility in 
how you monetize your application. In all cases, you define your products using 
the Google Play Developer Console.</p>
<p>You can specify these types of products for your In-app Billing application  
â <em>managed in-app products</em>, <em>subscriptions</em>, and <em>unmanaged 
in-app products</em>.  The term âmanagedâ indicates that Google Play handles and 
tracks ownership for in-app products on your application on a per user account 
basis, while âunmanagedâ indicates that you will manage the ownership  information yourself.</p>
<p>To learn more about the product types supported by the different API versions, 
see the related documentation for <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/v2/api.html#billing-types">Version 2</a> and <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/api.html#producttypes">Version 3</a>.</p>

<h2 id="console">Google Play Developer Console</h2>
<p>The Developer Console is where you can publish your 
In-app Billing application, and manage the various in-app products that are 
available for purchase from your application.</p>
<p>You can create a product list of 
digital goods that are associated with your application, including items for 
one-time purchase and recurring subscriptions. For each item, you can define 
information such as the itemâs unique product ID (also called its SKU), product 
type, pricing, description, and how Google Play should handle and track 
purchases for that product.</p>
<p>You can also create test accounts to authorize 
access for testing applications that are unpublished.</p>
<p>To learn how to use the Developer Console to configure your in-app 
products and product list, see 
<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_admin.html">Administering 
In-app Billing</a>.</p>

<h2 id="checkout">Google Play Purchase Flow</h2>
<p>Google Play uses the same checkout backend service as is used for application 
purchases, so your users experience a consistent and familiar purchase flow.</p>
<p class="note"><strong>Important:</strong> You must have a Google Checkout
Merchant account to use the In-app Billing service on Google Play.</p>
<p>To initiate a purchase, your application sends a billing request for a 
specific in-app product. Google Play then handles all of the checkout details for 
the transaction, including requesting and validating the form of payment and 
processing the financial transaction.</p> 
<p>When the checkout process is complete, 
Google Play sends your application the purchase details, such as the order 
number, the order date and time, and the price paid. At no point does your 
application have to handle any financial transactions; that role is provided by 
Google Play.</p>
<img src="{@docRoot}images/in-app-billing/v3/iab_v3_checkout_flow.png" height="382" id="figure1" />
<p class="img-caption">
  <strong>Figure 1.</strong> Applications initiate In-app Billing requests 
through their own UI (first screen). Google Play responds to the request by 
providing the checkout user interface (middle screen). When checkout is 
complete, the application resumes.
</p>

<h2 id="samples">Sample Applications</h2>
<p>To help you integrate In-app Billing into your application, the Android SDK 
provides two sample applications that demonstrate how to sell in-app products 
from inside an app.</p>

<dl>
<dt><a href="{@docRoot}training/in-app-billing/preparing-iab-app.html#GetSample">TrivialDrive sample for the Version 3 API</a></dt>
<dd>This sample shows how to use the In-app Billing Version 3 API to implement 
in-app product purchases for a driving game. The application demonstrates how to 
send In-app Billing requests, and handle synchronous responses from Google Play. 
The application also shows how to record item consumption with the API. The 
Version 3 sample includes convenience classes for processing In-app Billing 
operations as well as perform automatic signature verification.</dd>

<dt><a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/v2/billing_integrate.html#billing-download">Dungeons sample for the Version 2 API</a></dt>
<dd>This sample demonstrates how to use the In-app Billing Version 2 API to sell 
standard in-app products and subscriptions for an adventuring game. It also 
contains examples of the database, user interface, and business logic you might 
use to implement In-app Billing.</dd>
</dl>
<p class="caution"><strong>Important</strong>: It's <em>strongly recommended</em> 
that you obfuscate the code in your application before you publish it. For 
more information, see
<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_best_practices.html">Security 
and Design</a>.</p>

<h2 id="migration">Migration Considerations</h2>
<p>The following considerations may be applicable if you are planning to create a new 
in-app biling application, or migrate your existing In-app Billing implementation 
from the <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/v2/api.html">Version 2</a> or 
earlier API to the <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/api.html">Version 3</a> API.</p>
<p>Google Play will continue to support both the Version 2 and Version 3 APIs for 
some time, so you can plan to migrate to Version 3 at your own pace. The Google 
Play team will give advance notice of any upcoming changes to the support 
status of In-app Billing Version 2.</p>
<p>You can use the following table to decide which version of the API to use, 
depending on the needs of your application.</p>
<p class="table-caption" id="table1">
  <strong>Table 1.</strong> Selecting the In-app Billing API Version for Your 
Project</p>

<table>
<tr>
<th scope="col">Choose Version 3 if ...</th>
<th scope="col">Choose Version 2 if ...</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
  <ul>
  <li>You want to sell in-app products only (and not subscriptions)</li>
  <li>You need synchronous order confirmations when purchases complete</li>
  <li>You need to synchronously restore a user's current purchases</li>
  </ul>
</td>
<td>
  <ul>
  <li>You want to sell subscriptions in your app</li>
  </ul>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>If you have published apps selling in-app products, note that:</p>
<ul>
<li>Managed items that you have previously defined in the Developer Console will 
work with Version 3 as before.</li>
<li>Unmanaged items that you have defined for existing applications will be 
treated as managed products if you make a purchase request for these items using 
the Version 3 API. You do not need to create a new product entry in Developer 
Console for these items, and you can use the same product IDs to purchase these 
items. They will still continue to be treated as unmanaged items if you make a 
purchase request for them using the Version 2 or earlier API. 
</ul>