Usability flow of Android in-app billing purchase of a virtual good

Question

I just downloaded the Android example for their in-app billing and I am not understanding how they want me to create the user flow. I have a few articles that I want to set to premium in my app.

Should I make a button to the article and say on it something like "Article_name .99" and take them to the payment screen after they click on it? And if they already paid for this article, how do I monitor that?

Or should I take them to my app's "buy" screen and have them choose what they will buy and confirm?

Thanks!

Answer 1

First, be sure to read and understand the extensive Dev Guide article on in-app billing .

Second, you can use whatever flow you feel is most appropriate. The flow you describe seems like a good one for your situation: a list of articles where free articles have a "Free" or "Read" button and premium articles have the price, and clicking on the price of a paid article opens the billing window leading them through the purchase flow, and then to the article upon successful purchase.

You could have a separate area for paid content, or you could use subscriptions, such that for a monthly or yearly fee, users can access all premium content. In-app billing supports all of this. There's no "correct" way, just what you as the developer think is most appropriate for your app.

Last, you should use what's called the "managed" purchase type, where the purchase is tied to the user's Google account and remembered by Google. You still should have the app store it for itself and allow the user to see articles they've bought. But with managed mode, if the user uninstalls then reinstalls your app, or if they install the app on another device, your app can query Google's servers for past purchases and allow the user to see the premium articles that they've already purchased.