Hi guys..
I'd like your thoughts on the best way to implement a paid license pack to unlock premium features in a separate free app.
I have this working, but want to know if there's a better method.
My free app has some Premium Features that require the user to purchase a license pack (apk) from the market. If you run the license pack by itself, it just gives a message that this is just a license pack for "so and so" application.
My free application launches the license pack apk via "startActivivityForReturn". If it gets back the proper message, then I set a flag in my free app saying that the license was found and it allows the user to use the premium features.
The license pack itself uses the Android Market Licensing (LVL) API.
Thanks in advanced.
EB
Hi EB,
I used in-app billing for similar concept in my app but in my case subscription is involved as well . I have 2 in-app items for different subscription periods. when a user buys any of it (or they can buy both ) purchase record (also licence record in my case) is created in database with expire date ( of course I don't put it as a plain text ) and when the app starts I check expire date, set flag variable and check this flag before run any premium feature. I was bit worried about performance at the start but I'm quite happy with it now. Even though it's bit tricky to implement the in-app billing and to get it working, once you crack it, it works fine.
Thanks,
Hakan
Great idea. I have it mostly working, but can't test it end to end since my app is already published w/o the billing permission. I'll have to upload a dummy version to test with.
Thanks.
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I installed the black market alpha .apk on my phone and it works perfectly. tonight i downloaded Easy Voice Recorder Pro on my phone from BMA which is supposed to be 3.99 from the play store and on BMA it had the price crossed out through the number with a line and i downloaded it without a problem. the app opens and works fine. Here's The Conundrum. when i try to make a recording it stops itself after one second and says could not find market license!! so what i don't understand is, what is the point of black market alpha even though it does work and gets the app if the app still knows you don't have the license and doesn't give you permission?
i should also add the fact that i noticed the free version, easy voice recorder(without the pro) works by having advertisements and if you are rooted and use ad away you can just have no ads anyway. although there also seems to be some other limitations such as recording time length etc
but really my question stands, what is the point of BMA if the app can still not find license permission? perhaps easy voice recorder pro is atypical of most things and most other pay apps don't have this issue off of BMA but i was rather shocked. the bottom line is this app in particular still wont function even if obtained off of BMA
This is against the rules. Xda doesn't allow threads that deal with, or distribute warez ( paid stuff for free ). Please make an effort to read the xda rules
Reported
i should also add that other PAY apps i've obtained off of BMA haven't had this issue and this is the first i've run into. but it gave me serious pause for concern. should i expect more apps to follow suit in the future? if an app developer is aware of this and can simply make the app need the market license so it wont work if obtained from BMA so you have to pay for it from the play store anyway then i would expect at some point the BMA would just become completely useless and redundant
my apologies. i was under the impression that using BMA was in the same vein as rooting and apps that use SU perms. i'm quite sure that ad away which uses root SU perms would be just as frowned upon since it blocks ads from apps
No its not the same. Pirating payed for apps is not the same as blocking ads that no one clicks on anyway. You will find not help here on this. Thread closed.
Sent from the Bat Cave
Ok, I am looking at an online Android/iPhone app builder. They either offer the option to build one for free with unlimited downloads or you can pay yearly with different tiers for different download limits. The difference being that the free one has ads.
Anyways, when asked about just creating the app with their site, then hosting it on your own server and having everyone download it from there instead of paying the yearly fees, the site owner made this statement.
" my personal opinion in the long run you will pay more in this case because every time when apple releaes new iOS (like 6 now) or android has new phone (like samsung galaxy S 3 now) you will have to purchase new binary code from us that supports the latest updates/fixes."
Is this true? I don't see how each new device that comes out will require an update in your app.
Also, as stated, if you pay the yearly fee for the lowest amount of downloads, I assume they can only track downloads from Google Play or the Apple app store. I don't see any way they can track downloads from my own server hosting the .apk file. Anyone have any insight on this to correct me if I'm wrong?
For the record, I'm just looking to develop an app to play my Shoutcast Streaming audio station. I make no profit on the station, so have no capital to spend over $1K a year to have an Android and iPhone app. I mainly want to give it to my friends, and make it available to anyone who visits my Website. I really like the design that I did with this site, and am willing to pay something for it, just not worth $1K./year....
Anybody?
Have you tried installing the official Android Software Development Kit on your computer, and making the app yourself? You don't need to use an online service, and you choose exactly what gets compiled into the apk (ads, Google analytics, etc.).
post-mortem said:
Have you tried installing the official Android Software Development Kit on your computer, and making the app yourself? You don't need to use an online service, and you choose exactly what gets compiled into the apk (ads, Google analytics, etc.).
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Thank you for the reply.
I actually do have the SDK installed, and am looking into what it takes to make my own app. But, don't I have to know xml and Java to create apps using the SDK?
You do need to know those two languages.
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The Lepricon said:
But, don't I have to know xml and Java to create apps using the SDK?
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That online service allows you to write apps without knowing xml or Java?
post-mortem said:
That online service allows you to write apps without knowing xml or Java?
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Yes, it's kind of like Appinventor, all visual, just assemble the parts and stuff.
It's nice, just kinda pricey. I once posted the job on freelancer.com and got offers for about as much as this company is asking, and with freelancer I would have owned the app afterwards.
But, again, it's kinda hard to foot the bill when it's a non profit app.
Ok, I'm off to learn XML and Java.......
Oh, almost forgot.... the original questions...
" my personal opinion in the long run you will pay more in this case because every time when apple releaes new iOS (like 6 now) or android has new phone (like samsung galaxy S 3 now) you will have to purchase new binary code from us that supports the latest updates/fixes."
Is this true? I don't see how each new device that comes out will require an update in your app.
Also, as stated, if you pay the yearly fee for the lowest amount of downloads, I assume they can only track downloads from Google Play or the Apple app store. I don't see any way they can track downloads from my own server hosting the .apk file. Anyone have any insight on this to correct me if I'm wrong?
any ideas anyone?
I think he means every time Google releases an update to Android (updated OS, not new device). So, for example, you build your app to run on Jelly Bean. But when Key Lime Pie comes out, your app may not work as expected on those devices running KLP. Then, you'd have to pay them to recompile your app with updated binaries, or risk losing market share.
If your app is really simple and would run fine on Android 2.2 and up, then that "purchase new binary" thing is not applicable.
But, hell, if you're willing to learn XML & Java... go for it!
Was just wondering what peoples thoughts were on using the Android Licensing copy protection in their apps? Do you use it and do you spend a lot of time on it or have any creative ways to help enforce it?
As we all know any kind of drm will always be cracked but I just wanted to know if people found it worthwhile to have..
I'm using In-app-billing, because I found that even licensed apps can be copied.
And yes, all apps can be cracked eventually, but most of the publishers of cracked apps remove them if you ask to. So that's what I'm gonna do!
Sent from my Nexus 4 running Android 4.2 JB
I don't like license checks that force you to be online, but I do like to have 'something' in place...
Recently I started working with some OEMs in India who wanted to pre-load my apps on their devices. Very exciting obviously, but I didn't know if I could trust them as I'd never heard of them.
So what I did was get the app to load a web page on one of my servers off the screen (9000%x...) so that it couldn't be seen. The page it linked to was empty, but if I wanted to I could modify the code to include a redirect that would send it to another page. Then in my 'onPageOverride' event I just said if URL = 'stopapp.htm' then do whatever it was I wanted to do.
What I actually have it do in that event is to fill the entire screen with that web page. The user then can't interact with the app underneath, but they get a message that I can create at the time saying 'This app has been illegally distributed' or whatever else I want to say. I can even forward them on to the download page if I want this way.
This works well too because if the user isn't online, the page just doesn't load and nothing happens. But if I want to stop offline use as well I can save a file in File.DirInternal and have the app check for that. 'SwitchOff.txt'. They get caught once, then they can't use the app.
Obviously this doesn't work quite like a license check, but what you *could* do with it is to have the app pop up with a message to people using an old version that's not updated. That's probably downloaded off of some file sharing site, so you could then just keep pestering them to 'update' and send them to the Play Store to do so. You can also check how many of the users on that version of your app are legitimate by looking at your Play Developer Console.
One thing to note is that the redirect URLs you use will need to be different in every version of your app that you release.
Hope this helps someone! I wish I'd done it sooner, one of my apps is all over the web grrrr...
pretty much the same as what I'm doing atm except I just ping a server in the background and display a popup if the result meets certain conditions.. I don't disable the app either as I can't be 100% certain it's pirated, instead I display a "scary" popup saying if they're using a pirated copy this is illegal etc.. your average user won't know how the popup was generated so it should be enough to make them think "someone" is onto them and go the proper route.. With the added bonus a genuine user can just press ok and carry on using the app
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
Currently, none of my apps use licensing.
For one of my paid apps, about 5% of the downloads are from non-Google Play sources, meaning, I'm not seeing any revenue from those 5%.
There is an Android API, that allows developers to see which platform their app was downloaded from. So, I've been thinking about adding that hidden feature to my apps and maybe do something fun with it. But, haven't got around to it yet. My thinking has been that if somebody downloaded a pirated copy of my app, then they probably weren't going to pay for it in the first place. And, hopefully, they will tell their friends about it and maybe one of them will actually purchase it through Google Play.
I already have all my licensing code in place and commented out. Since my app is pretty new I want to see how it does before adding licensing. Since the app is free and income is from IAP its not too bad. I'd only turn on licensing in the next release if I see a pressing need for it.
Currently, none of my apps use licensing.
My app named iFreeMovies is a simple list of youtube movies. It's not a playlist, it's searches the movies that orders in a list and you can watch them in youtube player api v3. Using an open source imdb api you can also get some informations in a webview. Unfortunately today I get this mail:
REASON FOR REMOVAL: Violation of the intellectual property and impersonation or deceptive behavior provisions of the Content Policy. Please refer to the IP infringement and impersonation policy help article for more information.
Your app and/or elements of its listing on Google Play, including title, description, logo(s), or promotional screenshots must not include unauthorized usage of protected works belonging to a third party.
Your app icon and promotional screenshots must not contain images that appear confusingly similar to existing products.
This particular app has been disabled as a policy strike. If your developer account is still in good standing, you may revise and upload a policy compliant version of this application as a new package name.
This notification also serves as notice for remaining, unsuspended violations in your catalog, and you may avoid further app suspensions by immediately unpublishing any apps in violation of (but not limited to) the above policy. Once you have resolved any existing violations, you may republish the app(s) at will. Before publishing applications, please ensure your apps’ compliance with the Developer Distribution Agreement and Content Policy.
All violations are tracked. Serious or repeated violations of any nature will result in the termination of your developer account, and investigation and possible termination of related Google accounts. If your account is terminated, payments will cease and Google may recover the proceeds of any past sales and the cost of any associated fees (such as chargebacks and payment transaction fees) from you.
If you feel we have made this determination in error, you can visit the Google Play Help Center article for additional information regarding this removal.
I don't understand. So since I'm not an expert developer, in order to learn, I would like that someone clarify me what's happened. In particular my great question is: What's the reason? The logo, the name, the company name ( I wrote Tuxmind as nickname) .
Help me to figure out, please!
I'm betting it's either you using YouTube images or the name. Apple has a habit of pulling this with alot of inames
I use YouTube thumbnails in the list. It's a possibility offered by YouTube api v3. So Could I change the name from ifree movies to free movies and solve the problem? But I will loose my users. Sigh!
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Well I'll be honest. The title free movies is miss leading. All your app does is give you a list of YouTube videos. The name implies they could download those movies which is illegal.
Thank you for your answer. Then Free streaming movies or Free Underground Movies... Or something Like that you can't refer to download some Giles. Isn't it?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
maddom73 said:
Thank you for your answer. Then Free streaming movies or Free Underground Movies... Or something Like that you can't refer to download some Giles. Isn't it?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
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See your app doesnt do any of that. It doesnt stream movies, and it still implys that you can get movies for free.
Your better off with something like Youtube list or something along those lines.
Watch Movies Tube?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Using a name that is similar to any other brand would get suspended. For example "iFreeMovies" imitates the Apple brand; "Youtube List" or "Watch Movies Tube" would imitate the YouTube Brand.
Interested in some kind of app monetisation. You have developed new application and you make both versions, the full one for 2.99$ for example and the free one with the ads and some restrictions. Is that a right way or you prefer to make a demo version and then provide a paid one in full function?
ArkMC said:
Interested in some kind of app monetisation. You have developed new application and you make both versions, the full one for 2.99$ for example and the free one with the ads and some restrictions. Is that a right way or you prefer to make a demo version and then provide a paid one in full function?
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