CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidin-app-subscription
Shahood ul Hassan
Shahood ul Hassan

Reputation: 799

Are Real-Time Developer Notifications necessary to be enabled for implementing In-App Purchases in an Android app?

Currently I'm trying to learn how to use Google Play Billing Library V1.2 for implementing In-App Purchases (IAP) - Subscriptions mainly in my Android app.

While looking at Add subscription-specific features, I came across this:

Also, before reading the rest of this page, you should also have real-time developer notifications enabled. Real-time Developer Notifications allow you to react proactively to state changes, to increase your engagement, and to reduce user turnover.

And when I tried to check Add real-time developer notifications, it told me I needed to setup Cloud Pub/Sub using my own Google Cloud Platform (GCP) project. Then I checked GCP and found that it is a heavily paid service which I can't seem to go for, considering that it is my first app that I'm talking about.

So, my question is that is it really a must to enable Real-Time Developer Notifications for implementing subscriptions in an Android app? If yes, do we always have to go through a paid service like GCP to achieve this or are there any free options too?

Upvotes: 6

Views: 3220

Answers (2)

Tartar
Tartar

Reputation: 5452

If you do not implement RTDN then you have to poll Google API periodically to get the latest user information and you have to do it for all of your users (it is paid, you do not want to excessively use it). You also have to implement the logic for that, and I would find this quite fragile and inefficient. Moreover, you will have to manage cases such as revoked, canceled, etc. from your back office(if you have any) or you are gonna have to manipulate your database manually. Coming back to your questions, it is not a must but you will have a lot of benefits from implementing them.

Upvotes: 0

nasch
nasch

Reputation: 5508

No, I just added a subscription to an app and didn't do anything with real time notifications.

Upvotes: 6

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