In May this year, Google launched in-app subscriptions for its developers to allow them to sell quality digital content on a monthly or annual basis from within their applications. While one-time purchase of apps from the Play Store have had the “try before you buy” feature for a long time, in-app subscriptions have just now been added with the ability for developers to provide free trials for the subscriptions of their digital content. Developers can now allow their users to try premium subscription services for a fixed period of time that is longer than 7 days, as opposed to the direct purchase model until now.
The process for enabling such trials that the developer documentation mentions is by purchasing the full subscription while providing a valid form of payment such as credit card which is then charged $0.00 for a time period of the length of the trial. After the trial is completed, if the user has not canceled the subscription, the full amount for the complete subscription is automatically charged to the user’s card. If however, the user cancels the subscription, they are not charged any amount and the subscription ends immediately as soon as it is canceled, as opposed to being available for the whole trial period.
The option for making free trials for subscriptions available is indeed a very good idea and definitely something what the Apple users will miss. This not only lures users who are always skeptical about purchasing such content but also gives them an opportunity to take a peek at the real deal that is being offered and whether it is worth the amount being paid. The only problem being the fact that most users lose track of all the subscriptions that they have and forget to cancel those that are not needed.
