Google ban apps that trick users into subscription on PlayStore
Google on Thursday announced that it is updating its PlayStore policies and this time, it is to pass warnings to developers whose apps tricks users into subscription.
Today millions of apps are into in-app purchases and subscriptions, and to make users pay for these subscriptions, they tweak their terms and conditions which tricks users into paying for what they don’t wish to pay for. Apple banned this behaviour from its AppStore in 2019 and placed strict rules to making in-app purchases/subscriptions smooth for its users.
“When users lose trust in your app due to unclear subscription offers, they unsubscribe and often leave negative reviews, ultimately hurting your business. On the other hand, a clear and compelling offer gives users all the information they need to make a decision, increasing their trust in your service and hopefully encouraging them to stick around for a long time,” Google Play’s Product Manager, Angela Yin said in a blogpost.
This new Google PlayStore policy requires apps to be transparent about their subscriptions offers, which would help users make decisions of their own. By complying to these rules, they will be helping users understand what they’d get when they’ve subscribed to the terms of free trials and introductory offers, which will better help users manage their subscriptions and cancellations.
Google is also urging apps to be explicit about their subscriptions terms, — Whether a subscription is required to use all or parts of the app, — Exact cost of subscription and — Frequency of apps billing cycle.
Apps should also be clear about their free trials and introductory offers, the duration of the free trials, pricing of introductory offer, free trial packages, when a free trial will convert to a paid subscription and how users can cancel membership if they don’t wish to continue.
Google has also made “several platform-level product changes” that will help increase users trust in these apps. Google will now alert users before their free trials or introductory offers expires, it will alert users who are subscribed to 3–6 months or annual plans when their renewal is due and will also notify users that uninstalling an app they have active subscriptions on does not automatically unsubscribe them from the service.
Developers have until June 16th, 2020 to comply to these new policies. You can also read the full policy and see examples of best practices and common violations in the Policy Center.
