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Comment by buf | Hacker News Reader

How do you do it?

Very easy: offer them a long trial (numbers will show that your revenue is hurt, but don't care). Eventually the trail runs out, and they search how to renew or they ask support. The first result appears: your payment subscription page.

If a customer has used your product already for long time 20 days+, extra steps to set up payment one time, especially when you do not auto charge short trials, the customer is happy.

so you offer a free trial on google play that is long enough to get people hooked. but there is no paid app on google play. instead people have to pay through other means to unlock the app?

Yeah I need more details too. Does Google play trial not auto charge by after the trial ends?

i have no clue what features google play has but my guess is that a simple date check that disables the app after a certain time is possible without using any google play features. so it could be offered as a free app that simply stops working after some time.

They push the user to their website where subscriptions are.

Doesn't that go against Apple and Google policy?

It does, unless you just 'don't mention it'. There are ways to build UX where user has to visit the website one way or another, where he can pay/upgrade. I'm doing similar thing right now, where app is meant for existing users, already registered on my paid service. I got through Apple/Google simply by removing all mentions of payments in the app. App openly says at the start screen it's meant for existing users, where you can go to make the account and that's it, no signup in the app itself, no payments. It just depends heavily on the type of app you're building I guess

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