Google Play Just Allowed More People To Pay For Others’ Purchases
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Summary
- Google Play Store increased the max app price to $5,000.
- A new payment option for users in the US allows users to request someone else to pay for app/in-app purchases.
- The purchase link must be approved within 24 hours, and the potential for misuse requires additional safeguards.
Google’s latest event, the annual conference where app and OS developers get a behind-the-scenes look at Android, is currently underway. New details about various technologies continue to emerge, but the company hasn’t forgotten about the long-standing bastions of the ecosystem. Case in point, the Play Store where the maximum permissible app pricing was upped five-fold from $1,000 to $5,000 recently. Now, it is extending a rarely-found payment option to the US and several other markets.
Related
This year, Google’s opening keynote for I/O spoke more about AI and mixed reality since Android-related announcements were pushed out a week prior. However, the developer-focused sessions still cover related subjects in ample detail. For instance, the company revealed it will now allow users in the US to use a new payment option for apps and in-app items — Ask someone else to pay.
While this might sound hilarious at first, Google is in fact completely serious. The option will show up alongside existing payment modes, such as PayPal, credit card, gift card redemption, etc. Moreover, this isn’t a new payment method per se. It was rolled out last year as an exclusive option for users in India. Besides the states, this payment method is also rolling out to Japan, Indonesia, and Mexico simultaneously (via Android Authority).
You can get others to pay for your digital purchase
There is potential for misuse
Related
How to use Purchase Requests in the Google Play Store
Now, your kids can’t evade asking your permission to buy Play Store content
To use this payment method, you just tap the option when making the purchase, and you’ll receive a payment link on screen. This has a 24-hour time limit to complete the payment, but you can send this link to anyone. The link’s recipient can see how much you have requested to pay, and what for. The only barrier that prevents you from sending this link to anyone you please hoping that they will approve the payment is that they must know your email address as well, to complete the purchase.
Ask someone else to pay works for people who may be outside your family group, and that may be the best way to ensure your gift is spent on a Play Store purchase instead of a gift card that’s easily traded online for other items. We would also like to see some additional forms of exploit prevention measures, like a monthly cap on how many times you can request the same person to pay, because it’s easy to see how scammers can leverage this method to extort money from gullible victims through malicious apps.
You can watch the full segment where Google outlines other changes to revenue collection on Google Play in the video below.
