One of our principles is 'Don't be evil' and there are lot of apps out there with unfair monetization. Every project needs income, but we will always try to be fair to our users. We believe that happy users with lot of free content would pay us willingly more in the long term without using aggressive monetization techniques. We made some changes in our monetization strategies in the both Android & iPhone app during the January updates. They have caused some confusion which we would like to clarify:
A separate paid app in the Play Store was confusing for the users. It served only as an unlock key for the free version - so you always had to install two apps. Some users were confused that paid app has no UI. Managing two apps was a hassle for us - two set of ratings, statistics, localization etc. We have decided to use modern In-app Billing and unpublish the paid app from the Play Store.
iPhone is a different story. Users have different habits - lot of them want to pay once and don't be bothered again. So the iPhone app switched from the in-app-purchase to the pay-for-app model. There are two reasons:
Everyone who installed the app previously gets all functionality for free!
I have previously bought a paid app on Android, do I have to pay again?
A separate paid app in the Play Store was confusing for the users. It served only as an unlock key for the free version - so you always had to install two apps. Some users were confused that paid app has no UI. Managing two apps was a hassle for us - two set of ratings, statistics, localization etc. We have decided to use modern In-app Billing and unpublish the paid app from the Play Store.
And now the good news:
For existing users of the paid app, all in-app purchases are unlocked.
Even though the paid app is unpublished, you can always install it again to all your devices with your Google Account: Just look in the All Apps section of the Play Store.
For existing users of the paid app, all in-app purchases are unlocked.
Even though the paid app is unpublished, you can always install it again to all your devices with your Google Account: Just look in the All Apps section of the Play Store.
What, iPhone version is paid only? How about existing users?
iPhone is a different story. Users have different habits - lot of them want to pay once and don't be bothered again. So the iPhone app switched from the in-app-purchase to the pay-for-app model. There are two reasons:
- It is the most common model used for similar apps on iPhone
- Many users were confused because of two different in-app-purchases. Many of you bought the first purchase and believed it unlocks both paid features. We agree that it was not very well communicated.
Everyone who installed the app previously gets all functionality for free!
If you have more concerns about monetization (or anything else really), don't hesitate to give us your feedback.
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