Money made easily with the new Google Play Billing Library

Posted by Neto Marin, Developer Advocate

Many developers want to make money through their apps, but it's not always easy to deal with all the different types of payment methods. We launched the Google Play In-app Billing API v3 in 2013, helping developers offer in-app products and subscriptions within their apps. Year after year, we've added features to the API, like subscription renewal, upgrades and downgrades, free trials, introductory pricing, promotion codes, and more.

Based on your feedback, we’re pleased to announce the Play Billing Library - Developer Preview 1. This library aims to simplify the development process when it comes to billing, allowing you to focus your efforts on implementing logic specific to your app, such as application architecture and navigation structure. The library includes several convenient classes and features for you to use when integrating your Android apps with the In-app Billing API. The library also provides an abstraction layer on top of the Android Interface Definition Language (AIDL) service, making it easier for you to define the interface between your app and the In-app Billing API.

Easy to get started and easy to use

Starting with Play Billing Library Developer Preview release, the minimum supported API level is Android 2.2 (API level 8), and the minimum supported In-app Billing API is version 3.

In-app billing relies on the Google Play Store, which handles the communication between your app and Google's Play billing service. To use Google Play billing features, your app must request the com.android.vending.BILLING permission in your AndroidManifest.xml file.

To use the library, add the following dependency in your build.gradle file:

dependencies {
    ...
    compile 'com.android.billingclient:billing:dp-1'
}

After this quick setup process, you're ready to start using the Play Billing Library in your app and can connect to the In-app Billing API, query for available products, start the purchase flow, and more.

Sample updated: Trivial Drive V2

With a new library comes a refreshed sample! To help you to understand how to implement in-app billing in your app using the new Play Billing Library, we've rewritten the Trivial Drive sample from the ground up.

Since we released Trivial Drive back in 2013, many new features, devices, and platforms have been added to the Android ecosystem. To reflect this evolution, the Trivial Drive v2 sample now runs on Android TV and Android Wear.

Give it a try!

Before integrating within your app, you can try the Play Billing Library with the codelab published during Google I/O 2017: Buy and Subscribe: Monetize your app on Google Play.

In this codelab, you will start with a simplified version of Trivial Drive V2 that lets users to "drive" and then you will add in-app billing to it. You'll learn how to integrate purchases and subscriptions as well as the best practices for developing reliable apps that handle purchases.

If you are looking for a step-by-step guide about how to sell in-app products from your app using the Play Billing Library, check out our new training class, explaining how to prepare your application, add products for purchase, start purchase flow and much more.

We want your feedback

We look forward to hearing your feedback about this new library. Visit the Play Billing Library site, the library reference, and the new version of the Trivial Drive sample. If you have issues or questions, file a bug report on the Google Issue Tracker, and for issues and suggestions on the sample, contact us on the Trivial Drive issues page.

For technical questions on implementation, library usage, and best practices, you can use the tags google-play and play-billing-library on Stackoverflow or visit the community pages on our Google+ page.