Android in-app purchase or Third party payment gateway

Question

We are going to build a mobile app for iOS and Android (might build a web app later) where users can upload videos and their friends and followers can watch them. The videos can be either free or also be tagged with a price. If I tag a video with $1 when uploading it, my friends and followers will have to first pay $1 to watch and after paying that $1 they can watch it any time after that.

My client wants to use Authorize.net to do the payments. In iOS there are restrictions like we must use IAP for such feature. Similarly is there any restrictions on Android as well, that we must use Google In-app Billing or is it OK to use Authorize.net to do the payments?

Atlanta

I'm going to add this just as a personal opinion: When your client provides you with a problem whose parameters preclude any nice solution or require trying to go against third-party policies, the client's request itself is the problem. They might just need to be told their requirements are incompatible with each other. Chances are they just say "oh, sure, we don't really need Authorize.net". Otherwise if it's possible to get them to re-examine their actual needs, maybe it's possible to have them realize whether choice of payment processor, or ability to be an app, are the real priority. – Vent

But of course there's a high chance you can't have them realize or sensibly prioritize anything at all... Good luck. – Vent

Answer 1

Taken from this page:

Payments

Apps that employ in-store or in-app purchases must comply with the following guidelines:

In-store purchases: Developers charging for apps and downloads from Google Play must use Google Play’s payment system. In-app purchases:

• Developers offering products within a game downloaded on Google Play or providing access to game content must use Google Play In-app Billing as the method of payment.
  
• Developers offering products within another category of app downloaded on Google Play must use Google Play In-app Billing as the method of payment, except for the following cases:
  • Payment is solely for physical products
  • Payment is for digital content that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g. songs that can be played on other music players).
• In-app virtual currencies must only be used within the app where they were first purchased.
• Developers must not mislead users about the apps they are selling nor about any in-app services, goods, content, or functionality offered for purchase. If your product description on Google Play refers to in-app features that may require a specific or additional charge, your description must clearly notify users that payment is required to access those features.

So I guess the answer is no, you have to use Google Play in-app billing if you want to publish the app in the play store. But the policy states that digital content under some circumstances is excluded, I guess this applies to videos as well, although I'm not to sure about it. Depends on whether the videos can be played outside of the app (at least so it seems).

Almeta

Thanks @Ch4t4r. May be if we can play the videos in a web app or something may be that will be allowed right? – Atlanta

Well, I'm not a lawyer or such (so don't take this as legal advice..) but by my understanding the only thing that matters is whether the content the user pays for can be accessed using another app. For that you must either expose an URL or download the video in such a manner that the user can easily access it. Using a web app which itself is used inside the Android App still requires you to use Googles In-App billing. Offering a bare web app should be fine (without an Android app) but I guess that's not your or your clients intention. – Almeta

Answer 2

I have tried this a lot of times and Google warned me for this App. It's not advisable to include the Authorize.net payment link but I suggest you convert your app to a web app and direct users to pay with your method using just a static page.

Jim