Android In-app donations

Question

I want to implement an option in my app by which users could donate some $. (Donations ofcourse, will not be in lieu of additional features)

What is the best way of doing so? Paypal? Google Checkout?

Any examples/ api that I can use to simplify this?

Pastry

I'm in your same situation. Will use PayPal (praying to not have one of those horror stories :) because in my country (Argentina) you must have an AdSense account to receive payments via Checkout – Whirly

Answer 1

You can use my new library under Apache License 2.0: https://github.com/dschuermann/android-donations-lib

It simplifies the integration of Donations via Google Play Store, PayPal, and Flattr.

Boney

Hi dominik can you elaborate your licencing info – Bitterroot

I strongly discourage using such libraries as it violates the Google Play Developer Policy for monetization. – Woolfolk

Answer 2

Similar question has been asked before...

"Via the paypal website you can create a link that is specific to your PayPal ID that will allow people who follow it to donate any amount that they'd like to you. All you'd have to do for this to work on android is put a button in your app that when clicked creates an Intent containing this link and start it. That will open up the browser to the correct page that the user can use to make a donation." - Tim's comment on PayPal Donations on Android Apps

Normalie

Answer 3

I think the best way to do it is using Android's built in in app purchasing system: http://developer.android.com/guide/market/billing/billing_overview.html

Spiegleman

Would Google be taking a cut from this then? I don't think PayPal takes anything from donations/gifts. Edit: Although, let me add that I think PayPal is corrupt as hell and if I could - I'd refrain from doing business with them. – Forbis

Looks like it's 30% but it's also more integrated than Paypal... Your choice! – Spiegleman

Thanks. But if I were to use in-app payments using Google Checkout, I would need to add "inventory items" of different prices (so that user may select and pay that amount) With Paypal where user can choose exact amount he/she wants to donate. – Pastry

Hmm, in that case, you could implement some set values, and then have a custom value option that takes the user to paypal. – Spiegleman

Maybe I'm missing something here, but according to Google's policy, Section 2.2, Permissible Payment Transactions, says that you need to be a verified non-profit in order to process donations from buyers. – Hagar

link is broken :( - new link seems to be: https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/index.html – Schoolhouse