Transferring android app with subscription to another account

Question

I understand that google does not allow the transfer of app ownership with in app-subscription from one developer account to another. I have been waiting for them to enable that feature but till now, it is not available and there is no ETA on it.

I have a paid app with in-app-subscription as part of it. A company is looking to acquire my app but the transfer is not possible. So I am thinking about alternatives.

Should I create another identifcal app and ask users in my old app to move to this new identical app. That will involve buying it again but I can provide incentive (like enabling the subscription feature to be free).. Other suggestions? Basically what would you do in my case

Thank you so much

Charmain

I might miss your point, but the company gets the source code and the signing key, right?! Is it not possible to change only the In-App-Payment values to the companies account and upload an update? If not, that`s good to know.. (maybe helpful: #16177217) – Riti

Not really. If a company is looking to have the app transferred to their account then it is not possible IF I leave it in my account, well my account is linked to merchant account ( where they deposit the money) and this can't be changed :S – Charmain

Answer 1

1. Ask your new company owner to be added to your Google Play console as developer and give him access to financial data, so he could see income/revenue.

2. Create new app identical to the previous one, implement same subscriptions. This time in owners Google Play console.

3. Kindly ask your users to move to the new app and let them know that their subscriptions will be still active.

4. Implement on server side code to check if subscriptions are valid for particular users.

5. When new app is published, unpublish old app. I think subscribtions will be still active(check docs).

6. All new users will get subscriptions from new app.

Anyway you will have to introduce new SKU for subscriptions from time to time, because Google doesn't update prices, and currencies are changing every year.

Quaver

Thank you for the answer. My app is a paid app (fairly expensive) with even subscription for new features. Honestly, I wish I didn't introduce those subscriptions (and frankly speaking Iam willing to cancel them and refund users) as my measure revenue is from the app purchase. If I publish a new app then all the stats (reviews, downloads and rating are gone) which will no longer become an interest for the company to acquire – Charmain

Sometimes i wish i could delete all ratings and reviews for my app that were set and not changed 3 years ago. They were basically refere to the v1 of app which were total crap, and now i have v3 and those ratings for the old app is still affect, and i can't change it. Anyway i see your point, so i think agreement with owner of your app is the only way, since they have acquired you. – Quaver

True but unfortunately I know the answer which is failed deal (unless I give them my whole developer account which I am even not sure if it can be fully transferable (merchant account, admob.. Etc).. I accepted the answer being the only one that suggest a scenario.. Thank you – Charmain

Yeah, not the solution actually, but you shed light to future potential problems for everyone else, and thank you for that! :) – Quaver

Yea i wish knew that earlier, I would've never integrated subscription in the app :( – Charmain

Answer 2

You can transfer apps with in-app subsriptions to a new developer account. And you need pay extra attention to linked project if you used Play Developer APIs to verify the purchases or used other integrated services. After the transfering process, the renewal orders will be visible in the Play Console under the new developer account while the previous orders will only be visible under your current account.

Collado

So after an app is transferred active subscriptions will continue to review automatically or users has to do some manual actions? – Erysipeloid