Suggested read: Complete guide on How to Cancel Processing Payment in Google Pay
Google’s announcement
Other countries that would be a part of the program are South Africa, Brazing, the USA, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, and the European Economic Area. In a blog post, Google said, “We’ve been working closely with the Spotify team and are excited to announce that this week they begin rolling out an initial test implementation of user choice billing to their users in select countries.” Changes are expected to be visible in these apps soon. These changes would ensure that a Bumble and Spotify subscription can be bought without using Google’s portals. The available options for users in India are yet to be known. Users would be able to pay using a debit card, credit card or UPI portals. Watch this YouTube video:
Why does it matter?
In an earlier announcement, Google mentioned adding more ways for making purchases within Android apps. This is because the current default method limits paying via Google’s portal only. This does not only limit users’ options to choose a mode of payment but forces developers to pay Google a hefty cut for every sale. Many app developers have been vocal about the limited billing option by Google. This also led services like Netflix to make users get a subscription from a website and not directly from the app itself. Apps such as Netflix which do this are barred from giving users links to their websites as per the rules by Google. Suggested read: Know How to Delete Google Pay Transaction History Permanently It is also to be noted that the CCI or the Competition Commission of India has directed Google already against imposing its billing system of third-party apps for selling their digital goods. Some other popular apps would also experience the change within the upcoming months. Accordingly, users would be able to make Google-less payments soon on apps and games that promote in-app purchases.
