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Google Play now offers a free trial period for in-app subscription services

Not too long ago Google rolled out the abilities to offer up subscriptions that users can sign up for and get charged a monthly fee. The subscription service is available as an in-app purchase where, for example, if you like a magazine, you could subscribe to it for a monthly fee, usually around $3.99. As of today, Google has rolled out the ability to try a subscription service before buying into it.

While the subscription service is mostly geared towards things like magazines on the Google Play store, it could be implemented into a game if a developer wanted to, such as an MMORPG. Something like that would take a lot of work I’m sure. Regardless of the use developers make of the subscription service, they can now offer up users the chance to test their subscription service with a free trial period. Developers can set how long the trial period lasts and when the trial period ends, it will automatically convert over into a full subscription. The subscription at that point will work like normal, just as if the user signed right up for it.

Users will be able to cancel the free trial at any time during the free trial period in order to prevent the service from converting into a real subscription and applying the appropriate charges to their credit card. The minimum a trail period can be set for is 7 days but it can be set for any amount of time longer than that.

So now everyone who was curious as to whether or not they should subscribe to their favorite magazine or service can now try it out before buying into the subscription. Developers do have to implement this although it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes so we could start seeing magazines and other goodies offering up free trials today. You can read up on all the details over at the Android Subscription Guide for developers. Anyone planning to take advantage of this and try out some services?

Website Referenced: Android Developers Twitter

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