Shopping/Restoration inside the app on Android

Question

I am running an app that will have in-app purchases (hide advertising and new features), however I have some questions. The whole purchase process is already working, well hide the advertising and the new features are available to the user however I have two doubts.

1. We imagine that the user formats the mobile phone (or changes Tlm), re-downloads my app, but this will still have advertising, the user to get the full app without paying again, just perform the purchase process again (and Google knows that he has already bought and does not charge anything) or you need to implement a button in the app to allow you to restore?
2. The user makes the purchase in app, but then wants to recover his money (e.g. regret or disliked, etc.). In this case, how does the user get his money? I ask this because I have read somewhere that in in-app purchases the user cannot recover his money, this is true?

Answer 1

The purchases made by Google Play in-app Billing v3 are always attached to the user’s account on Google Play, no matter if it removed your app, formatted the device, bought another one. As long as everything happens with the same account¹.

1. Whenever you launch the app, you can query using the getPurchases (The Google Play Services still caches purchases, which does not cost so much in this case) if the user has already paid for the removal of ads or release of resources, code example²:

   Bundle ownedItems = mService.getPurchases(3, getPackageName(), "inapp", null);
   
   int response = ownedItems.getInt("RESPONSE_CODE");
   
   if (response == 0) {
       ArrayList<String> ownedSkus = ownedItems.getStringArrayList("INAPP_PURCHASE_ITEM_LIST");
       ArrayList<String>  purchaseDataList = ownedItems.getStringArrayList("INAPP_PURCHASE_DATA_LIST");
       ArrayList<String>  signatureList = ownedItems.getStringArrayList("INAPP_DATA_SIGNATURE");
   
       String continuationToken = ownedItems.getString("INAPP_CONTINUATION_TOKEN");
   
       for (int i = 0; i < purchaseDataList.size(); ++i) {
           String purchaseData = purchaseDataList.get(i);
           String signature = signatureList.get(i);
           String sku = ownedSkus.get(i);
   
           JSONObject purchaseJSON = new JSONObject(purchaseData);
   
           // Você também pode verificar o purchaseState
           // (0 para purchased, 1 para canceled e 2 para refunded)
           int purchaseState = purchaseJSON.getInt("purchaseState");
   
           if(purchaseState == 0) {
               // Faça algo com a informação dessa compra
               // Desabilitar ADS, liberar funcionalidades ou
               // atualizar um SharedPreferences para não
               // precisar consultar denovo.
           }
       }
   
       // se continuationToken != null, chame getPurchases denovo 
       // e passe o token para obter mais items
       // O limite que o Google Play retorna é de 700 itens
   }
   

2. To refund a purchase, the user must contact you by email or other means of communication and request the cancellation. Cancellation should be done manually by you at Google Wallet Merchant.

   It is possible to detect refunds using the purchase status code in the method getPurchases, when making a refund for an item that was purchased, the field purchaseState will come with value 2³ (save some delay of communication), being made a treatment for the removal of Ads or release of functionalities back to the previous state.

References:

1. http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/api.html#Purchase and http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/api.html#consume (Paragraph about "Non-consumable Items")
2. Sample code of getPurchases was taken from http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_integrate.html.
3. Tables 4 and 5 with the fields available in the methods used: http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_reference.html

Answer 2

I made a test, which means I made an in-app purchase, but with the top code, it returns that there are no purchased products. I have this code:

     mServiceConn = new ServiceConnection() {
        @Override
        public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName name) {
            mService = null;
        }

        @Override
        public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName name, IBinder service) {
            mService = IInAppBillingService.Stub.asInterface(service);

            try {
                Bundle ownedItems = mService.getPurchases(3, getPackageName(), "inapp", null);

                int response = ownedItems.getInt("RESPONSE_CODE");

                if (response == 0) {

                    ArrayList<String> ownedSkus = ownedItems.getStringArrayList("INAPP_PURCHASE_ITEM_LIST");
                    ArrayList<String> purchaseDataList = ownedItems.getStringArrayList("INAPP_PURCHASE_DATA_LIST");
                    ArrayList<String> signatureList = ownedItems.getStringArrayList("INAPP_DATA_SIGNATURE");
                    String continuationToken = ownedItems.getString("INAPP_CONTINUATION_TOKEN");

                    if (purchaseDataList.size() > 0) {
                        for (int i = 0; i < purchaseDataList.size(); ++i) {
                            String purchaseData = purchaseDataList.get(i);
                            String signature = signatureList.get(i);
                            String sku = ownedSkus.get(i);

                            Utils.showPopUp(PreferencesActivity.this, "Info", "purchaseData: " + purchaseData + "\nsignature: " + signature + "\nsku: " + sku, false);

                            //TODO REVER
                            shared.setPurchaseInApp(true);
                        }
                    } else {
                        //TODO REVER
                        Utils.showPopUp(PreferencesActivity.this, "Info", "Não efectou compras", false);
                        shared.setPurchaseInApp(false);
                        initPurchaseInApp();
                    }
                }
            } catch (RemoteException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

        }
    };

    Intent serviceIntent = new Intent("com.android.vending.billing.InAppBillingService.BIND");
    serviceIntent.setPackage("com.android.vending");
    bindService(serviceIntent, mServiceConn, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);