Paid for Applications; Activation Codes

There is no way to do this via garmin... If you want to do this, you must use your own solution

Sounds like a conscious  decision from Garmin to stop people making some money from there work; like they want an army of developers working for free to promote their platform. There does not even seem to be a Garmin API call to get the device serial number; which might be wanted to generate activation codes etc.

Who ever heard of a HW device with no API call to get a serial number? There is not even a serial number to get a Bluetooth ID.
Not impressed.

You can't get the serial number for privacy reasons.

Since CIQ 2.4.1, you can get a "uniqueIdentifier", which is apparently unique per combo of device + app.

https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/api-docs/Toybox/System/DeviceSettings.html#uniqueIdentifier-var

6761559 said:

There does not even seem to be a Garmin API call to get the device serial number; which might be wanted to generate activation codes etc.

There is uniqeIdentifier.  Its unique to both the device and the app itself.

System.getDeviceSettings().uniqueIdentifier

There's one positive point about this as well though: you are allowed to keep 100% of your income... Google and Apple do both take 30% and disallow to earn money without using their payment service (if you are not selling goods or similar).

Former Member you’re just gonna be paying a different payment processor like PayPal or Stripe or what not. There’s still gonna be a middle app/person. PayPal by far is the most used the world over. If not, let me know which is and I’ll imvestigate).

paypal takes upwards of 20-30% depending on amount. USD1 gets u USD0.60c I think or something like that. Can’t recall.  

If you create an account with micro payments activated, paypal takes 5% + 0.05C which is only 10% for a 1$ donation... And people can also send payments "to a friend" and don't need to pay paypal anything... Yes, paypal seems to be the most used method here and I personally think that's a good situation for small things like garmins watchfaces/apps. No work for garmin but also no need to pay garmin...

So paypal on costs is good choice. But do all you guys use the honesty box approach or go with some kind of activation code.

If using the honesty box / donation approach in reality how many people using your app actually make a donation?
Jim how many cold beers you make last year?

My garage is filled with beer!  This is a hobby to me - I don't expect to get rich off apps - maybe pay part of the cost for a CIQ 4 device when one is released.

This all gets back to Garmin wanting to stay out of payments, as it's not just collecting money - it's also things like handling refunds.  There is this in the new developer FAQ: https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/w/wiki/4/new-developer-faq#charge.

This is part of the "payment required" flag that was recently put in place. So Garmin is removed from the actual payment process.

Michael said:

If you create an account with micro payments activated, paypal takes 5% + 0.05C which is only 10% for a 1$ donation...

How does that work? I googled and read thru what I can find and seems that one has to "enable" micro payments and it is only applicable when you are on a "business account". Seems like a business account and a personal account are similar in fees(?) but w/ added options to administer it (via employees etc). 

Do you have a business account? I'm reluctant to upgrade to a business account if there are some hidden fees or subscriptions that needs to be paid. Reading thru this https://www.jotform.com/paypal-business-account-guide/ does seems like it's a no brainer to get a business account just for microtransactions. 

10% of USD1 vs 40% of USD1 is a BIG difference.

Michael said:

people can also send payments "to a friend" and don't need to pay paypal anything.

Paypal has removed this option some countries (and mine is one of them)

Thanks!!