• Replies 12 replies
  • Subscribers 20 subscribers
  • Views 1989 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

Freemium app & monetisation rules

VAW.BE
over 2 years ago

I was wondering how everyone is handling their Freemium apps with the 'payment required' label. I see some do have it labeled, and so do not. 

When you can use the app for free, and only 'premium' features are behind a paywall, is the 'payment required' label then officially needed? I always labeled my apps with 'payment required', but as it seems lot of freemium apps don't have that. So I've now removed that as it seems tolerated by the Garmin ConnectIQ team. But the rules of this are not really clear to me. Any advice on this?

  • over 2 years ago

    From https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/app-review-guidelines/

    d. Monetization of Your App

    You must identify whether or not your app requires payment. An app requires payment if the user must pay to access or use any primary feature of the app (i.e., those features that are advertised in the app’s description, excluding any features that are clearly labeled optional). In contrast, an app is not considered to require payment, if the only features that require payment or subscription are optional.

    You must be honest when describing any payment requirements, whether optional or not. You must:

    • Disclose from the outset if your app is only free for a limited time or for a limited number of uses;
    • Inform users of your refund policy or lack thereof;
    • Not “bait-and-switch” users by implying that a feature is available for free, when it is not; and
    • Obtain express consent for any auto-renewal of payments, regardless of whether required to do so by law.
  • over 2 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    Oh yes I've seen this description. But the main problem is, this text conflicts with the text of the toggle of the 'payment required' label itself:

    If your app requires or requests payment in order to enable any or all of its features, please let us know below. Failure to choose "Yes" for an app that requires or requests payments may result in the app being removed or de-listed from the Connect IQ Store.

    (Requests for donations that do not impact app functionality are allowed. However, if your app asks for donations more than 3 times in total, please choose "Yes" below.)

    This is super confusing in my opinion.

  • over 2 years ago in reply to VAW.BE

    If it were up to me, "Payment" would be required unless all functionality is available for free, with no nags about paying..

    Maybe there need to be three levels

    -Free - all functionality is available

    -Payment Required - base functionality requires a payment

    -Payment Optional - some "advanced" features require a payment, but base stuff works fine without a payment..  But that leads to confusion about what is base functionality and what is "advanced"

  • over 2 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    Yes, that would be ideal indeed. The current descriptions are confusing and contradicting. 

  • over 2 years ago

    I just have 2 kinds of apps.

    - Free. Definitely free.

    - Payment requirement. Need payment after trial.

  • Former Member
    Former Member over 2 years ago

    Why are you removing the payment label?  Your apps are behind a paywall!

    Clearly trying to mislead your users.

  • over 2 years ago in reply to Former Member

    I’ve only removed the label for Rain and Cacher. These two apps can be used for free with basic features. Only the premium features are behind a paywall. So ‘payment required’ is not a valid label. 

  • over 2 years ago

    hi, IMHO the label is not the issue,

    the issue is lots of people does not read anything (#RTFM), because when you click on the payment label, everything is explained.

    And I receive many time a week :"Sorry I don't want to pay, I downloaded it by accident."

  • over 2 years ago in reply to Shent-Aurkhan (SHN)

    Another side is a couple users contacted me to say they really liked my apps, as they thought they wouldn't be that great as they were free! I told them they could still buy me a beer  Slight smile

  • over 2 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    My app is free, and I removed even the link to my paypal account because I only got 1 beer after something like 50k downloads (I didn't have more characters for the description... LOL, 25% of the time I'm implementinf features, 70% of the time I'm optimizing code to have enough memory for the next feature, and 5% I'm optimizing the description...)