Gifting or beta-testing a paid Android application

Question

I have a question about Android Market/Google Play license model for paid applications. First and foremost, I already know that there are specific APIs for licensing in the Android platform, but for a few reasons I can't/don't want/don't have time to learn right now. (Sorry)

If I wanted to publish a paid application on the Market and allow some specific Google accounts to download it for free (for example I nominate them beta testers or they "win" a license in a contest) is it possible via Android Market or am I forced to give those people the installation APK?

My concern is that while it is possible for pirates to share a paid APK even with copy protection enabled (it takes 2 minutes with a rooted phone), it's absolutely easier to copy the APK to eMule's shared folder on your own PC.

Please understand that in this experimental project using Android licensing is not an option for me. It will be in a future project. I'm asking to learn more about.

Answer 1

As far as I am aware the market does not allow for that. You'd have to send them your apk separately from the Market.

There are some ways you could try to combat your apk getting spread though. If you have a list of Gmail accounts that you want the app to work for just make a seperate APK with all of those accounts embedded in it. Then when the app starts running check the google account programatically and compare it to your "white list" of names. If it appears on the list, act as normal. If it doesn't then call finish(); That way even if your apk gets copied / spread far and wide it won't actually do anything for anyone other than those who you've given it to.

In fact, if you wanted to be super diligent you could give them all seperate apk's each with only their own gmail embedded into it. Then if you found duplicated copies running around you'd be able to tell exactly who was responsible.

Answer 2

Sadly, no.

One suggestion has been to time limit the free versions (check the date on start up).

How many do you think you'll give away? If it's a small number you could make the email address of the winner/reviewer visible in the main activity in your app so that if it does hit the pirate networks at least that particular email is visible to everyone (and sharing content protected by copyright is -surprisingly- illegal in many countries).