In-App billing get if the user purchased the app before it was free

Question

I want to be able to get the state of the user purchases but on the current app they are in from when it was paid to free.

For example App SuperCars was paid app but the latest update makes it free with in-app purchases. I want previous users who paid for the app to have access to paid content but new users to have no access in which they would need to pay.

Can anyone give me an example of how I would do this? How do I get the user paid sate??

Answer 1

After looking around and contacting certain people I've found out that it's not supported by Google, I'm disappointed at the developing Apps for Google Play, lots of features still missing.

Answer 2

Think about it, essentially you have launched a new product. Its not the same product, its a modified more useful product. Infact you should release this as a different product, different package, and check if your other product is also installed. If yes, provide the in app features free. Let both products coexist.

One more way is to update the older product (with a bug fix) that broadcasts its "paid" status. Then when you install the new app (free with inapp purchases) you can know that they have already paid for the app.

But if they have uninstalled the older app, then they have to install the older app to use it free.

So essentially you customers have 2 choices

1. Install the older product, pay for it. And install and use the 2nd product free.
2. Install the newer product and use in-app purchases.

DONT look for a way for google play to give you a status of a user's paid progress of a previous version of the app. Sorry, this looks like a crazy api to implement (even for google :)).