How do I implement 'account hold' status for yearly subscriptions with a 7 day free trial period in my Android app?

Question

I use yearly subscriptions with a 7 day free trial period in my app.

Google released the v3 of its billing library and sent emails to developers + wrote blog articles in order to ask an upgrade to the v3 by November 2020.

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/06/new-features-to-acquire-and-retain-subscribers.html

Namely, any app should manage the 'Account Hold' status by November 2020.

Implementation of the 'Account Hold' stuff requires the use of RTDN / Pub/Sub:

https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/subs#account-hold

Problem: I really don't understand how to implement all this mess.

How do I implement 'account hold' for yearly subscriptions with a 7 day free trial period in my Android app?

Answer 1

If your app does not store user's subscription information on a backend server and gets their subscription status using BillingClient.queryPurchases(), then you don't need to change anything. During account hold, you need to block users access to your premium content. This will automatically be handled if your subscription information is not stored on the backend. If, however, your user subscription information is stored on a backend server, then you need to enable Real Time Developer Notifications. I created a simple guide here: https://link.medium.com/mhvjlisnQab