Why can't I define In-app Products before having uploaded an APK in the Google Developer Console?

Question

In the documentation for testing In-App-Purchases (IAPs) on Android, the following is stated:

First, upload and publish in-app products that you want testers to be able to purchase. You can upload and publish in-app products in the Developer Console. Note that you can upload and publish your in-app items before you publish the APK itself.

However, in my Google Developer Console, I can not define the In-app Products before having uploaded an APK? Does anyone know why?

Answer 1

Correct. What Google is doing here makes no sense whatsoever. But the way to get around this is to upload an empty signed APK to alpha or beta with the BILLING permission, then you can add your in-app products.

Answer 2

One way around this limitation is to develop with Register https://github.com/NYTimes/Register

It is a developer library/app designed to test in app billing. In particular, once your app is using Register, you can test purchases without having to upload anything to the Play store.