Unlock application's additional features with Facebook share or tweet

Monetizing, Advertising & Marketing Marketing Methods
1

I have a free application published on Google Play. I want to add some new features and ask users to ‘pay’ for them with Facebook shares or tweets.

Scenario:

  1. User updates application
  2. New features are available in settings but they are not active
  3. To activate feature user has to share information about my application on FB or on Tweeter
  4. Only if sharing was successful feature will be available to the user.

For me it seems like a good idea to spread information about application in social media… however I can’t find any ‘out of the box’ solution (library or code). Is there any?

Has anybody tried this approach and was it successful?

Also I’m trying to find out if this method is compliant with Google Play policy. I’ve read https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html with great care but I didn’t find any clues. Has anyone got any policy violations emails from Google after implementing this method?

I would be grateful for any suggestions or tips,

2

I’m quite sure this method doesn’t violate Google Play’s policies. You are only not allowed to force users to unlock content by interacting with ads. Social interaction tools aren’t ads, so that looks fine to me.

You might find a library that does this sort of thing, but it would be pretty simple to implement it yourself. I would look into an alternative though. Some users just won’t want to do it or they won’t have social profiles.

3

Hi A1ka1inE,

thanks for your answer. I also think this method should not violate Google’s policies.

You are right that many users will not be happy with such ‘payment type’. However I give almost full functionality for free… and those social shares will only enhance some functions… so I think it will not be so irritating for the users.

Regarding ready solution I’ve found this library which looks quite promising: How to integrate Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin in Android Apps - CodeProject

4

Looks interesting. What about the license? Can you use it in your free and paid apps?

5

MIT licence:
The MIT License (MIT) | Open Source Initiative
so it is ok to use it in commercial projects free of charge.

6

Hi, I am also thinking to implement this functionality in my apps. Just wounder how it’s going for you? Did you finally implemented this?
Thanks,

7

According to google : “Forcing the user to click on ads or submit personal information for advertising purposes in order to fully use an app is prohibited”

Is it allowed to give something if the user WATCHES (not clicks) a video ad? Ive seen many games (including big ones like Angry Birds) doing this, but still not sure if it is allowed…

8

I think it’s against Google’s rules to unlock part of the app by an incentive or ad. What we did with our latest game was to offer a continue where they player lost, if they tweet or posted to fb. So we didn’t restrict any of the apps contents, but gave them extra life sort of.

9

I believe liking of fb or twitter is not considered an ad. I offer users stars for it (which they can also buy using IAP). Of course you can’t require fb like for anything that is not achievable by other means.