Migrate from Google Play Billing to Appstore SDK

Learn the differences between Google Play Billing and Amazon In-App Purchasing (IAP). Then, use the guide to migrate your app from Google Play Billing to Appstore SDK IAP.

What are Google Play Billing and IAP?

The Google Play Billing feature allows users to purchase digital content directly from your app. For example, a user can purchase additional levels in a game. Amazon In-App Purchasing (IAP) is the equivalent feature for the Amazon Appstore. If your app uses Google Play Billing, you can modify your code to use Amazon IAP. Both Google and Amazon APIs have similar functionality with some differences in naming and terminology.

Amazon IAP versus Google Play Billing

This section discusses the similarities and differences between Google Play Billing and Amazon IAP from the Appstore SDK.

Feature comparison

The following table shows a comparison between Appstore SDK IAP and Google Play Billing.

Google Play managed objects versus Amazon consumables and entitlements

Google Play Billing and Amazon IAP both let your customers make the same types of in-app purchases. However, Google Play and Amazon use different terminology for their purchase types. The following table notes the Google Play equivalent for each Amazon purchase type.

As you can see, Google Play Billing treats all non-subscription purchases similarly; an item is purchased, then consumed by a user. After an item has been consumed, the item is provisioned in the app and the consumption is recorded. For items that are likely to be one-time purchases, such as unlocking new game levels, you have the option as a developer of treating the item as a consumable or non-consumable and introducing logic to ensure that the purchase of that item only occurs once. With Amazon IAP, one-time purchases (entitlements) are separated by design from purchases that app users can purchase multiple times (consumables).

Migrate to the Appstore SDK

To migrate from Google Play Billing to the Appstore SDK, follow these instructions.

1. Download and configure the Appstore SDK.
2. Configure your AndroidManifest.xml file to support Appstore SDK IAP.
3. In your app, implement logic to mediate between Google Play Billing and IAP.
4. Add and implement the Appstore SDK IAP API.
5. Test your app.

The following sections guide you through these steps.

Step 1. Download and configure Appstore SDK

Download the Appstore SDK here:

Appstore SDK

To configure the Appstore SDK for your app, follow the instructions in Integrate the Appstore SDK.

Step 2. Configure your AndroidManifest.xml file

Configure your AndroidManifest.xml file to define the IAP ResponseReceiver for your app. The IAP ResponseReceiver ensures that the intent communication from the Amazon Client is intercepted by your app. If you are supporting both Google Play Billing and Amazon IAP, you don't need to remove elements related to Google Play Billing; they will simply be ignored by IAP.

In your AndroidManifest.xml file, add the appropriate <receiver> tag for the IAP ResponseReceiver. If your app targets Android 12 or higher, you must explicitly set android:exported to true in the MainActivity and ResponseReceiver as shown in the following example.

 <application>
 ...
    <activity android:name="com.amazon.sample.iap.entitlement.MainActivity"
              android:label="@string/app_name" android:exported="true" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>

    <receiver android:name="com.amazon.device.iap.ResponseReceiver" android:exported="true"
              android:permission="com.amazon.inapp.purchasing.Permission.NOTIFY" >
        <intent-filter>
        <action
            android:name="com.amazon.inapp.purchasing.NOTIFY" />
        </intent-filter>
    </receiver>
 </application>

Step 3. Implement logic to mediate between Google Play Billing and IAP

You can use the same code base for your app, regardless of where your app is hosted. Just add logic to your app to determine whether the app was downloaded from the Amazon Appstore or from Google Play. Depending on where the user downloaded the app, run the appropriate methods for either IAP or Google Play Billing.

The following example code determines whether a package was installed from Google Play or the Amazon Appstore:

PackageManager pkgManager = context.getPackageManager();

try {
   String installerPackageName = pkgManager.getInstallSourceInfo(context.getPackageName()).getInstallingPackageName();
} catch (PackageManager.NameNotFoundException e) {
   // Handle exception
}

if (installerPackageName.startsWith("com.amazon")) {
   // Amazon
} else if ("com.android.vending".equals(installerPackageName)) {
   // Google Play
}

Step 4. Add and implement the Appstore SDK IAP API

For the most part, Appstore SDK IAP works similarly to Google Play Billing. When you create the path in your code to implement the IAP API, you should be able to use a similar logic flow to Google Play, but will need to account for different class and method names.

The following table maps the most frequently used IAP methods to their Google Play equivalents:

Step 5. Test your app

You can test IAP in your app through different phases of development with DevTest for IAP, App Tester, and Live App Testing. For a complete overview of tools available to test IAP, see IAP Testing Overview.

Last updated: Apr 15, 2026