| page.title=App Licensing |
| page.metaDescription=Information on using the licensing feature of Google Play to protect your apps. |
| meta.tags="licensing, drm" |
| page.image=/assets/images/resource-card-default-android.jpg |
| @jd:body |
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| <p>Google Play offers a licensing service that lets you enforce licensing policies for |
| applications that you publish on Google Play. With Google Play Licensing, your application can |
| query Google Play at run time to obtain the licensing status for the current user, then allow or |
| disallow further use as appropriate. </p> |
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| <p>Using the service, you can apply a flexible licensing policy on an application-by-application |
| basis—each application can enforce licensing in the way most appropriate for it. If necessary, |
| an application can apply custom constraints based on the licensing status obtained from Google Play. |
| For example, an application can check the licensing status and then apply custom constraints |
| that allow the user to run it unlicensed for a specific validity period. An application can also |
| restrict use of the application to a specific device, in addition to any other constraints. </p> |
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| <p>The licensing service is a secure means of controlling access to your applications. When an |
| application checks the licensing status, the Google Play server signs the licensing status |
| response using a key pair that is uniquely associated with the application. Your application |
| stores the public key in its compiled <code>.apk</code> file and uses it to verify the licensing |
| status response.</p> |
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| <p>Any application that you publish through Google Play can use the Google Play Licensing |
| service. No special account or registration is needed. Additionally, because the service uses no |
| dedicated framework APIs, you can add licensing to any application that uses a minimum API level of |
| 3 or higher.</p> |
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| <p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> The Google Play Licensing service is primarily intended |
| for paid applications that wish to verify that the current user did in fact pay for the application |
| on Google Play. However, any application (including free apps) may use the licensing service |
| to initiate the download of an APK expansion file. In which case, the request that your application |
| sends to the licensing service is not to check whether the user paid for the app, but to request the |
| URL of the expansion files. For information about downloading expansion files for your application, |
| read the guide to <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/expansion-files.html">APK Expansion Files</a>.</p> |
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| <p>To learn more about Google Play's application licensing service and start integrating it into |
| your applications, read the following documents:</p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| <dt><strong><a href="{@docRoot}google/play/licensing/overview.html">Licensing |
| Overview</a></strong></dt> |
| <dd>Describes how the service works and what a typical licensing implementation looks |
| like.</dd> |
| <dt><strong><a href="{@docRoot}google/play/licensing/setting-up.html">Setting Up for |
| Licensing</a></strong></dt> |
| <dd>Explains how to set up your Google Play account, development environment, and |
| testing environment in order to add licensing to your app.</dd> |
| <dt><strong><a href="{@docRoot}google/play/licensing/adding-licensing.html">Adding |
| Licensing to Your App</a></strong></dt> |
| <dd>Provides a step-by-step guide to add licensing verification to your application.</dd> |
| <dt><strong><a href="{@docRoot}google/play/licensing/licensing-reference.html">Licensing |
| Reference</a></strong></dt> |
| <dd>Provides detailed information about the licensing library's classes and the service response |
| codes.</dd> |
| </dl> |
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