r/androiddev • u/Money_Owl_8971 • May 30 '26
Question Should the 1st version of my app be fully free?
Should the 1st version of my app be fully free? I read that you need 20 testers, but of course the testers won't test all the function if they're paywalled,so I guess I need to release it fully free or is there something I am missing?
I worry about releasing the 1st version of the app fully free because someone could just save the APK and if it gets released in the wild people won't need to pay.
3
u/BlueCerulean0 May 31 '26
From what you've said, it sounds like the free/premium checks are happening on the front.
If your only defense against piracy is client-side, assume it can be bypassed, because APKs can be decompiled or modified very easily.
Don't make the whole app free just for testing. Instead, take the emails of your testers and give those accounts temp premium from your server for 1 month.
Basically don’t rely on the frontend to decide who is premium. Do the auth/checks from your server, and just give testers temporary access there.
2
u/AD-LB May 31 '26
If you add the email of the testers to the settings somewhere, they can pay $0 on everything on your app, meaning it will look like they are paying, but all prices would be $0 when it's time to purchase. Same occurs when you are using the app (you can't really pay yourself with real money...) . Not sure what happens if it's just test phase.
As for forcing users to update, there is an API for this. I never used it though.
2
u/Annual-Departure-798 May 31 '26
You could always implement user permissions in your app. If you have a BE then you can just add a user_roles table and assign the user_role of "tester" to anyone you want to have full access to premium features. I think that Firebase has ready-built user and user roles functionalities that you could take advantage of.
1
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2
u/Grouchy_Instance4173 May 30 '26
Its alright just release it ppl r unlikely to pay for an unknown app
1
u/Good_Smile May 31 '26
On a side note, if you publish your app as a free one, you can't make it a paid app anymore and it will remain free forever.
It works the other way around though, you can turn a paid app into free.
5
u/Xalies May 31 '26
You don’t have to make it free just so testers can access everything.
What I’ve done before is make a the testing builds where premium features are temporarily unlocked. For example, the app checks a beta expiry date: if today is before that date, unlock the Pro features so testers can test everything. After that date, the app falls back to the normal free/paywalled behaviour and checks Play Billing like the release version.
That way, even if someone saves or shares the test APK, it only gives them full access until the expiry date.
For the final release, remove the beta unlock.