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Adding trials, in-app products, and ads (HTML)

[ This article is for Windows 8.x and Windows Phone 8.x developers writing Windows Runtime apps. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation ]

Purpose

Your Windows Runtime app can use the support for free apps, trials (both time-based and feature-based), paid apps, and in-app products to give your customers the ability to try your app for free and choose what works for them. The topics in this section show you how to build these features into your app.

For more info about the different business models supported by the Windows Store, see Monetization and business models. For details about the fees charged by the Windows Store and how you get paid for the money your app makes, see Getting paid.

In this section

Topic Description

Create a trial version of your app

If customers can use your app for free during a trial period, you can design your app to exclude or limit some features during the trial period. You can also enable features, such as banners or watermarks, that are shown only during the trial, before a customer buys your app.

Enable in-app product purchases

Your app can offer products and features that your customers can buy from within the app. Here we show you how to enable these offers in your app.

Enable consumable in-app product purchases

Offer consumable in-app products—items that can be purchased, used, and purchased again—through the Store commerce platform to provide your customers with a purchase experience that is both robust and reliable.

How to manage a large catalog of in-app products

Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 introduce a new solution for apps that offer in-app product catalogs that extend beyond the Store limitation of 200 product listings per developer account. This solution allows you to create just a handful of product entries for specific price tiers, with each one able to represent hundreds of products within a catalog.

Using receipts to verify product purchases

Each Windows Store transaction that results in a successful product purchase can optionally return a transaction receipt. This receipts provides information about the listed product and monetary cost to the customer.

Having access to this information supports scenarios where your app needs to verify that a user purchased your app, or has made in-app product purchases from the Windows Store. For example, imagine a game that offers downloaded content. If the user who purchased the game content wants to play it on a different device, you need to verify that the user already owns the content. Here's how.

Adding ads to your apps

Make more money from your Windows apps by displaying video and banner ads in your apps. The ads show in Windows apps for PCs, tablets, and phones. You can monitor your ad performance in real time by using the Windows Dev Center dashboard.