Does /e/ support verification of in-app purchases?

[ingolf]

Hi,

when I was still using a GMS Android on my smartphone, I did a few in-app purchases using my Google account.

Now, if I install the associated apps (via App Lounge), those apps start but cannot verify the in-app purchases – for obvious reasons as I neither used App Lounge with my Google account nor added the account to microG.

• Would you expect that adding my Google account to the microG settings will allow for verification of the in-app purchases?
• Do you have experience with in-app purchases when the Google account is removed after successful verification of the purchase? I.e. would the app remember that the purchase had been successfully verified and not perform the verification again?
• Would I be able to change/remove identifying information (like device ID or whatever is sent to Google) afterwards without changing the status of the verification of the in-app purchases?

Kind regards
Ingolf

Non-rooted /e/ 1.1 Q on Fairphone2, in case it matters.

[marcdw]

In-App Purchases and license checking will not work without the actual Play Store being present to handle said checks.

Pro apps, in most cases, are standalone and don’t do any checks. Some apps will have a Pro key or unlocker apk which are also standalone and don’t do checks.

EDIT: Some of the discussion below is relevant I believe but root would be required.

App Lounge - know all about it

Still not sure if Play Store is the key element or Play Services. If it is the former you may have an option. What would be desired in that case is to install the Nanodroid patched Play Store. Normally that would be a major pain and risk involving flashing some microG installer that includes the Play Store over what we already have (bad); or manually removing FakeStore, pushing Play Store to /system, manually setting up a permissions file and pushing that to /system, hoping the ROM boots, and h…

[elakim]

That’s a nice link! I installed the Magisk app using the instructions (basically installed their .apk from their github base, located the /e/os image I’d installed previously, copied the boot.img over to my phone using adb, patched it using the Magisk app, copied it back over to my computer, rebooted my FP3 in fastboot mode with the boot loader unlocked, and flashed the image as boot, rebooted, run the app which rebooted it all again). Then I was able to download the module to my phone from the page linked to in that article - NB, the 0.1 version doesn’t work, there’s a 0.2 version linked later in the module page discussion which does - installed the module in Magisk, rebooted the phone, logged into Play Store that appeared, and lo and behold, I was able to use my previously purchased navigational charts in my Navionics Boating App Also apparently that Magisk module should include f-droid repositories that chart the patched PlayStore so it will keep working

[elakim]

The only problem with that approach was that I ended up with a phone that was unlocked, which may be problematic with some other apps. So I ended up installing a dev version of /e/os which can be rooted by an option in the developer menu. Installed my chart app, copied data over from /data/data on my other phone (that has dysfunctional GPS which was the main reason I wanted a new phone), and now I have my in-app-purchased maps again, on a phone with a locked bootloader

[marcdw]

@elakim

Also apparently that Magisk module should include f-droid repositories that chart the patched PlayStore so it will keep working

Nah, that wouldn’t matter. I’ve always had the Nanolx (NanoDroid) repo for some years, where the patched Play Store is hosted. There is no update past v20.9.20.

Recent CI builds of the MinMicroG packages now include non-patched Play Store. How well it works is unknown. Haven’t setup fresh ROMs in awhile so I haven’t tested.