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Quite some time ago Microsoft announced that a developer will be able to sell IAPs (In-App Purchases) as a auto renewable subscription i.e. a user is billed once a period until the user explicitly cancels the subscription.

There were quite some notifications on that:

Dev Center open for Windows 10 app submissions, adds new features

Are you planning to add subscriptions/recurring purchases to Windows Store?

Bernardo Zamora: Yes. This is one of the features mentioned at Build that was going to be coming in the next few months. We’ll let all developers know when this feature is available. Blockquote

Bernardo Zamora

Microsoft

Distributing Windows Apps to the World

New subscription support In-app purchase capabilities will be expanded with Windows 10 to include a recurring billing, or subscription, option that will enable the Windows Store to sell subscription-based content using Store billing systems. Useful for content and productivity services, among others, this subscription capability will support the Windows Store consumer payment methods in most markets with developer-configurable time periods.

Up to this moment I do not see anything like that neither in Windows SDK nor in Windows Developer Dashboard (App publication setup).

I failed to find anything on the matter in MSDN as well. The durable IAP with the limited lifespan is no good as it makes the user explicitly repurchase the IAP every other time.

As soon as the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is going to emerge on the 2nd of August 2016 and there are indirect indications that Windows Store is going to support IAP subscriptions I am asking the Windows Insider program members for details.

Are there any samples on the way the IAP subscriptions are going to be implemented?

UPDATE (Jan 1st 2017):

There are some pieces of information beginning to appear in MSDN. There is a StoreSubscriptionInfo class in the new Windows.Services.Store namespace which is available for UWP apps targeting Windows 10, version 1607 and later. As of the 1st of Jan 2017 the StoreSubscriptionInfo class doc states:

Provides subscription info for a product SKU that represents a subscription with recurring billing.

Subscriptions are not currently supported by Windows Dev Center or the Store. This class exists to provide future support for subscriptions, and is not intended to be used by your code in the current release.

UPDATE (Aug 24th 2017):

Some useful doc appeared recently: Enable subscription add-ons for your app. Its a pity this early adoption program was not public.

UPDATE (Oct 5th 2017):

I have an update from @Stefan Wick MSFT i.e. some info he received from the development team:

We are just awaiting some final validation to be completed around subscription trials. There are a couple of apps live right now levering IAP Subscriptions in the preview program and we plan to open it up next to the Dev Center Insiders some time in October, followed by general availability a short time after that if our validation tests go as planned.

Zverev Evgeniy
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  • Not a bad question in itself (frankly, not very good either), but stackoverflow is the wrong platform. See the [help/on-topic] for details. – IInspectable Jul 29 '16 at 16:36
  • @IInspectable Thanks for the review. I thought of a better place to post it but as long as I am looking for a piece of code i.e. an example I decided it's the right place. – Zverev Evgeniy Jul 29 '16 at 19:16
  • You weren't really asking a specific programming related question. It sounds more like you are looking for a release date (or at least a statement of commitment) for a particular feature. If history is any indication, this will surely come with samples (when/if it's introduced). Whether this is the right place to ask or not, the question will surely profit if you provide a link to the announcement you reference. – IInspectable Jul 29 '16 at 19:29
  • @IInspectable Thanks for the tip. I appended the links and quotes. – Zverev Evgeniy Jul 31 '16 at 12:02
  • Still nothing I assume? – Tomáš Bezouška Dec 22 '16 at 15:51
  • @TomášBezouška Yeah, empty. All the channels are silent i.e. do not think I am just waiting for an answer here. I do my best asking MS in all the ways I can. Nothing. – Zverev Evgeniy Dec 25 '16 at 20:41
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    @TomášBezouška Have a look at the update. – Zverev Evgeniy Jan 18 '17 at 14:25
  • @ZverevEugene Yay! – Tomáš Bezouška Jan 19 '17 at 15:25
  • @ZverevEugene how do we join this early adopter program? – stanley Aug 24 '17 at 21:08
  • @stanley I doubt we can, as I said, this program was not public i.e. MS probably picked some developers themselves. I do not really know if there are many of them. I myself expected the adoption to be public and tried not to miss it. Did not hear a thing though. – Zverev Evgeniy Aug 25 '17 at 11:26

2 Answers2

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See Bernardo's recent BUILD2017 session: https://channel9.msdn.com/events/Build/2017/B8098

Subscriptions is in preview now, and available to all developers later this summer.

Stefan Wick MSFT
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  • Thanks for the update. I take it as another announcement, let's see if there is anything behind the words. 2 years passed you know... – Zverev Evgeniy May 16 '17 at 18:31
  • So, if this is not in use yet, then is it okay to direct people to an external payment method i.e. website to signup for a subscription or is that against the Microsoft app terms? I'm having a hard time finding that info out. – jmichas Jun 19 '17 at 14:38
  • Is 'later this summer' still in charge? – Zverev Evgeniy Aug 24 '17 at 00:40
  • As long as "this summer" is well passed, are there any updates? – Zverev Evgeniy Sep 18 '17 at 15:37
  • See Sam's new/updated answer above for the latest status. – Stefan Wick MSFT Sep 19 '17 at 05:39
  • @StefanWickMSFT Sorry, did not quite get your point. Who's Sam and where is that "above" to look for the latest status? – Zverev Evgeniy Sep 29 '17 at 15:55
  • Hmm weird, looks like it got deleted for some reason. I have asked Sam to repost. – Stefan Wick MSFT Sep 29 '17 at 19:51
  • Here is the update I got from the team that owns delivering this: "We are just awaiting some final validation to be completed around subscription trials. There are a couple of apps live right now levering IAP Subscriptions in the preview program and we plan to open it up next to the Dev Center Insiders some time in October, followed by general availability a short time after that if our validation tests go as planned." – Stefan Wick MSFT Sep 29 '17 at 21:14
  • @StefanWickMSFT Thanks for the update. If you do not mind I include that as an update to the initial question. – Zverev Evgeniy Oct 05 '17 at 11:12
  • Please see the latest release announcement on the Windows Developer blog: https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2018/01/10/now-available-offer-add-subscriptions-automated-recurring-billing-uwp-apps/ – Stefan Wick MSFT Jan 11 '18 at 14:35
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It appears that the subscription feature finally moved from the mysterious "Early Adoption Program" to the publicly available "Dev Center Insider Program" and that makes a huge difference for many of us. Simply put any developer can apply, join the program and start supplying the auto recurring subscriptions this very hour. Yay.

Dev Center Insider Program feature: Subscription add-ons: Sell digital products in your app (such as app features or digital content) as add-ons, with automated recurring billing periods.

How Dev Center Insiders can try it: Choose Subscription for your add-on's product type and specify a subscription period. You must also use APIs in the Windows.Services.Store namespace to enable the subscription experience.

Date added: December 2017

The docs seem to be intact: Enable subscription add-ons for your app

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Zverev Evgeniy
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