Google pilot to let users use alternate billing on Play Store in India

All non-game developers in India, Australia, Indonesia, Japan and the European Economic Area can now register to participate in the pilot and offer choices to their mobile and tablet users.

"With this next phase of Google Play's user choice billing pilot, all non-gaming developers can offer an additional billing choice alongside Play's billing system for their users," a company spokesperson said in a statement. "We will be sharing more in the coming months as we continue to build and iterate with our pilot partners," the company added.

Earlier this year, Google announced a new pilot program to explore the user billing option in Google Play apps, allowing participating developers to offer users an alternative billing system alongside the billing system from Google Play.

Google said that with this pilot, it continues to evolve its platform and increase the options available to developers and users while "maintaining its ability to invest in the ecosystem."

Over the past two years, Google has moved away from one-size-fits-all pricing, and today, 99 per cent of developers qualify for a service fee of 15 per cent or less.

"We are constantly listening to external feedback and considering changes to our business that enable the Android ecosystem to compete and thrive," according to Google.

Users will still have the option to use Google Play's billing system. According to the company, reasonable service fees will continue to apply to support your investments in Android and the Play Store. Spotify has already introduced the Google Play billing system alongside its current one.