[android-developers] Version 3: Query in-app product information

I was enthusiastic when I read this about the new In App Purchase API.

The API also introduces a long-anticipated feature: the ability to query in-app product information directly from Google Play

I'm all for it. Maybe I don't have to host my own details on a third party server like now. 

But then I read through some gory details.

"To query the details of the in-app products that you defined in Google Play, your application can send a getSkuDetails request. You must specify a list of product IDs in the query request."

So my app needs to know about all of the product IDs beforehand? But this would be useful if I somehow know about the product but forgot its name or wimpy 80 character description?

I guess this is useful for dynamically updating price without surprising the user. But am I the only one thinking this falls short?

You need your own server infrastructure (or built in to app) for:
Description more than 80 characters, if needed.
Knowing what the set of products is.
Downloading any files associated with it.

But at least you can query the price dynamically.

In addition, it says it does not support subscriptions (yet?). That's just the thing I wanted to add. Although it does sound like consumable managed items might be able to do about the same thing as subscriptions.

In all, it may not be time to move to the v3 API. I would like to make a clean break from Urban Airship, who hosts my content now because, well, they suck.

Nathan

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