How to block in-app purchases on Android
Android developers have multiple options at hand to monetize their apps. They can sell it right away for a price in Google's Play Store, or, implement in-app purchases. These come in many different forms, from adding new levels to a game to new features or virtual items or extras that help you out in the game.
I like how Valve is handling in-app purchases in Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2. Only cosmetic items can be bought and they do not give players who buy them an advantage in game. Some app and game developers on the other hand build their applications around this monetization model. Users are tempted to make purchases, for instance if the game cannot be completed without them or if other players who made purchases get advantages in multiplayer.
While you may be able to restrict yourself from making in-app purchases, your children or other users may not be able to do so.
Researchers estimate that unauthorized in-app purchases have reached 30 million Pounds alone in the UK, and the situation is likely identical in many other countries.
It takes a couple of clicks to make a purchase. Below is a screenshot of an in-app purchase in the free to play game The Sims from Electronic Arts. Yes, it is more expensive than most full price games.
Here is how you prevent your children or other users from making in-app purchases:
- Open the Play Store on your Android device.
- Tap on the menu button of the phone and select Settings from the options.
- Locate the Use Password to restrict purchases option and tap on it to enable it. Depending on the Play Store version, it may be named "Use Pin for purchases" alternatively.
- If it is disabled, locate the Set or change Pin option here and tap on it to set a pin that needs to be entered then if purchases are being made in Play Store (which includes in-app purchases).
Once you have set the option, a password needs to be entered before in-app purchases are made.
Google Play Store Tips:
- If you enter the password to authorize a purchase, it will be valid for 30 minutes. What this means is that you won't be asked to enter your password in that timeframe. Keep that in mind and the phone away from others for that time period to avoid additional purchases from being made.
- You can disable password protection using the same settings menu as well. Just tap on the Password entry here and enter your current password to disable the requirement to enter a password each time you want to make a purchase.
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?