Google Play subscription tracking

Developer assistance needed

Real-Time Developer Notifications (RTDN) is Google Plays server-to-server service that sends a real-time message whenever a subscriptions status changes.

By connecting Google Play RTDN to Pushwoosh, you can react to the entire subscription lifecycle, including purchases, renewals, cancellations, billing problems, expirations, and refunds without building your own backend infrastructure. Whenever a subscriptions status changes in a users Google Play account, Google notifies Pushwoosh, and Pushwoosh fires the matching PW_Subscription* event on the user profile.

Note

Source: Real-Time Developer Notifications are sent from Google Play to Pushwoosh.

Pushwoosh maps every supported Google Play notification to a unified PW_Subscription* event set, so you can trigger campaigns on any stage of the subscription lifecycle.

Every event carries the same attributes:

• productID: the Google Play product identifier of the subscription.
• expiresAt: when the current paid period ends, as a Unix timestamp in seconds. Included when Google provides it.

For developers verifying the integration, each Pushwoosh event corresponds to these RTDN notificationType values:

Other notification types, such as on-hold, price changes, deferrals, and pauses, are acknowledged but dont post an event.

A Google Play notification carries no Pushwoosh identifier. It includes only a purchase token and the apps packageName. So your app tags each purchase with the identifier Pushwoosh needs, and Pushwoosh reads it back from the purchase whenever a notification arrives.

1. A subscriptions status changes in a users Google Play account (a purchase, renewal, cancellation, and so on).
2. Google Play publishes an RTDN message to Pushwooshs shared topic.
3. Pushwoosh reads the purchases obfuscatedAccountId, which your app set to <AppCode>:<hwid> at purchase time.
4. Pushwoosh resolves the device whose HWID matches, finds the user bound to it, and posts the matching PW_Subscription* event for that user.

Important

Win back churning subscribers: Disabling auto-renewal doesnt end access right away. The subscription stays active until the paid period ends, and thats your window to win the user back. On PW_SubscriptionCancel, launch a Customer Journey with a retention push, an email about features theyd lose, or an in-app message with a renewal discount before access lapses.

Onboard new subscribers: Trigger a welcome series on PW_SubscriptionStart to help users get value from their plan early and set the stage for renewal.

Rescue failed payments: When PW_SubscriptionBillingIssue fires, a renewal payment didnt go through and the subscription is in its grace period. Prompt the user to update their payment method before they lose access, and follow up with PW_SubscriptionRecovered to confirm once its resolved.

Re-engage lapsed users: Start a reactivation campaign on PW_SubscriptionExpired with a returning-customer offer for subscribers who have fully churned.

Before you start, make sure you have a Pushwoosh app with FCM configured (already required for push), a Google Play app with a subscription, and Play Console admin access.

Pushwoosh identifies the right user from the devices HWID, combined with your Application Code. The Pushwoosh Android SDK exposes a helper, getSubscriptionAccountId(), that returns this value already formatted as <AppCode>:<hwid>. Pass it to BillingFlowParams.setObfuscatedAccountId() when you launch the Google Play billing flow.

val billingParams = BillingFlowParams.newBuilder()
    .setProductDetailsParamsList(productDetailsParamsList)
    // Tag the purchase with the Pushwoosh account identifier "<AppCode>:<hwid>"
    .setObfuscatedAccountId(Pushwoosh.getInstance().subscriptionAccountId)
    .build()

billingClient.launchBillingFlow(activity, billingParams)

BillingFlowParams billingParams = BillingFlowParams.newBuilder()
        .setProductDetailsParamsList(productDetailsParamsList)
        // Tag the purchase with the Pushwoosh account identifier "<AppCode>:<hwid>"
        .setObfuscatedAccountId(Pushwoosh.getInstance().getSubscriptionAccountId())
        .build();

billingClient.launchBillingFlow(activity, billingParams);

Note

Caution

1. In Google Play Console, go to Monetize Monetization setup.
2. Find Real-time developer notifications and set the Topic name to:

projects/pw-playstore-subscriptions/topics/play-rtdn

3. Click Save. Publish permission is already granted to Googles notification service, so theres nothing else to configure here.

1. In Google Play Console, go to Users and permissions Invite new user.
2. Enter the Pushwoosh service account email:

play-api@pw-playstore-subscriptions.iam.gserviceaccount.com

3. Under App permissions, add your app and grant View financial data, orders, and cancellation survey responses (plus the read-only app information permission).
4. Click Save. A service account doesnt need to accept the invite. Access is active immediately.

Pushwoosh registers each PW_Subscription* event in your project the first time it occurs, with the productID and expiresAt attributes. After a test, open Audience Events to verify the events appear. They are then ready for segmentation, statistics, and Customer Journeys.

Create a Customer Journey with a trigger-based entry on any PW_Subscription* event, for example PW_SubscriptionCancel for win-back or PW_SubscriptionStart for onboarding, and add the messages you want to send.

To verify the integration end to end:

1. In Google Play Console, open Monetization setup and click Send test notification. It should report success, confirming the topic is wired correctly.
2. Make a subscription purchase with the account identifier set as described above (this fires PW_SubscriptionStart), then cancel it from Play Store Subscriptions Cancel (this fires PW_SubscriptionCancel).
3. In Pushwoosh Control Panel, open the user profile and go to Events history.
4. Confirm that the events appear within a few moments.