You don't need to make real purchases in order to test your subscriptions. You can make sure your subscriptions have been implemented correctly by using the sandbox environments.

These environments will generally behave as the real stores, without incurring any costs. RevenueCat will automatically detect the environment production vs.

sandbox in which a purchase occurs, so no additional configuration is required in RevenueCat to test in sandbox. The purchase flows for one-time products and subscriptions are similar, but subscriptions have additional scenarios, such as successful or declined subscription renewals.

To test renewals, you can use the Test instrument, always approves and Test instrument, always declines payment methods that are available for license testers, as shown in figure 1. Use these payment instruments to test scenarios beyond the successful subscription scenario.

Similar to one-time products, you should also verify that purchases are properly acknowledged as described in processing purchases. For purchases from license testers, a purchase will be refunded after 3 minutes if your app does not acknowledge the purchase, and you will receive an email about the cancellation.

You can also check the Orders tab in Google Play Console to see if an order was refunded after 3 minutes. Test subscriptions renew more quickly than actual subscriptions, and test subscriptions can renew a maximum of six times.

The following table lists the testing renewal times for subscriptions of various durations. These times are approximate. You may see small variations in the precise time of an event.

To compensate for variation, call the API to view the current status after every subscription expiration date. Time-based subscription features such as free-trials are also shortened for testing.

The following table identifies the testing time periods associated with time-based subscription features:. You can also use license testers to test price changes. Keep the following considerations in mind when planning test periods:. The following table shows test billing and notification periods for several actual billing periods:.

You can use the Google Play Console to create codes for your own testing. Keep in mind that you may only create promo codes per quarter across all managed products in an app. Within these scenarios, you should test redeeming codes in as many ways as possible.

We recommend perform the following tests at a minimum:. License testers also allow you to test the purchase flow in any region without needing a real payment method for that country. Use the following steps to test:. You can clear Play Store data and cache and then repeat steps 3 and 4 with any country you would like to test.

After switching to a new country you will need to Clear Data for the Google Play Store to remove data related to the previous country. This method to test purchases allows you to test offer regional eligibility and the user experience in any region, regardless of where you are physically testing.

Content and code samples on this page are subject to the licenses described in the Content License. Essentials Modern Android Quickly bring your app to life with less code, using a modern declarative approach to UI, and the simplicity of Kotlin.

Explore Modern Android. Get started Start by creating your first app. Go deeper with our training courses or explore app development on your own. Hello world. Extend by device Build apps that give your users seamless experiences from phones to tablets, watches, and more. Large screens e.

Build by category Learn to build for your use case by following Google's prescriptive and opinionated guidance. Get the latest Stay in touch with the latest releases throughout the year, join our preview programs, and give us your feedback. Platform releases. UI Design Design a beautiful user interface using Android best practices.

Design for Android. Architecture Design robust, testable, and maintainable app logic and services. Quality Plan for app quality and align with Play store guidelines. Build for Billions Create the best experience for entry-level devices Overview.

Android Studio Use the IDE and tools that make Android development easy. Get Android Studio. Core areas Get the docs for the features you need. User interfaces. Tools and workflow Use the IDE to write and build your app, or create your own pipeline. Write and debug code. Devices Write code to work with particular form factors.

Libraries Browse API reference documentation with all the details. Enabling Customers to Purchase Product as a Gift Integrate Purchase Orders in Your Store Managing Purchase Orders Will FastSpring accept an order through email, mail, or fax? Store Testing within SpringBoard Store Testing Outside of SpringBoard Testing Subscriptions How can I get the PayPal Payment Method to Appear during Testing?

Marketing and Promotions Discounts and Coupons Creating Coupons that Expire in a Certain Number of Days Customers using Coupons with PayPal Orders Offering a Discount over a Period of Time for a Subscription Product Offering a Coupon in an Email Fulfillment How to Offer a Free Product Creating a Discount with Conditions Creating a Coupon Creating a Discount with Conditions Creating a Coupon with Multiple Codes Setting Up Discounts Across a Set of Multiple Products How to Apply an Offer to a Select Group of Products Showing Coupon Field Earlier in Order Process Setting Up Tiered Pricing or Volume Pricing for a Single Product Setting Up Volume Discounts Across a Set of Multiple Products Generating a Random Coupon using an API Creating a Discount Revenue Boosters: Add-Ons, Cross-Sells Capture Email Addresses from Abandoned Carts for Remarketing Can I Sell a Gift Card or Gift Certificate?

Add-Ons that Add Revenue: Offering a Backup CD or DVD Order Backup CD After Order Completed Boost your Profits by Offering Extended Download Service Cross-Sell Locations.

How do Customers Update their Payment Information? How do subscription customers change their credit card information? What happens to current subscribers if I change the subscription price? Free Trials on Subscriptions Can I prevent customers from signing up for a free trial multiple times?

Setting Up a Free Trial Period for a Subscription Product Options for Managing Subscription Free Trials. Your Account Store Overview and Options A SpringBoard Overview: Your First Steps Requesting Activation of your Store Can I have multiple stores in one account? Breakdown of your Payment Setting up an ACH Direct Deposit or Wire Transfer What's the Difference between Direct Deposit and a Wire Transfer?

Why does my Account have a Hold? Why is my Payment Lower than I expected? Why is my Payment Delayed or Rejected? Available Payment Methods How should I handle U.

income taxes IRS Form that are due? Order Refund Policy, Chargebacks and Return Processing Why is my Account Balance Incorrect or Negative?

How do I change the service fee FastSpring charges? What are the fees associated with PayPal? Affiliates and Royalty Partners Grow your Revenue with FastSpring's Affiliate Program Reseller Partner Accounts in SpringBoard Setting Up Affiliates and Split Pays Refunds with Split Pay Accounts Configuring Notifications for Split Account Partners Reports and Reporting Suggest an Article Can I Get Survey Results in a Report?

What's the difference between the Inactive Subscriber and the Canceled Order Report? What time zone does FastSpring use? Can I get a List of Returns in a Report? How can I view a List of Current or Active Subscribers or Members?

Settings Notifications SyntaxTree C. FastSpring Makes Testing Easy You can test the whole life cycle of a Subscription order in SpringBoard. Create a Subscription You can either create a subscription from SpringBoard or from your external website or application.

This step is required to test. From SpringBoard. Go to Store Testing, open one of the test links, and order a subscription product (here Subscription ABC) Try and Review: Product test campaigns allow you to try products for free. Samples are shipped to your home for you to try and evaluate them TEST PRODUCT (SUBSCRIPTION ONLY). $ Rendering loop-subscriptions. Default Title. Default Title - $ TEST PRODUCT (SUBSCRIPTION ONLY) - $ Add

Product testing subscriptions - This is the subscription product to use for testing This is the subscription product to use for testing. Login to Add to cart Login to Add to cart. Materials This step is required to test. From SpringBoard. Go to Store Testing, open one of the test links, and order a subscription product (here Subscription ABC) Try and Review: Product test campaigns allow you to try products for free. Samples are shipped to your home for you to try and evaluate them TEST PRODUCT (SUBSCRIPTION ONLY). $ Rendering loop-subscriptions. Default Title. Default Title - $ TEST PRODUCT (SUBSCRIPTION ONLY) - $ Add

They create, change, and cancel a real subscription for your account. Your account is flagged as a tester account for your own products, so you are not charged for the subscriptions.

To understand the full scope of available subscription integration testing and the relationship between the tests that you can perform on the Integration Report page and the Account Details page, see Accounts. The Accounts page opens and the table displays one subscription.

If no subscription appears in the table, go to the Integration Report page to run the Subscribe to Your Product test see Test integration from Integration Report. The subscription that you generate for a standalone product will appear in the standalone product's Accounts page table.

If an add-on product is connected to the standalone product and you included the add-on product in the order, the subscription for the add-on product appears on its Accounts page table and the triggered events appear on its Events page table.

Click Suspend Account. A confirmation message appears, and on the right side, the Status field displays Suspended. Click Reactivate Account.

After the team scored several subscription wins, it started working this year on improving time spent on site, subscriber retention and event attendance. It runs dozens of tests a month on tasks like getting more email newsletter registrations.

The optimization team looks for ways to make small changes that impact the largest possible audience. While personalization has its merits, Gray said, his team operates under the assumption that there are more 10 percent wins out there than percent ones. Of the adjustments that improved outcomes by more than 4 percent, over two-thirds involved text or design.

For example, the team improved newsletter signups 24 percent by replacing a tile-based format with a list-focused one. Other publishers, including The Economist to The Atlantic to the Seattle Times , have adopted collaboration and a data-driven approach to grow subscriptions, a trend that is poised to continue.

Update: An earlier version of this story said the Wall Street Journal had a goal of reaching 3 million subscribers. that had the goal. More than half of publishers increased the number of ad products they offered last year, and of those who increased their ad offerings, most added branded content products.

Subscribe Login. Login Subscribe.

Video