Google Play offers a licensing service that lets you enforce licensing policies for the apps that you publish on Google Play. With the licensing service, your apps can query Google Play at runtime to obtain their licensing status for the current user, then allow or disallow further use as appropriate.
Go to the App licensing section of our Android developer site to find out more about the licensing service and how to add it to your app.
Find your app's licence key
- Open Play Console and select the app that you want to find the licence key for.
- Go to the Monetisation setup page (Monetise > Monetisation setup).
- Your licence key is under 'Licensing'.
Verify Google Play licensing implementation
Before uploading your app to Google PlayIf no app with that package name and version code is on Google Play, sign in to an Android device with the same account that you use in Play Console. Use this account as the primary account on your Android device. Then, set the test response and verify that your app behaves appropriately for those responses.
Note: ServerManagedPolicy caches test LICENSED responses for only one minute. Normal (non-test) LICENSED responses will be cached longer.
After uploading the app to Google Play
Note: ServerManagedPolicy caches test LICENSED responses for only one minute. Normal (non-test) LICENSED responses will be cached longer.
If you've uploaded the app with licence checking to Google Play (regardless of the current publish state), sign in to an Android device with the same account that you use in Play Console or a licence-test account as the primary account. Then, set the test response and verify that your app behaves appropriately for those responses.
Note: ServerManagedPolicy caches test LICENSED responses for only one minute. Normal (non-test) LICENSED responses will be cached longer.
I need more help implementing my licence check
Note: ServerManagedPolicy caches test LICENSED responses for only one minute. Normal (non-test) LICENSED responses will be cached longer.
Development and testing issues
This includes Licence Verification Library (LVL) download and integration, library projects, policy questions, user experience ideas, handling of responses, obfuscator, IPC and test environment setup. For more information, go to Stack overflow.
Reporting issues with the licensing library
For Licence Verification Library (LVL) bug and issue reports, visit our issue tracker.
Reporting issues with Google Play licensing service
For issues in publisher accounts, licensing key pair, test accounts, server responses, test responses, app deployment and results, contact us.
This includes Licence Verification Library (LVL) download and integration, library projects, policy questions, user experience ideas, handling of responses, obfuscator, IPC and test environment setup. For more information, go to Stack overflow.
Reporting issues with the licensing library
For Licence Verification Library (LVL) bug and issue reports, visit our issue tracker.
Reporting issues with Google Play licensing service
For issues in publisher accounts, licensing key pair, test accounts, server responses, test responses, app deployment and results, contact us.
Troubleshooting licensing server issues
Intermittent licensing server failuresMake sure that you're using the latest copy of the licensing server. If you haven't recently updated your code, download the latest version of licensing server.
Licensing server failing for a specific customer
If a customer experiences licensing issues while accessing your app, they might be using a different account than the one used at the time of purchase. As the app is associated with a different Google Account, the licence then fails. Make sure that the user is signed in to the appropriate Google Play account before opening your app.
Questions about technical implementation
If you have questions regarding the technical implementation of copy protection or the licensing server, go to the Android developer site.