Glossary · Billing
What is account hold (Google Play)?
Account hold (Google Play)
Account hold is the Google Play state that follows a payment decline and any grace period. The customer loses access to the subscription while Google keeps trying to collect payment. If the payment is fixed, the subscription becomes active again. If the hold ends with the problem unresolved, the subscription expires. By default the hold lasts 60 days minus the grace period.
Google's recovery period has two parts: a grace period, where the customer keeps access, and then an account hold, where they do not. By default every auto-renewing base plan has account hold enabled, and its length is 60 days minus the grace period. You can shorten it or turn it off in Play Console, but shorter lengths can reduce the number of subscriptions recovered. Google sends the real-time notification SUBSCRIPTION_ON_HOLD when a subscription enters the hold, and SUBSCRIPTION_RECOVERED when it is fixed.
During the hold your app must block access, but it should still handle cancellations. If the customer repurchases during the hold, Google issues a new purchase token for the new purchase. If they fix the payment method instead, the purchase token stays the same and the billing date moves to the day of recovery.
For testing, Google shortens the hold to 10 minutes for license testers. RevenueDot reads the purchase from the Google Play Developer API after each notification, so the hold appears as access ended with a billing issue, which REST API v2 reports as in_billing_retry.
Sources: Android Developers: Subscription lifecycle · Play Console Help: Create and manage subscriptions · Android Developers: Real-time developer notifications reference · Android Developers: Test your Play Billing Library integration
FAQ
Account hold (Google Play): questions people ask
What is the difference between grace period and account hold?
In a grace period the customer keeps access while Google retries payment. In account hold they lose access, and Google keeps retrying. The grace period comes first.
How long is the default account hold?
60 days minus the length of the grace period. You can change it in Play Console.
Does the App Store have an account hold?
No. Apple calls the retry phase billing retry, and the customer has no access in it unless you enabled a billing grace period.
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