Google has been tweaking and improving the Play Store for years now, but one feature that’s never been implemented is promo code support, which would let developers issue codes for free app downloads. Now it looks like Google is finally enabling the feature.
A Google Play Developer Console Help page titled “Create promotions” has been discovered. The feature explains how developers can create promotions in Google Play that’ll let users download apps or in-app products for free. And while it doesn’t mention when these promo codes might be live, it does shed some light on exactly how they’ll work for developers.
According to the support document, developers will be able to create a maximum of 500 promo codes per app per quarter. Whether the dev offers 500 paid app codes, 250 app codes and 250 in-app promo codes, or 100 codes for five in-app purchases, they’ll reach their limit. If some codes go unused, they don’t carry over, so each quarter you’ll start with a 500 code maximum. Users will be able to redeem codes until the end date that you set, up to a maximum of one year.
With app promo codes, Android developers will be able to do things like give away their apps and in-app content as part of a content. This is a feature that the iOS App Store has had for a while now, and so it’s good to see it coming to Google Play as well. It’s unclear when we’ll start to see developers begin offering promo codes, but now that this support page is live, it likely won’t be long before we see promo codes officially go live.
