The Google Play Store may let you try paid games before buying

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The Android platform offers a ton of exciting games via the Google Play Store. Users have access to a vast catalog of games, ranging from free to paid and freemium titles. Developers who only offer a paid version of their game typically launch a separate demo to let users try it out. This can be a bit of a burden on the developers, given the resources that can go into building another title. Google is now working on a solution that could help them out in this situation, while also benefiting end users.

In an APK teardown of the Google Play Store (version 49.6.19-29), the folks at Android Authority have discovered multiple strings that mention a new “Try before you buy” feature for games.

Try before you buy
Time starts when you open the game
Get the full game for %1$d minutes at no charge
Get the full game for 1 hour at no charge
Get the full game for {trialDuration} hours at no charge

Based on the code excerpt above, developers can set the free-trial duration to minutes, an hour, or multiple hours, so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach here. While the text suggests this upcoming feature will be limited to games on the Play Store, there could be some merit in offering a similar trial period for paid apps, too, as Android Authority notes.

‘Pick up where you left off’

Additional lines of code point to letting users “Pick up where you left off if you decide to buy,” which should be a good way to get users to try out the demo and continue playing by making a one-time payment. As expected, the trial may be used only once per user (per game), and attempting to use it again will display a “You already used the trial” message.

It will be interesting to see whether the “Try before you buy” model could also be adopted for freemium titles on the Play Store. Providing gamers temporary access to locked or paywalled content (or simply removing ads) is definitely worth considering. Some game developers already offer a version of this independently, but an option directly on Google Play would make it more accessible.

For now, Android Authority’s revelation only discloses the underlying Try before you buy feature, and we don’t yet know what it will look like in action. It’s also too early to speculate on the feature’s release date or to determine whether it will get the green light from Google.