Starting next week users of Barnes and Noble android app will no longer be able to buy digital books in the app and it seems to be due to a Google play policy deadline that’s been more than a year and a half in the work.
And it’s not just Barnes and Noble that’s affected you isn’t able to buy Amazon’s audible tittles with a debit or credit card in the latest model of its android app either. The changes appear to stem from Google’s insistence that apps use Google play’s billing systems.
Developers have long criticized apple and Google for requiring the use of their own billing systems in large part because of the so called app store tax on many transactions. Google updated its policies in September 2020 to clarify which types of in-app transactions required the use of the Google play billing system but Barnes and Noble and audible are only just now making changes and at the last minute too.
Google originally gave a September 30th 2021 deadline and then offered a six month extension to March 31st 2022. Both audible and Barnes and Noble pointed to Google policies as the reason for the changes with audible even linking us to that September 2020 post.
Google spokesperson Dan Jackson also directed us to this page understanding Google play payments policy in order to explain audible and B and N moves. It spells out that apps using an alternative in-app billing system will need to remove it in order to comply with the payments policy.
