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"Chrome Web Store payments are perfect for someone like me, because my Chrome Web Store extension isn't a big seller, so it doesn't justify a big investment from me, but it does provide a decent amount of side income," Johnson explained. Investing the engineering resources to switch to another payment provider is simply not worth it for me Google's goal with the Chrome Web Store, he suggested, is simply to promote the adoption of the corporation's Chrome browser. Jeff Johnson, who runs app development biz Lapcat Software, said in an email to The Register that paid extensions were never a big business for Google, and were probably never intended to be. Unlike Apple's iOS App Store, Google does not require developers to use its payment system for their apps or extensions. Google doesn't make data available to discern how many of paid CWS items use the CWS payment system and how many use third-party services such as Stripe or Braintree. These account for about 2.6 per cent of some 1.2bn installs. Among the roughly 190,000 extensions in the Chrome Web Store, about nine per cent are either paid or implement in-app purchasing, according to Extension Monitor. Most developers do not charge directly for their extensions. The payments deprecation schedule is explained on the Chrome developer website. On Februactive CWS items and in-purchases will no longer be able to make transactions, though querying license information for previously paid-for purchases and subscriptions will still be allowed.Īnd at some indeterminate time after that, the licensing API will no longer function. On December 1, 2020, free trials will be disabled and the "Try Now" button in the CWS will vanish. Google reveals new schedule for 'phasing out support for Chrome Apps across all operating systems' READ MOREĪs of this week, the inability to create new paid extensions and to implement in-app purchases using the CWS payment API, ongoing since March, became permanent.
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