Why you are receiving this

Google Play has introduced the External Content Links programme for Google Play-distributed Android apps that direct users in the United States to an external destination to purchase digital content, such as a subscription. This can include a publisher checkout page or a third-party purchase journey.

If your Android app contains a link that takes a US user outside the app to buy a digital subscription or other in-app digital content, it must not remain a simple external link. You must either:

1. Remove or change the external purchase journey, for example by using Google Play Billing, or
2. Enrol the relevant app in Google's External Content Links programme and complete the required app, backend, reporting and operational work.

This guidance is specifically for the US External Content Links programme. It is not the same as Google's External Offers programme for the EEA, alternative-billing programmes, or Apple's external-link rules.

Important: Pugpig is completing the Android app-side support for this programme. That support alone does not make an external checkout compliant. The publisher, its payment provider and its subscription platform must also complete substantial work before the journey can be enabled.

What the reader journey will look like

When the programme is enabled for an eligible user, the flow will be:

1. A reader selects a subscription or other digital-content offer in the Android app.
2. The app checks whether the user and app are eligible for the programme. Google Play may present its own information screen before the user leaves the app.
3. Pugpig's Android app creates a fresh Google-provided external transaction token and begins the approved external purchase journey.
4. The reader completes checkout on your website or your chosen provider's website.
5. Your subscription or payment backend records the outcome, gives the reader the appropriate entitlement, and reports the qualifying transaction to Google Play using Google's external-transactions API.
6. On returning to the app, the reader signs in or refreshes access through the normal publisher authentication and entitlement journey.

Pugpig will agree the secure technical hand-off for the Google token with your engineering team and checkout provider. This is not a token that can be ignored, and Pugpig cannot report the transaction on your behalf because we do not process or hold the underlying payment outcome.

The work required from your team

1. Make the product and commercial decision

Please confirm whether you intend to continue offering an external Android purchase journey to users in the United States. If not, the safer route is to remove or replace the external purchase CTA.

If you intend to continue, review Google's current programme requirements and service-fee terms with your product, finance and legal teams. Google can change these requirements, so its current documentation and your Play Console remain the source of truth.

2. Enrol the relevant app in Google Play

You must complete Google's External Content Links declaration and required onboarding, then enrol each affected Android app package in the programme. This approval is a publisher responsibility and must be in place before the flow goes live.

The programme is limited to users in the United States and its territories. The Android experience will only invoke this programme where Google reports that it is available and the user is eligible.

3. Confirm your checkout provider's technical capability

Your web checkout, subscription platform or payment provider must be able to support Google's reporting requirements. In practice, this requires server-side development. The provider must be able to:

• receive the transaction context securely from the app hand-off;
• create and retain its own external transaction identifiers;
• report the initial external transaction to Google, including the Google-provided token;
• report relevant recurring and subsequent events, including renewals, plan changes and refunds; and
• provide operational visibility so that transaction reporting, fees and reconciliation can be managed.

This is why a standard web checkout link is not sufficient. Pugpig does not have visibility of whether a reader completed payment, which product was purchased, whether a free trial was started, or whether a subscription later renewed or was refunded.

4. Confirm entitlement and return-to-app behaviour

Please define how a reader who completes an external purchase will be recognised when they return to the app. Your authentication and entitlement services must make the new subscription available to the reader's account. We will confirm the required Pugpig-side configuration and test the end-to-end behaviour with you.

5. Meet destination, support and security requirements

Your external destination must clearly match what was presented in the app, must not misleadingly redirect the reader, and must protect personal information in the URL and throughout the checkout journey. You must also provide customer support, a way to dispute unauthorised transactions, and refunds unless the customer was clearly told before purchase that the transaction is non-refundable.

What you need to do now

• Decide whether you want to continue offering external purchase links
• Enrol in the program
• Get a confirmation from your providers whether the destination supports a server-side Google Play external-transaction reporting integration, or a plan and timeframe for building it.
• Provide us with suitable test users, test offers and a staging checkout environment for joint testing.

Suggested implementation plan

Neither workstream replaces the other. An app build without backend reporting is not a complete solution, and backend reporting cannot work without the app-side token and link-out flow.

Frequently asked questions

Can Pugpig make our existing external checkout link compliant by itself?

No. Pugpig can implement the Android app integration and hand-off. Your checkout and subscription systems must report the actual external transactions to Google and support the customer lifecycle after purchase.

Does this apply globally?

No. This document concerns the US External Content Links programme. Other regions, including the EEA, use different programmes and rules.

Can we keep Google Play Billing as well as offering an external option?

Google's current programme allows external links to purchase digital content in lieu of or alongside Google Play Billing, subject to its requirements. If you use Google Play Billing, it must remain consistently and reliably available to users. 

Are there Google fees?

Yes. Google publishes service fees for qualifying transactions and installations that follow an external content link. The applicable amount depends on Google's current rules and the transaction type. 

Google reference material

• External Content Links programme requirements and enrolment
• Android app integration guidance
• Backend transaction reporting guidance
• Google's current US policy update
• Google's initial announcement of the program

For next steps or further questions, please in touch with us at support@pugpig.com.