Publish Paid Apps for free for limited time and then update the price of app in Google play

kalaichelvan

Could anyone guide me on how to publish a app for free for a limited time then update the price of the app in Google play. I understand when i publish an app in google play, i suppose to choose whether i want to publish the app as a free app or a paid app. If i choose free app then it's going to be free forever and google don't allow me make the same app to sell unless i upload another app with different package name. 

But i see some developers are publishing apps for free for first few days and then they starts charging for the same app. Any idea how to do it? i am sure there must be a way and i just need a direction. 

thanks in advance.

kintalo

sorry but its free app or a paid app. there is no way to change a free app into a paid app. ive never seen a free app go paid. ive seen paid apps go on sale though.

kintalo

Well never mind i just saw for the first time a paid app go to a free app. Dead Trigger. Kinda pissed about it. I paid for that app.

bill_in_tucson

Yea, I think you have to rebuild new app using original app settings (or improvements that make someone want to pay....i.e. the "PRO version) and unpublish free one.

kalaichelvan

thanks guys...

lorne

Once an app is free, you can never charge for it. It can be beneficial to have two apps anyway, one free and one paid, so that you have two items in the market for people to find. Assuming the apps offer a useful service, ratings are usually higher for paid apps due to users wanting to justify their purchase.

One approach you might want to try is showing a house ad in your free apps (which you can set up your AdMob settings) to promote your paid app. This can allow you to leverage the higher install numbers for something like a free ringtone or wallpaper app to market your paid apps.