In-app purchases within applications and games have become the main source of income for many developers. Offering titles for free with the ability to get paid within the app through micropayments, known as in-app purchases, has become the prevalent trend, but these systems sometimes cause us to accidentally spend money.
Amazon itself recently suffered a court ruling that forced it to return more than $ 70 million to parents of children who bought play items, presumably accidentally.
Then we will show you how these purchases can be made difficult so that they are not made accidentally. Simply entering a password to authorize them. We will show you how to do it below.
How to block in-app purchases in the iOS App Store
Apple has long had a system of forced passwords to be able to make purchases within its App Store, a system that can even be replaced by an authorization with our fingerprint via TouchID so that it can operate on both iPhone. But there is a way to set a higher security level for in-app purchases.
To create this additional key that protects us from accidental purchases within games and apps, let’s go to Settings. Here we go to General and then to Restrictions. There we click on Enable Restrictions and we will be asked for a new four-digit password to unlock this second level of purchases. After a little validation of the code, by entering it twice, we will have activated the second key.
Now, within the Restrictions menu itself, we can turn off everything we want to ask for the second password. Such as the iTunes Store or Install Applications. Although what interests us, in this case, is to disable purchases in the Apple Store.
In this way, every time we want to buy something within an application, we will be prompted for this second password created specifically to avoid spending money by mistake.
This second authorization will be used so that the password that allows access to the phone is not the same that authorizes purchases, and therefore neither we nor those who know the password of our iPhone will be able to access the App Store and make purchases of any kind. This way we will be safer against unwanted future expenses and, above all, unprepared.
How to avoid in-app purchases in the Android Google Play Store
Android works in a similar way to iOS, although in the case of Google’s operating system it is not mandatory that there be a password to access the device. However, we can create a password every time we want to prevent us from making accidental purchases in the Google Play Store, applications or completing games or purchases within them.
The process goes through that we open the Google Play Store application. In the side menu, we will find the Settings, and within them, a section called User Controls with different options.
One of these is Require authentication to make Android in-app purchases, which will offer us several operational alternatives- request authentication for all purchases, only once every 30 minutes or, directly, disable the option with Never.
As soon as we activate any of the options that force us to enter a key, the Google Play application itself will start a simple program of steps to configure this key so as not to buy again without authorization.
If our mobile has a fingerprint reader, we can also make it serve for these payments in the previous User Controls menu, where the option for us to activate it will appear.
Once this process is completed, we can use the applications and games without problems, and also lend our mobile phone to relatives and acquaintances, knowing that a password will be required to make any payment in the Google Play Store, to disable in-app purchases on Android.
