Trial periods

A trial period lets a customer try your watch face for free for a limited time. If your watch face includes features that are hard to describe in words or convey in a screenshot or YouTube video, a trial period is a great way to have a customer experience your watch face first hand.



Trial periods use Samsung In-App Purchase (IAP). IAP is a payment service that makes it possible to sell items in Galaxy Store and is seamlessly integrated into Galaxy Watch Studio (GWS). That is, just like designing a watch face with GWS, setting up a trial period in GWS does not require you to learn the code needed to implement this feature.

After you have completed your watch face design, add a trial period in GWS and, optionally, test it.

Requirements

In order to use trial periods in your watch face, the following requirements must be met:

  • You must have a commercial seller account in Seller Portal (see the Commercial Seller Request Guide for more information)

  • Your customer must be able to purchase watch face apps from Galaxy Store

  • Your customer can only download your watch face (which includes a trial period) to a Samsung watch running Tizen 2.3.2.3 or higher (see Compatibility for a list of compatible devices)


About distributing your watch faces with a trial period

As a seller, a key metric is to measure and maximize the conversion from free trial period to purchase. However, the most common business model for app purchases for Galaxy Watch in 2019 was the paid app model—without a trial period. In the majority of cases, the consumer assesses the paid app based on the screenshots and consumer reviews in Galaxy Store, buys it and then sees the app on the watch. The try-and-buy model allows the user to test the app risk-free on the watch for a trial period before buying it.

Because trial periods are configured using IAP, take the following into consideration:

  • Typically, an in-app purchase is used to provide additional features and functionality that may be purchased for an app. In this case, the in-app purchase is used to purchase the app (your watch face). Galaxy Store may list your watch face as an “In-App Purchase” item. This categorization may be confusing to the consumer.

  • When using a trial period, you must set the price of your watch face to free (in Seller Portal). If you do not prominently display that your watch face has a trial period, a customer may feel as if they have been misled after downloading your watch face. Be sure to include wording in the app title about the trial period (for example, “Try and Buy”).

  • When configuring IAP settings in GWS, you can choose to limit the consumer to one installation of your watch face, forcing the customer to purchase your watch face to continue using it; or reset the trial period when the watch face is re-installed, allowing the customer to re-install your watch face continuously and use it for free.

Add a trial period

To add a trial period to your watch face, you’ll need to:

  1. Set the in-app purchase settings for your watch face in GWS.

  2. Select a test mode when you build your project in GWS.

  3. Configure in-app purchase when you register your watch face in Seller Portal.

Set in-app purchase settings in GWS

After you have finished designing your watch face, set the options for the trial period:

  1. Launch GWS and open your watch face project.

  2. Click the In-App Purchase Settings icon in the toolbar () or select Project > In App Purchase Settings.

  3. Enter the following information in the In App Purchase Settings window:



Field Name Description
Enable in App Purchase Select to enable a trial period for your watch face.
Option Select the action that occurs when a customer re-installs your watch face configured with a trial period. This option is ignored when testing your watch face.
  • Once trial is expired, unable to reuse app – When the trial period is over, the customer cannot re-install your watch face nor restart the trial period. That is, once the trial period is over, the customer must purchase your watch face to continue to use it.
  • Trial is reset when app is re-installed – The customer can re-install your watch face and restart the trial period. That is, the customer can re-install your watch face continuously and use it for free.
Free for The length of time of the trial period. The time must be at least 1 minute and at most 999 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes.

A field cannot be blank or empty. That is, you must enter a value, even if it is 0 (zero).

Item ID An ID you create that is made up of letters, numbers, or some special characters (such as . - \ _ ). The ID is used when registering an in-app item for your watch face in Seller Portal.

This ID must be unique from all other in-app Item IDs for the same watch face (you can check for uniqueness when you register your watch face in Seller Portal). However, you will only be using one in-app item ID when setting a trial period for your watch face.

  1. Click OK.

Build your project

Before you can register your watch face in Seller Portal, you must build your project in GWS:

  1. In GWS, click the Build icon in the toolbar (), F10, or select Project > Build.

  2. In the Build Project window, set the IAP Test Mode:

    • Commercial – You are ready to sell your watch face in Galaxy Store. If the customer purchases your watch face after the trial period ends, the customer is charged for this purchase.

    • Success Test – Test what happens when the trial period ends and a customer purchases your watch face. After the trial period ends, the tester may purchase the watch face. However, the tester is not charged for this purchase.

    • Failure Test – Test what happens when the trial period ends and a customer does not purchase your watch face. After the trial period ends, the tester cannot purchase the watch face.

  3. Complete the rest of the fields in the Build Project window and click Build.

A .tpk file is created and is available to download to Seller Portal. By default, this file is located in the \Users\ <user.name>\GearWatchDesigner\workspace directory of your PC.

Register your watch face in Seller Portal

When you are ready to test or sell your watch face, you must register it in Seller Portal. For more information about Seller Portal, refer to the online guides.

  1. Log in to Seller Portal.

  2. Click Add New Application.

  3. Click Galaxy Watch, select a default language, and click Next.

  1. In the App Information tab, enter the Application Title, under Category, select Watch faces and a subcategory, then click Save.




    If you are preparing to test your watch face, you only need to complete these two fields. If you are preparing to sell your watch face, you must fill in all required fields. It is recommended that you include wording in the app title about the trial period (for example, “Try and Buy”). Otherwise, your customers may be surprised and unhappy when their trial period ends.

  2. Click the Binary tab and click Add Binary.

  3. Select the Galaxy Watch Resolution(s) and Google Mobile Service option, click Upload, navigate to and select your .tpk file, and click Save.

  4. Remove all Gear S2 devices from the selected devices. See Was your Galaxy Watch app submission rejected due to Gear S2 incompatibility? Here's a solution. for more information.

  5. Click the Country/Region & Price tab and verify that the watch face price is free (or, set it to Free and click Save).

The price for your watch face with a free trial period is set in the In App Purchase tab.

  1. Click the In App Purchase tab and click Add Item.


  2. Enter the Item ID (the same Item ID you configured in the in-app purchase settings in GWS) and click Check.

    If the Item ID can be used, click Yes. Then, enter the Item Title, Description, and Price (click Apply after entering the Price). The price is charged when the customer chooses to purchase your watch face after the trial period has expired. Optionally enter prices for individual countries. Then, click Save.

If the Item ID cannot be used, you must re-set the Item ID you configured in GWS (from In-App Purchase Settings), re-build your project, replace the binary in Seller Portal, and add the in-app purchase item.
  1. If you are testing your watch face, continue to the next section, Test the trial period.

    If you are preparing to sell your watch face, complete all the required sections in Seller Portal before you submit it for validation. For more information about Seller Portal, refer to the online guides.

Test the trial period

After you have registered your watch face in Seller Portal, you can run your design on a watch to test the trial period. In order to test your watch face, you must have a supported Samsung watch (running Tizen 2.3.2.3 or higher) and the phone paired to the watch must have the Galaxy Wearable app installed.

  1. Launch GWS and open your watch face project.

  2. Click the Run on Device icon in the toolbar (), F9, or select Project > Run on Device.

  3. Select the device on which to test your watch face. The watch face is installed on your device.

    If no devices are listed, click Scan devices. If GWS can’t find your device, see the FAQ, Why can’t I connect to my device?

When the trial period has expired, you will see the following message on the watch:



If you selected Success Test for the IAP Test Mode when you built your watch face in GWS:

  1. Click PURCHASE.

  2. On your phone, click Continue.



  3. Complete the purchase of your watch face. You will NOT be charged.



If you selected Failure Test for the IAP Test Mode when you built your watch face in GWS:

  1. Click PURCHASE. The purchase fails.



  2. The watch face displays the initial message (“Free trial period has already expired”). Long press the watch face and select to uninstall it.

Track downloads and purchases

If you want to compare the number of downloads of your watch face to the number of in-app items purchased (the purchase of your watch face after the trial period has expired), use Seller Portal statistics.

  1. Log in to Seller Portal and click Statistics. The Galaxy Store Statistics System opens in another page.
  2. From the Galaxy Store Statistics System, go to Applications.
  3. In the upper right corner, there is a date range. Click on it and then set the Date Range Selection to the period of time in which you want to track your app.
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page. Above the list of apps, select the New Downloads filter then locate your watch face to determine the number of downloads during the date range you selected.
  5. Select the Item Purchases filter then locate your watch face to determine the number of purchases made of your watch face.