Paid apps and watchfaces?

[tipztv]

Hello,

Is it possible to set price for the apps or watchfaces in the fitbit store? I cannot find this option when I try to register an app.

Thanks

[kverpoorten]

Hi, as far as I know this option does not exist and developers have to think of a system themselves.

However, we already created a payment system for apps and watchfaces for the pebble smartwatch a few years ago because the same problem existed for that platform. And we are now porting our solution to Fitbit.

Please check out KiezelPay: www.kiezelpay.com

We hope to be able to release a first version for Fitbit Ionic soon.

If you'd like any more information about this, feel free to contact us at support@kiezelpay.com or join our discord help channel at https://discord.gg/zbqrxh8

Kind regards,

Kristof

[JonFitbit · Accepted solution]

The Fitbit App Gallery will not provide a mechanism for paid applications. Developers could monetize their apps by offering subscription to an external service, in a similar way that the Pandora app for Ionic requires a Plus or Premium Pandora subscription.

[tipztv]

This is acceptable for companion apps, which you can charged for money in the app store. However, for standalone apps and watchfaces, you cannot expect developers or designers to develop apps for free and build the ecosystem for the watch entirely free.

[Anthoang]

Did I read the solution correctly?  Developers will be creating apps/watchfaces for the FitBit Ionic and there is no way to charge money?   Basically, 3rd party developers will be working for FitBit for free, like slaves? 

[Anthoang]

This isn't going to make too many developers motivated to make Fitbit apps. 

[kverpoorten]

Hi Anthoang,

You are correct there is no solution provided out of the box by Fitbit, but they do not block or disallow any solutions created by the developers themselves to collect payment for their apps.

This is the same situation as with the pebble smartwatch, yet many developer were and still are developing paid apps and making quite some money with it.

Like I said in my previous reply, we are porting our KiezelPay solution over to Fitbit and we hope to have it ready before the public release of the Fitbit appstore.

We are making our solution as easy as possible to integrate with your apps and watchfaces and take care of all legal requirements like worldwide sales tax and VAT for you so you don't have to worry about that.

If you want you can already have a look at https://kiezelpay.com

Remember this website is currently still 100% for pebble watches and developers, but we are also working hard on the redesign and changes in that area.

If you are curious about the payment process on a pebble with kiezelpay, check out the attached youtube video.

It will be somewhat comparable on the Fitbit, perhaps even easier, certainly not harder, it will depend on what cool new features the SDK can offer us we didn't have on Pebble.

If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to join our discord chat (https://discord.gg/zbqrxh8) and have a chat with developers already using KiezelPay for pebble, or contact us at support@kiezelpay.com

Kind regards,

Kristof

[Anthoang]

kverpoorten, 

Thank you for your reply.  I took a look at the KiezelPay system, installed a watchface on my Pebble, waited for the trial period to end, paid for the watchface through kzl.io & paypal.   The user flow to pay for the watchface/app was as easy as it could be on a Pebble.  I was very impressed.   Ideally there is a click-to-action button on the "Trial ended" screen that launches the kzl payment screen on the mobile device -- but I know this isn't technically possible on the Pebble. Perhaps possible on the FitBit Ionic?

The developer dashboard on kiezelpay.com looks awesome.  I'm also impress with the different types of purchases allowed -- trial version, bundle purchases, discounts.   I'm looking forward to your integration with FitBit.   Please keep us updated.  Thanks. 

[kverpoorten]

Thank you for your feedback and kind words!

I agree opening the payment page straight from the watch would make it even better.

I don't think that is currently possible with the sdk we have already but it would be nice if something like that is added.

[PDeshpan]

This sounds wonderful .Is there an expected time frame when the kizel pay will be available for Fitbit Ionic?

[kverpoorten]

We are currently doing beta tests together with some developers.

So I expect it to become publicly available in a few weeks at the latest.

Anyone not afraid of some bugs, lack of documentation and interested in joining the beta testing can contact me on the discord I mentioned above.

We could especially use some help from someone with experience minifying and uglyfying js code, we are trying to get the memory usage of the library we currently have down.

Also JavaScript experts willing to review our code are very welcome!

Kind regards,

Kristof

[Snaker]

Hello, Kristof!

As I see, you already support Fitbit in your k-pay.io, right?

Please, update this thread with info for future developers.

[kverpoorten]

Hi  Snaker,

Yes I totally forgot about this thread.

Our library with support for the Fitbit watches went live in January 2018 already.

And its making quite some developers a little extra each month already.

To give you an idea, the last few months we have paid out over $25,000 to more then 70 developers each month!

Anyone also interested in charging for Fitbit Ionic and Versa clockfaces or apps can sign up at https://k-pay.io and check out the documentation.

When you create an account you also get a great dashboard showing you loads of information about your own sales, and you can also see what the best selling k-pay developer is making (to motivate you )

Its also a good idea to join our discord at https://discord.gg/zbqrxh8

Its fun to share experiences with fellow developers about selling clockfaces and apps, you can get a lot of help there, and we have a special channel with tips and tricks to increase your sales.

Kind regards,

Kristof

[JTowgood]

Anyone using Paymee? Paymee has no fees only PayPal charges fees on the transaction.