Google Play subscription tracking

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Integration overview

Real-Time Developer Notifications (RTDN) is Google Play’s server-to-server service that sends a real-time message whenever a subscription’s status changes.

By connecting Google Play RTDN to Pushwoosh, you can react to the entire subscription lifecycle, including purchases, renewals, cancellations, billing problems, expirations, and refunds — without building your own backend infrastructure. Whenever a subscription’s status changes in a user’s Google Play account, Google notifies Pushwoosh, and Pushwoosh fires the matching PW_Subscription* event on the user profile.

Note

This integration supports Android subscriptions (Google Play RTDN). To track iOS subscriptions, see App Store subscription tracking.

Integration type

Source: Real-Time Developer Notifications are sent from Google Play to Pushwoosh.

Tracked events

Pushwoosh maps every supported Google Play notification to a unified PW_Subscription* event set, so you can trigger campaigns on any stage of the subscription lifecycle.

Event	Fires when
PW_SubscriptionStart	A user buys the subscription for the first time.
PW_SubscriptionRenew	The subscription auto-renews for a new billing period.
PW_SubscriptionCancel	A user turns off auto-renewal. The subscription stays active until it expires.
PW_SubscriptionResume	A user restarts the subscription before it lapses.
PW_SubscriptionBillingIssue	A renewal payment fails and the subscription enters its grace period.
PW_SubscriptionRecovered	A previously failed renewal goes through and the subscription is active again.
PW_SubscriptionExpired	The subscription has fully lapsed and is no longer active.
PW_SubscriptionRefund	Google Play revokes the subscription (for example, after a refund).

Every event carries the same attributes:

• productID: the Google Play product identifier of the subscription.
• expiresAt: when the current paid period ends, as a Unix timestamp in seconds. Included when Google provides it.

How events map to Real-Time Developer Notifications

For developers verifying the integration, each Pushwoosh event corresponds to these RTDN notificationType values:

Pushwoosh event	RTDN notificationType
PW_SubscriptionStart	SUBSCRIPTION_PURCHASED (4)
PW_SubscriptionRenew	SUBSCRIPTION_RENEWED (2)
PW_SubscriptionCancel	SUBSCRIPTION_CANCELED (3)
PW_SubscriptionResume	SUBSCRIPTION_RESTARTED (7)
PW_SubscriptionBillingIssue	SUBSCRIPTION_IN_GRACE_PERIOD (6)
PW_SubscriptionRecovered	SUBSCRIPTION_RECOVERED (1)
PW_SubscriptionExpired	SUBSCRIPTION_EXPIRED (13)
PW_SubscriptionRefund	SUBSCRIPTION_REVOKED (12)

Other notification types, such as on-hold, price changes, deferrals, and pauses, are acknowledged but don’t post an event.

How it works

A Google Play notification carries no Pushwoosh identifier. It includes only a purchase token and the app’s packageName. So your app tags each purchase with the identifier Pushwoosh needs, and Pushwoosh reads it back from the purchase whenever a notification arrives.

1. A subscription’s status changes in a user’s Google Play account (a purchase, renewal, cancellation, and so on).
2. Google Play publishes an RTDN message to Pushwoosh’s shared topic.
3. Pushwoosh reads the purchase’s obfuscatedAccountId, which your app set to <AppCode>:<hwid> at purchase time.
4. Pushwoosh resolves the device whose HWID matches, finds the user bound to it, and posts the matching PW_Subscription* event for that user.

Important

The match between a Google Play purchase and a Pushwoosh user relies on the obfuscatedAccountId. If your app doesn’t set this value at purchase time, Pushwoosh receives the notification but no event is posted. It is set at purchase and cannot be backfilled for existing subscriptions. See how to set the account identifier.

Use cases

Win back churning subscribers: Disabling auto-renewal doesn’t end access right away. The subscription stays active until the paid period ends, and that’s your window to win the user back. On PW_SubscriptionCancel, launch a Customer Journey with a retention push, an email about features they’d lose, or an in-app message with a renewal discount before access lapses.

Onboard new subscribers: Trigger a welcome series on PW_SubscriptionStart to help users get value from their plan early and set the stage for renewal.

Rescue failed payments: When PW_SubscriptionBillingIssue fires, a renewal payment didn’t go through and the subscription is in its grace period. Prompt the user to update their payment method before they lose access, and follow up with PW_SubscriptionRecovered to confirm once it’s resolved.

Re-engage lapsed users: Start a reactivation campaign on PW_SubscriptionExpired with a returning-customer offer for subscribers who have fully churned.

Setting up the integration

Before you start, make sure you have a Pushwoosh app with FCM configured (already required for push), a Google Play app with a subscription, and Play Console admin access.

Set the account identifier at purchase

Pushwoosh identifies the right user from the device’s HWID, combined with your Application Code. The Pushwoosh Android SDK exposes a helper, getSubscriptionAccountId(), that returns this value already formatted as <AppCode>:<hwid>. Pass it to BillingFlowParams.setObfuscatedAccountId() when you launch the Google Play billing flow.

Kotlin

val billingParams = BillingFlowParams.newBuilder()
    .setProductDetailsParamsList(productDetailsParamsList)
    // Tag the purchase with the Pushwoosh account identifier "<AppCode>:<hwid>"
    .setObfuscatedAccountId(Pushwoosh.getInstance().subscriptionAccountId)
    .build()

billingClient.launchBillingFlow(activity, billingParams)

Java

BillingFlowParams billingParams = BillingFlowParams.newBuilder()
        .setProductDetailsParamsList(productDetailsParamsList)
        // Tag the purchase with the Pushwoosh account identifier "<AppCode>:<hwid>"
        .setObfuscatedAccountId(Pushwoosh.getInstance().getSubscriptionAccountId())
        .build();

billingClient.launchBillingFlow(activity, billingParams);

Note

Call getSubscriptionAccountId() after the SDK is initialized. It returns an empty string if the Application Code or HWID isn’t available yet. Google limits the obfuscated account id to 64 characters. The Pushwoosh <AppCode>:<hwid> value stays within that limit.

Caution

If your app overrides the Pushwoosh HWID with a custom value, getSubscriptionAccountId() reflects it automatically. Don’t build the identifier by hand. Always use the helper so the value matches the device’s HWID in Pushwoosh, or the event cannot be attributed.

Point Real-Time Developer Notifications at Pushwoosh

1. In Google Play Console, go to Monetize → Monetization setup.
2. Find Real-time developer notifications and set the Topic name to:

projects/pw-playstore-subscriptions/topics/play-rtdn

3. Click Save. Publish permission is already granted to Google’s notification service, so there’s nothing else to configure here.

Grant Pushwoosh’s service account

1. In Google Play Console, go to Users and permissions → Invite new user.
2. Enter the Pushwoosh service account email:

play-api@pw-playstore-subscriptions.iam.gserviceaccount.com

3. Under App permissions, add your app and grant View financial data, orders, and cancellation survey responses (plus the read-only app information permission).
4. Click Save. A service account doesn’t need to accept the invite. Access is active immediately.

Confirm the events in Pushwoosh

Pushwoosh registers each PW_Subscription* event in your project the first time it occurs, with the productID and expiresAt attributes. After a test, open Audience → Events to verify the events appear. They are then ready for segmentation, statistics, and Customer Journeys.

Build your campaign

Create a Customer Journey with a trigger-based entry on any PW_Subscription* event, for example PW_SubscriptionCancel for win-back or PW_SubscriptionStart for onboarding, and add the messages you want to send.

Testing

To verify the integration end to end:

1. In Google Play Console, open Monetization setup and click Send test notification. It should report success, confirming the topic is wired correctly.
2. Make a subscription purchase with the account identifier set as described above (this fires PW_SubscriptionStart), then cancel it from Play Store → Subscriptions → Cancel (this fires PW_SubscriptionCancel).
3. In Pushwoosh Control Panel, open the user profile and go to Events history.
4. Confirm that the events appear within a few moments.