Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Starting next week, users of Barnes & Nobleโ€™s Android app will no longer be able to buy digital books in the app, and it seems to be due to a Google Play policy deadline thatโ€™s been more than a year and a half in the works. And itโ€™s not just Barnes & Noble thatโ€™s affected; you arenโ€™t able to buy Amazonโ€™s Audible titles with a debit or credit card in the latest version of its Android app, either.

The changes appear to stem from Googleโ€™s insistence that apps use Google Playโ€™s billing systems. Developers have long criticized Apple and Google for requiring the use of their own billing systems, in large part because of the so-called โ€œapp store taxโ€ on many transactions.

Google updated its policies in September 2020 to clarify which types of in-app transactions required the use of the Google Play billing system, but Barnes & Noble and Audible are only just now making changes โ€” and at the last minute, too. Google originally gave a September 30th, 2021, deadline and then offered a six-month extension to March 31st, 2022 โ€” which, as I write this, was yesterday. Both Audible and Barnes & Noble pointed to Googleโ€™s policies as the reason for the changes, with Audible even linking us to that September 2020 post.

Google spokesperson Dan Jackson also directed us to this page, โ€œUnderstanding Google Playโ€™s Payments policy,โ€ in order to explain Audible and B&Nโ€™s moves. It spells out that โ€œapps using an alternative in-app billing system will need to remove it in order to comply with the Payments policy.โ€

Barnes & Noble and Audible have made some big changes

How might it affect users? Specifically, Barnes & Noble says that โ€œas of April 4, 2022, with the release of NOOK Software Version 6.1, the ability to purchase has been removed from the Barnes & Noble Nook App for Android and the Nook HD 10โ€ Designed with Lenovo,โ€ on a page on its website. The company was somewhat more plainspoken in an email sent to a Verge staffer on Friday: โ€œYou will no longer be able to make purchases of digital content in the B&N NOOK Android app.โ€

With Amazonโ€™s Audible, you can no longer purchase titles with a debit or credit card in the app as of Friday, according to a support page. In addition, any new Audible memberships started in the app as of Friday will be billed through Google Play, not Audible directly. You will still be able to use Audible credits to buy books in the app, and youโ€™ll also be able to buy more credits in the app.

Google just launched a pilot allowing for alternative billing systems

You might be wondering why Google is enforcing this just a week after it announced a potentially major policy shift: a pilot program that will allow developers to use their own billing systems. We wondered that, too, but Jackson pointed out that participants in the pilot will need to offer Googleโ€™s billing system before they can include their own.

Currently, Spotify is the only named company in a pool of โ€œa small number of participating developers.โ€ Audible spokesperson Kamian Allen said the company had nothing to share about being part of the program, and Barnes & Noble hasnโ€™t replied to our questioning.

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