Google Play (Mexico): buyers dismiss the purchase sheet in 2-6 s (USER_CANCELED, empty DebugMessage), over and over. Almost zero purchases

Question

In Mexico, 513 users started a purchase in our app and only 1 completed. The Google Play purchase sheet opens, and buyers close it within 2-6 seconds, again and again. We can't see from inside the app what stops them, so we're asking for help.

Setup

- Android only, Google Play, react-native-purchases 10.16.0 (Expo SDK 57).

- Kids' education app. Products: a one-time "lifetime" product (the one most people pick) plus subscriptions (monthly, quarterly and annual base plans).

What we see in Mexico (Oct 10 - Nov 7)

- 513 users started a purchase, in 927 attempts. Only 1 purchase completed, and it later ended in a chargeback.

- The Google Play purchase sheet DOES open, and the user closes it within 2-6 seconds. The SDK returns: Error updating purchases. DebugMessage: . ErrorCode: USER_CANCELED. SubResponseCode: NO_APPLICABLE_SUB_RESPONSE_CODE. (424 times since Oct 15). The DebugMessage is always empty and no order is created.

- People clearly want to buy: the same users retry minutes or days later and switch products (lifetime, then annual, then quarterly).

- They are adults' phones (Oppo, ZTE, Xiaomi, Samsung, Motorola, LG), and they are online: prices load from the Mexican store (store country MX) right before, and our in-app network probe reaches google.com, play.google.com and api.revenuecat.com.

- It happened the same way before we moved to RevenueCat, across 5 app versions. Purchases from Chile work fine.

Our question

How can we find out what really happens on that screen, the real trace? Is there a tool, log or test (for example, a test account set to Mexico) that shows what the Google Play sheet displayed before the buyer closed it?

We have also opened a case with Google Play support. Thank you!

alejandra-wetsch · Answer

Hey ​@gustavo-gomez-4f218c,Thank you for the detailed description of the issue you’re experiencing.To add a bit of extra context, aUSER_CANCELEDwith an emptyDebugMessageand no order created usually means the Google Play billing sheet was dismissed before the purchase completed.Neither RevenueCat nor any Billing Library integration can see what the sheet was showing at the moment it closed, since that reason stays inside Google Play. That's also why you see the same behavior on your previous, non-RevenueCat integration.The most common causes we've seen for this pattern are:No usable payment method on the buyer's Google account. The sheet opens to an "add payment method" state, and many users close it within seconds. That fits a near-instant dismissal.A device/account-level/card "require authentication for purchases" prompt that isn't completed.On kids/family setups, a parent-approval requirement that ends the flow as a cancel.Unfortunately, there’s currently no way to determine the reason for the sheet cancellation after Google Play sends USER_CANCELED. On our end, we are unable to remotely access any logs generated on the device while interacting with the Google Play Library. However, I did check some of the API logs we have available, and I can see that everything (configuration and offering fetching)is flowing as expected.In this case, the best approach would be to continue the investigation with Google Play to see if they can shed some light onwhat is happening. If you receive any additional information from them, please let us know so we can review it and see if there’s anything we can do on the SDK side.If you would like to dig deeper into your setup or any specific App User ID, you can contact support directly via the Dashboard (link here) so that no sensitive data is shared through this channel. We will be more than happy to assist!

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