Solved

Initial purchase vs renewal events on Android and Ios

  • 5 July 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 145 views
S
Badge

Hello there!
I have noticed that the revenuecat events differentiate in behavior for android and ios but i did not find a specific explanation for that. 
If a subscription is canelled and a user purchases again, a renewal event is sent for ios but an initial_purchase is sent for android. Is this correct behaviour?
Ive seen that initial_purchase events are sent for first subscriptions or if a “lapsed” user resubscribes. What exactly is a “lapsed” user? The documentation says an active user is someone who interacted with revenue cat in the past 28 days. But then again android is sending initial purchases. I have not come to a conclusion with this. I hope anyone can help me out, thanks!

icon

Best answer by Michael Fogel 10 July 2023, 18:41

View original

2 replies

Michael Fogel
Rank
Userlevel 4
Badge +6

Hey @simon-neon ,

 

INITIAL_PURCHASE events are sent when a new subscription has been purchased or a lapsed user has resubscribed. In this case, a lapsed user is a user who has had that previous subscription expire and the billing period ended therefore they would be starting a new subscription rather than continuing an old one. 

RENEWAL events are sent when an existing subscription has been renewed. So these are sent for subscriptions that have not yet expired and were successfully renewed. 

 

When a user resubscribes, the way it is treated depends on whether they are on iOS or Android like you assumed above. I will break it down a bit here: 

  • Google: If the subscription term ends meaning the subscription has expired already, then we will send an INITIAL_PURCHASE event.
  • iOS: If the subscription term ends meaning the subscription has expired already and the resubscription is part of a different subscription group, then we will send an INITIAL_PURCHASE event. 
  • iOS: If the subscription term ends meaning the subscription has expired already and the resubscription is part of the same subscription group, then we will send a RENEWAL event. 

More information on this flow can be found here: https://www.revenuecat.com/docs/event-flows#resubscribe-flow

G
Badge +3

Hey @simon-neon ,

 

INITIAL_PURCHASE events are sent when a new subscription has been purchased or a lapsed user has resubscribed. In this case, a lapsed user is a user who has had that previous subscription expire and the billing period ended therefore they would be starting a new subscription rather than continuing an old one. 

RENEWAL events are sent when an existing subscription has been renewed. So these are sent for subscriptions that have not yet expired and were successfully renewed. 

 

When a user resubscribes, the way it is treated depends on whether they are on iOS or Android like you assumed above. I will break it down a bit here: 

  • Google: If the subscription term ends meaning the subscription has expired already, then we will send an INITIAL_PURCHASE event.
  • iOS: If the subscription term ends meaning the subscription has expired already and the resubscription is part of a different subscription group, then we will send an INITIAL_PURCHASE event. 
  • iOS: If the subscription term ends meaning the subscription has expired already and the resubscription is part of the same subscription group, then we will send a RENEWAL event. 

More information on this flow can be found here: https://www.revenuecat.com/docs/event-flows#resubscribe-flow



Can you expand on this response to include the following scenarios:

  1. Stripe payment platform
  2. User subscribes on Android, subscription expires, then resubscribes on Stripe
  3. User subscribes on iOS, subscription expires, then resubscribes on Stripe​​​​​​​

Can you also update your events definition page here as it masks over the nuance of ‘resubscribing’: https://www.revenuecat.com/docs/integrations/webhooks/event-types-and-fields

At the moment, the only mention of ‘resubscribe’ is under the RENEWAL event and state: “An existing subscription has been renewed or a lapsed user has resubscribed.”

Your response in this thread contradicts this, so it’s hard to know the source of truth on resubscribe events. 

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings