Building Netflix style in-app subscription payments in your multi-platform product

Straight to the point! We love Netflix and the user experiences that are a part of their service (whoever built that Skip Intro button deserves an award!) Another thing we are a fan of, is how seamlessly the subscription works no matter where you initiate it from — iOS, Android, Web browser.

3 things that have to be very clear when you build multi-platform subscriptions in your product:

1. The source of the payment initiation (billed through)
2. Period / duration of subscription (based on platform)
3. If you want to update or cancel it, where do you need to go

Netflix Account / Billing on Web

At NFN Labs, we built Vookmark — which is a video bookmarking service that allows you to bookmark videos across YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, DailyMotion and Reddit so that you can watch them later, any time on any device.

Vookmark is currently available on iOS, Android, Web browser (and Apple TV beta). This means the entry point of a user into Vookmark can be through any of these platforms. Vookmark is free to use and Ad supported but for $5 billed annually you will get the PRO features mentioned below:

1. Ability to add tags to organise your videos
2. Zapier Integration — Connect your favourite YouTube or Vimeo channels and when any new video is available there— it will be automatically added it to the new section in Vookmark
3. Enhanced Search & Filters — Narrow down results by title, description or video source
4. Ad-free experience

We wanted to make this experience of going PRO on Vookmark super seamless. Which means we need a seamless integration of payment services within the apps.

1. App Store In-app Subscriptions (iOS)
2. Google Play In-app Subscriptions (Android)
3. Stripe (Web Browser)
4. Vookmark Servers for verification

This is a simplified view of how things work seamlessly just like in Netflix. In short — going PRO on one device unlocks PRO on all connected devices on different platforms. If you want the technical details for implementation you can find them here for

• iOS — App Store in-app subscriptions
• Android — Play Store in-app subscriptions
• Web — Stripe based subscriptions
• Backend services — Connecting multiple platforms for payments

This might not be a feature which shows upfront — but works in the background and is a great experience when users move from one device to another enjoying their PRO features.

Do you find this helpful? Would love to know if you are using multi-platform payments on your product and how you implemented it.

For downloading the Vookmark apps and browser extensions visit our website: vookmark.co

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