Google Play In-app Billing API version is less than 3

Question

I just started beta testing the 2.0 update to the billing library for the Play Store and a lot of my users are getting this error Google Play In-app Billing API version is less than 3.

Is this just a matter of time before they update or are some devices stuck on older versions or what?

score 77 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 11 '19 at 08:52

77

I started seeing this error when using the Emulator without logging into Google Play.
Once I logged into Google Play with my account the error went away.

answered Nov 11 '19 at 08:52

ElegyD

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Try this first! – Tyler May 30 '20 at 02:27

score 17 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 12 '19 at 05:26

17

In-app Billing API version goes with the Google Play Store and v3 is actually quite old (at least 3 years old)

PBL will check user's client version and will return this error message if their devices have a very old Play Store installed on their devices. If you're migrating from AIDL to PBL and you didn't check client's billing API version before, you could end up with seeing users reporting this issue.

You shouldn't expect this error message if you're upgrading from PBL 1.x to 2.0 because PBL 1.x is newer than v3 and it will also do this check. You may want to file a bug to the Google team in this case.

answered Jun 12 '19 at 05:26

DrPower

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I am going from PBL 1 to 2 but I didn't use to log the error message before in a way that I could see it without looking at the logs, so that might be why I was surprised by it. Thanks. – casolorz Jun 12 '19 at 15:51
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I use com.android.billingclient:billing:3.0.2 and I'm still getting lots of these errors. Even on very recent devices (i.e. S21 with Android 11), so it cannot depend on old Play Store App. Any suggestion? – ARLabs Jul 01 '21 at 14:02
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I had the last version of Google Play Store. However, since the phone I was using was new, I did not sign in into Google Play Store app. That's why the message appeared. – Jose Flavio Quispe Irrazábal Apr 17 '22 at 02:42

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 28 '20 at 09:07

8

It was normal, because at that moment it is not connected to any Google account.

So make sure you have an emulator with Google Play services.

-> Go to Google Play and enter your account credentials. After you close and reopen the app.

answered Jul 28 '20 at 09:07

AlexPad

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This is with actual users, not emulator. – casolorz Jul 29 '20 at 13:19
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Could it be users with custom roms not having the play services installed? – Tobias Reich Nov 12 '21 at 09:14
Same me I didnt realized I wiped out emulator and have to sign in again – Renetik Nov 30 '21 at 16:41
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Not true its not normal and it happens with connected google account and updated play store too, sometimes.... – Renetik Dec 06 '22 at 12:08

Google Play In-app Billing API version is less than 3

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