How to check if the user has an active subscription in Android, Google Play?

Question

I have an app with a subscription in Google Play. When the user starts the app, I need to know if the user has an active subscription. This would seem an obvious thing to do, but from searching and trying to implement it, it seems impossible?

I am using Google's newer billing 2/3, following Google's tutorials,

class BillingManager implements PurchasesUpdatedListener
...
public void checkAsync() {
    Log.e(TAG, "checkAsync");
    billingClient.queryPurchaseHistoryAsync(BillingClient.SkuType.SUBS, new PurchaseHistoryResponseListener() {
        @Override
        public void onPurchaseHistoryResponse(BillingResult billingResult, List<PurchaseHistoryRecord> list) {
            Log.e(TAG, "checkCached result: " + list);
            if (list == null) {
                return;
            }

            for (PurchaseHistoryRecord ps : list) {
                //System.out.println("PAYMENT: " + ps.getSku() + " : " + ps.getPurchaseTime());
            }
        }
    });
}

public void checkCached() {
    Log.e(TAG, "checkCached");
    List<Purchase> result = billingClient.queryPurchases(BillingClient.SkuType.SUBS).getPurchasesList();
    Log.e(TAG, "checkCached result: " + result);
    if (result == null) {
        return;
    }
    for (Purchase purchase : result) {
        handlePurchase(purchase);
    }
}

This is how I think you're supposed to get a user's purchases. But it does not work at all, both calls return null always. It only returns the correct purchases when you reinstall the app or clear the data.

So how exactly is an app supposed to do this?

Purchasing works for the app once I enter internal testing, and download it through the Google Play link. (before that subscriptions do not work at all).

*** updated So to further clarify:

I am using a valid test user, and subscriptions are working correctly. My question is on the what the API queryPurchases() or queryPurchaseHistoryAsync() are suppose to do.

What I am seeing, is that these only return purchases that have not be processed by the app. They seem to store that the purchase was processed in the apps data. After the purchase these return null, after the app restarts these return null. If I clear the app datam or reinstall the app then they return the purchase (once), then again null after restart.

From what I see, these are only useful to detect when a user reinstalls your app, or installs on a different phone. They cannot be used to determine the status of a subscription.

So my question is,

1 - is this something that just does not work in internal testing and will magically work differently when the app is release?

2 - is there a different API that your suppose to use to check the status of a subscription?

3 - are you suppose to manage subscriptions yourself in your app by storing a user preference/cookie when you acknowledge the subscription the first time so you know when the subscription expires?

Answer 1

Okay, figured it out, was my mistake.

I was calling queryPurchases() in my main activity onCreate(), but the BillingClient was not ready yet.

I moved it to onBillingSetupFinished() and it now returns the correct purchases. Everything is now working as expected. You get the active subscriptions when you call queryPurchases() after an app restart.