How do I transfer my purchase to a new device?
In-app purchases in PianoMeter are linked to your email/account with Google or Apple, not to any device. PianoMeter can be installed/unlocked on as many devices as you own and are logged in on. If PianoMeter doesn’t unlock on its own when you first open the app, you can force a license check by visiting the Upgrade page (requires an internet connection). On iOS there is also a button at the bottom of the Upgrade page to “Restore purchases”. On Android the license check happens automatically.
I bought PianoMeter on Android. Can I transfer my license to iOS?
Unfortunately, no. In-app purchases on Android and iOS are linked exclusively to your Google or Apple accounts. There are multiple reasons I can’t transfer a license from Android to iOS or vice versa.
- Apple and Google don’t play nice with each other, and it’s explicitly against their terms of service for me to unlock functionality on one platform for payments on a different platform.
- The Android and iOS apps really are different products. Both are the result of separate long and expensive development process, and both need separate ongoing maintenance.
- There are also technical limitations that prevent me from manually verifying purchases on both platforms and giving refunds. I have very limited access to the financials (especially on Apple) and for privacy reasons I don’t have identifying information on people who make in-app purchases.
That said, one thing I can do for pro users who are switching platforms to soften the financial impact is to give them a “promo code” for a 1-year subscription to the Pro version. I’m happy to do this on the honor system as long as it doesn’t get out of hand.
Another option I highly recommend, especially for professionals, is to just keep your old Android or iOS device and use it as a dedicated tuning device instead of relying on your new smart phone.
Why is the app advertised as “Free” when it actually requires in-app purchases?
This is probably my biggest annoyance with the Google Play Store, and one of my biggest regrets with how I set up the app. Google gives you two choices when you list a new app. You can list it for “free” and offer in-app purchases for upgrades, or you can charge upfront to install (and also potentially offer in-app purchases). I wanted there to be a way for people to evaluate whether the app would work on their device before making a large purchase, so I chose the “Free” version. That was an irreversible choice. Google doesn’t allow me to switch.
Unfortunately the way Google markets apps, it’s very hard for me to make it clear that the app is not free. I put it front and center in the description (2nd and 3rd sentences) but Google now buries the description in the mobile version of the Play Store. And I added a popup when people first open the app, but by that time they’ve already invested time into installing it, so the popup feels like more of a “gotcha”. And unfortunately there’s no way for me to change the “Free” that Google puts on the button to install the app or influence their marketing strategy.
TLDR: I’m sorry to people who feel mislead about the app’s pricing. I’m really trying to be as upfront as possible, but there are things I can’t change.
Why isn’t the cost of upgrading from Plus to Pro prorated on iOS?
On Android, the cost of upgrading from Plus to Pro is prorated by the cost of Plus. It costs $25 to upgrade to Plus, or $300 to upgrade to Pro, or $275 to upgrade from Plus to Pro. Unfortunately this pricing structure isn’t possible on iOS because unlike Android, which lets me choose a custom price of $275, Apple only allows me to choose pricing tiers of either $250 or $300.
If you want to upgrade from Plus to Pro on iOS, the best method I’ve found is to request a refund for the Plus purchase and then purchase the Pro directly. Specific directions for how to do this are at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204084. Basically you sign into reportaproblem.apple.com, tap or click “I’d like to,” then choose “Request a refund.” For the reason, choose “Other”, and then explain that the app has two overlapping products, and you’d like to purchase the second one instead. Apple is pretty good at responding to these requests. (If they don’t respond favorably, you can also take it up with their human customer service.)
Why the rename from “Easy Piano Tuner” to “PianoMeter”
Two main reasons were:
- The name “Easy Piano Tuner” didn’t fit under the icon on most device screens, which usually only show up to 9 or 10 characters. It was showing up as “Easy Pia…”
- A large proportion of app downloads are in non-English speaking countries. When I started doing translations for localization I discovered that “Easy” didn’t translate well, and carried negative connotations in some languages (cheap, unsophisticated, etc.) The name PianoMeter translates quite well, thanks to the Metric System and words like “Voltmeter”.
Why is the cost of the app so high/low?
When I started tuning pianos regularly I was in college, and I remember the pain of having to pay around US$900 for a tuning app at a time when I could least afford it. For that reason I have tried to keep the cost of this app relatively low, and even added a lower-cost version with limited-functionality specifically for hobbyists and people starting out in the business. Even so, I occasionally receive complaints (sometimes in the form of one-star reviews) asking why the app costs so much or even complaining that the full functionality it isn’t free. While I think most people realize that developers need to get paid for their work, I think there may be a disconnect on a few issues:
- The amount of time and money it actually takes to develop a quality app.
- How much more complicated a piano tuning app is vs. a generic guitar tuning app.
- How small the niche market is for a piano tuning app vs. other tuning apps.
- The amount of maintenance apps require to keep them from becoming obsolete on future generations of devices.
To give an idea of what this app took to develop, I started working on this as a “spare time” project in 2014, launched the app in 2017, and have been working on improvements, maintenance, and new features since then. Over the years I’ve put thousands of hours into the project as well as a lot of my own money, which (as of Jan 2019) hasn’t yet been fully paid back with app revenue. I guess I don’t want people thinking of me as some guy with a top hat and monocle looking for ways to enlarge his pile of cash 🙂