Google Play establishes new purchase requests

With the age of online purchases, if you’re a parent, you’re probably keeping your credit card closely saved from your children. But if you think it’s not enough, you’ll be happy to know that Google Play will let kids ask their parents for app purchases.

Restric purchases

With this new method, Google will offer parents and guardians some tools to restrict purchases their children make on the Play Store using the family payment method. That’s why the company has implemented an additional feature that will allow children to send a purchase request for the manager of the family account to approve when there is no present payment method.

Whether it’s a paid app or an in-app purchase, once the family manager gets this request through a notification (or in their request queue), they can use their own payment method, including Google Play gift cards.

What if you approve?

If you approve a request, Google will ask you to pay for the item using your payment method, which will not be shared with any other family members. And once you pay for it, it’ll immediately become available on your child’s Google account.

Furthermore, this is a very useful strategy as you will have a way to buy digital items without adding your credit/debit card to your kid’s account, or sharing it as a family payment method.

On the other hand, it is the perfect strategy to have full control over your children’s purchases and family spending. Plus, you’ll be able to see all apps and in-app purchases children are interacting with and decline the ones that you think are harmful — or not necessary for whatever reason.

Google’s efforts

Among the most recent company’s efforts, Google has been introducing a wide variety of changes in recent months to put better oversight on how children interact with its services.

For instance, in October, they rolled out a redesigned Family Link app with highlights, controls and location tabs alongside granting it a web version. Last month, it announced policy tweaks for the Play Store, making the requirements for an app to be certified as a “kids” app stricter. Moreover, it should be noted that Google has a new support page in which you will find some helpful advice. Just keep in mind that if you wanna have access to their material, you’ll need to set yourself up as the manager in a family group before continuing.

Limitations

However, this is a feature that is only available for families that don’t have an established family payment method. Then, you won’t see the option if you already have a family payment method linked to your family group.

In addition, as we mentioned above, will only be available for paid apps and in-app purchases, so that Play Books, Google TV, or subscription purchases won’t be included. Likewise, Google hasn’t shared any plans to enable the feature for these purchases and the family manager is required to have an Android phone to use the new feature.

Therefore, will you continue using it for purchases, or will you consider switching to the new Purchase Requests feature? If you think about it, it may be much safer for you and your children to have control over what they buy online. Remember that they’re still children and they don’t have enough control over themselves.