In-app purchases on Android without Google

I have an Android device without Google services. An app where I’ve previously made in-app purchases on another device with Google services allows me to activate these purchases on a free Google device with my Order Number and email address. What will I enter?

Enter the Gmail address of your Google Account as the email address. You can find the “Order Number” as the order number on the invoice that Google emailed to you after the in-app purchase. If you don’t keep the receipt, Google lists all Play Store purchases, but you can’t get the receipt there. You should go through data export instead:

Open your Google account on your computer in the browser, select “Data and data protection” on the left and under “Download or delete my data”. When exporting data, first deselect everything using Unselect All and then tap Google Play Store down. Then click Next Step and select Export Once. You will then receive a link that you can use to download an archive in ZIP format. Inside you will find different JSON files. Find your purchases in “Order History.json” and copy the “Order ID” into the corresponding entry – this can be done with a little skill using any editor; The JSON decoder is more convenient. Firefox can also prepare and search through JSON files.

New part numbers start with “GPA”, old numbers consist of only a few dozen digits. The app we tried this with opens a browser to authenticate the email address, where you have to log into your Google account. This doesn’t work with custom ROM browsers, but the app insists on Chrome – which can’t be installed without Google services – or Samsung’s Internet browser.

It’s available from the usual alternative app sources like the Aurora Store and it was easy to install and set as the default browser, at least for us. However, the app only recognized it after I restarted the app – tap the square icon in the control bar, drag the app up or sideways depending on your Android version and restart it. After the app successfully activates in-app purchases, you can uninstall Samsung Browser again.

(Atmosphere)