MELANCHOLY404 TECHNOLOGY

Unlike the past when you had to pay a few bucks for high-end smartphone games, most of the them are free these days, but there are a lot of strings attached to them. Most of these games come with in-app purchases using which you can buy gold, money or special products with which you can make the game a bit easier.

A few years back, there was this famous incident where a 5-year-old kid spent around 1,710 Pounds (approx. $2640) while playing a game. Depending upon local laws, there might be a way to claim that back, but it’s always better to be on a safer side. Therefore, today I am going to show you can protect your money and restrict in-app purchases on Android, iOS and Windows smartphones.

On iOS, you get a password prompt while installing an app from the App Store. But there are no warnings while making an in-app purchase. However, there’s a setting from where you can disable this.

Open iOS Settings and navigate to General–>Restrictions. On the Restrictions page, turn on the Enable Restrictions option. You will be asked to enter the iPhone security lock code, or set up a new code if you are not using one.

  

Here, scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will find the option In-App Purchases and switch it off. This will ensure that you don’t make any in-app purchases in the future. In case you really want to make a payment, turn it on for that time.

Unlike iOS, in-app purchases cannot be completely disabled on Android. But you can give them the extra layer of security by forcing Play Store to ask for password authentication for every purchase. To make these changes, launch Play Store and tap the hamburger icon on the top-left to open the sidebar.

  

Navigate to Settings and select the option Require authentication for purchases. Here, tap on the option For all app purchases through Google Play on this device. Finally, enter your Google credentials to make the changes permanent.

  

Just like Android, you cannot completely disable the option. But you can set a custom PIN that would need to be entered before any purchase is confirmed on an app. On the Store, tap the settings option and select PIN. The phone will ask you to create a wallet PIN.

Once you setup the 4-digit PIN and confirm it, enable the option to use it as a wallet PIN to protect your in-app purchases. From now on, you will be asked to enter the wallet PIN every time you are making an in-app purchase.

So that was how you can put a leash to in-app purchases on your devices and stay stress-free when your kid is playing a game on it.