In 2010, Google changed its Android app refund policy from 24 hours to 15 minutes. But Android Police have discovered that this 15 minute windows is actually more like two hours, and we have confined this to be the case.
Unlike Apple’s App Store, you can opt to get a refund for any Google Play app for 15 minutes after purchase. Google says it advertises this 15 minute ‘refund window’ as that is what they guarantee to the user, although this is sometimes extended to take into account download times. This makes sense, as some apps and games are very large and can take time to download. We’ve experimented, however, and file size and download size seem to have no effect on the ‘refund window’, which remains open for approximately two hours.
It’s unclear why Google is doing this. Android Police speculate that it could be a test, and that this could be a new policy it’ll announce soon. However, it could also be an unofficial ‘safety net’ for users, as there are other factors that could affect your ability to use the 15 minute refund window, like loss of signal for some reason. Whatever the reason, at the moment, it seems like you may have longer than you thought to test out a premium app or game on your Android device.
Source: Android Police
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