Google will test letting Android developers use their own billing systems, starting with Spotify

Google is introducing a pilot to let “a small number of participating developers” offer a payment system in addition to Google Play’s. Spotify will be the first and will use both Google Play’s billing system and its own.
“This pilot will help us to increase our understanding of whether and how user choice billing works for users in different countries and for developers of different sizes and categories,” Google’s Sameer Samat said in a blog post. Google plans to share more information about the program in the coming months: “This pilot is still early days and we will have more detail to share in the coming months, but our aim is to have pilot developers live with user choice billing in 2022 in key markets,” Google spokesperson Dan Jackson said in a statement to The Verge.
Samat says the feature builds on its plans to allow additional billing systems in South Korea, which Google made in response to legislation passed in South Korea last year. Apple must also allow third-party payment systems in the country as a result of the legislation, and the company has committed to doing so at some point.