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If you noticed, there are more and more apps which are free, but in there they have some kind of currency (gold, fake money, etc.) which you can either buy or earn for free. I am interested in this free earn system.

Namely, you get a popup like "Download and start app XY and you'll earn 5 gold coins". So I download the app and runs it once, then I switch back to app and I immediately receive 5 gold points.

Is there some rewarding system they use or each implements its own?
If they implement their own, how do they check if XY app has been installed ans started?

The way I see it, if I am to implement this on my own, then I contact the owner of XY app and ask him to implement a sample code in the splash of his app/game. When his app is started it send OK flag to my online database. Another service immediately pushes notification to my app and the app know that some user installed and started XY app. But I do not know what should I do in case there is no internet connection during first-launch of XY app?

sandalone
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  • @GrahamBorland Why do all people send me to the way to get the list of applications? This is the easy way. Why no one refers to the way I can check if the app has been launched? Am I missing something? – sandalone Sep 03 '12 at 13:52
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    Sorry, I meant to point you to this question instead: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6182046/android-detect-application-launch – Graham Borland Sep 03 '12 at 13:54

2 Answers2

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You don't need an Internet connection; you can just check the list of installed applications, as described here.

Community
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Tomer Mor
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  • Ok, I know that. When app is installed, it broadcasts a signal, right? How can I know that the app has been launched at least once? If I don't launch the app, I do not get a reward. So **reward = install + one launch**. – sandalone Sep 03 '12 at 13:44
  • in ored to achieve this, you need to use android:sharedUserId that way both application can share data – Tomer Mor Sep 03 '12 at 13:48
  • can you please explain - what will I achieve with sharedUserId? To remind, I am not the owner of XY app and there are thousands XY apps. – sandalone Sep 03 '12 at 13:50
  • yes, you can achieve shared between app resources, and that way make connection between them see this example http://mylifewithandroid.blogspot.co.il/2009/06/controlling-application-separation.html – Tomer Mor Sep 03 '12 at 13:57
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Have you tried Scoreloop ? They have a framework which can be integrated into your Android application which will allow you to buy coins, earn trophies, etc, etc....

In addition, they can (for a charge) promote your application with other scoreloop users..

Francisco R
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alshapton
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  • Hm, sounds not bad. How popular this service is? – sandalone Sep 03 '12 at 15:35
  • It seems reasonably popular, it has the advantage of being cross platform, with android, iphone and windows phone sdks. Just browse the GooglePlay market place and look for the icons with the little scoreloop logo on them (a blue infinity-like symbol). BTW - I have no affinity with Scoreloop - just a pretty satisfied user - it was easy to implement, easy to understand and a breeze to set up ! – alshapton Sep 04 '12 at 07:16
  • Copied From wikipedia : "On July 8, 2014, BlackBerry announced that the Scoreloop service is to be discontinued starting December 1, 2014 and encouraged all developers to remove all Scoreloop features and integrations from their developed games." – Tarun Gupta Nov 25 '19 at 10:27