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Enable purchases by using paywalls in Android SDK

To enable in-app purchases, you need to understand three key concepts:

  • Products – anything users can buy (subscriptions, consumables, lifetime access)
  • Paywalls are configurations that define which products to offer. In Adapty, paywalls are the only way to retrieve products, but this design lets you modify offerings, pricing, and product combinations without touching your app code.
  • Placements – where and when you show paywalls in your app (like main, onboarding, settings). You set up paywalls for placements in the dashboard, then request them by placement ID in your code. This makes it easy to run A/B tests and show different paywalls to different users.

Adapty offers you three ways to enable purchases in your app. Select one of them depending on your app requirements:

ImplementationComplexityWhen to use
Adapty Paywall Builder✅ EasyYou create a complete, purchase-ready paywall in the no-code builder. Adapty automatically renders it and handles all the complex purchase flow, receipt validation, and subscription management behind the scenes.
Manually created paywalls🟡 MediumYou implement your paywall UI in your app code, but still get the paywall object from Adapty to maintain flexibility in product offerings. See the guide.
Observer mode🔴 HardYou already have your own purchase handling infrastructure and want to keep using it. Note that the observer mode has its limitations in Adapty. See the article.
important

The steps below show how to implement a paywall created in the Adapty paywall builder.

If you don't want to use the paywall builder, see the guide for handling purchases in manually created paywalls.

To display a paywall created in the Adapty paywall builder, in your app code, you only need to:

  1. Get the paywall: Get the paywall from Adapty.
  2. Display the paywall and Adapty will handle purchases for you: Show the paywall container you've got in your app.
  3. Handle button actions: Associate user interactions with the paywall with your app's response to them. For example, open links or close the paywall when users click buttons.

1. Get the paywall​

Your paywalls are associated with placements configured in the dashboard. Placements allow you to run different paywalls for different audiences or to run A/B tests.

To get a paywall created in the Adapty paywall builder, you need to:

  1. Get the paywall object by the placement ID using the getPaywall method and check whether it is a paywall created in the builder.

  2. Get the paywall view configuration using the getViewConfiguration method. The view configuration contains the UI elements and styling needed to display the paywall.

important

To get the view configuration, you must switch on the Show on device toggle in the Paywall Builder. Otherwise, you will get an empty view configuration, and the paywall won't be displayed.

Adapty.getPaywall("YOUR_PLACEMENT_ID") { result ->
    if (result is AdaptyResult.Success) {
        val paywall = result.value
        
        if (!paywall.hasViewConfiguration) {
            return@getPaywall
        }
        
        AdaptyUI.getViewConfiguration(paywall) { configResult ->
            if (configResult is AdaptyResult.Success) {
                val viewConfiguration = configResult.value
            }
        }
    }
}

2. Display the paywall​

Now, when you have the paywall configuration, it's enough to add a few lines to display your paywall.

In order to display the visual paywall on the device screen, you must first configure it. To do this, call the method AdaptyUI.getPaywallView() or create the AdaptyPaywallView directly:

   val paywallView = AdaptyUI.getPaywallView(
       activity,
       viewConfiguration,
       null, // products = null means auto-fetch
       eventListener,
   )

After the view has been successfully created, you can add it to the view hierarchy and display it on the screen of the device.

tip

For more details on how to display a paywall, see our guide.

3. Handle button actions​

When users click buttons in the paywall, the Android SDK automatically handles purchases, restoration, closing the paywall, and opening links.

However, other buttons have custom or pre-defined IDs and require handling actions in your code. Or, you may want to override their default behavior.

For example, here is the default behavior for the close button. You don't need to add it in the code, but here, you can see how it is done if needed.

tip

Read our guides on how to handle button actions and events.

Kotlin
override fun onActionPerformed(action: AdaptyUI.Action, context: Context) {
    when (action) {
        AdaptyUI.Action.Close -> (context as? Activity)?.onBackPressed() // default behavior
    }
}

Next steps​

Your paywall is ready to be displayed in the app.

Now, you need to check the users' access level to ensure you display a paywall or give access to paid features to right users.

Full example​

Here is how all those steps can be integrated in your app together.

Kotlin
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)

        Adapty.getPaywall("YOUR_PLACEMENT_ID") { paywallResult ->
            if (paywallResult is AdaptyResult.Success) {
                val paywall = paywallResult.value

                if (!paywall.hasViewConfiguration) {
                    // Use custom logic
                    return@getPaywall
                }

                AdaptyUI.getViewConfiguration(paywall) { configResult ->
                    if (configResult is AdaptyResult.Success) {
                        val viewConfiguration = configResult.value

                        val paywallView = AdaptyUI.getPaywallView(
                            this,
                            viewConfiguration,
                            null, // products = null means auto-fetch
                            object : AdaptyUIEventListener {
                                override fun onActionPerformed(action: AdaptyUI.Action, context: Context) {
                                    when (action) {
                                        is AdaptyUI.Action.Close -> {
                                            (context as? Activity)?.onBackPressed()
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        )

                        setContentView(paywallView)
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}