How Non-Consumable and Subscription product statuses are maintained?

Overview

Essential Kit simplifies in-app purchase handling in Unity by abstracting platform-specific billing APIs into a consistent and efficient interface. One key aspect of this system is how non-consumable purchases are tracked and verified during runtime.

This document explains how Essential Kit manages the state of non-consumable products using an internal runtime cache, how this behavior differs across platforms, and what developers should consider in edge cases such as offline usage.

---

Internal Purchase Tracking Logic

All caching, querying, and synchronization of purchase data is handled internally by Essential Kit. Developers do not need to manage or manually query the platform-specific billing services.

When calling BillingServices.IsProductPurchased, Essential Kit automatically uses the appropriate mechanism to return the current purchase state:

• On Android, it uses a runtime memory cache populated during store initialization.

• On iOS, it queries StoreKit directly each time to check the current transaction list.

These implementation details are fully abstracted away. As a developer, you only need to be aware of how BillingServices.IsProductPurchased behaves under different runtime conditions.

---

Edge Case: Offline Behavior

If the device is offline, platform behavior may vary:

• On Android, Google Play may return cached purchase data during store initialization, allowing Essential Kit to build its internal cache.

• On iOS, since there is no runtime cache, and StoreKit relies on native transaction history, results may still be accessible if the platform caches transactions locally.

However, in rare cases where no cached data is available, and the device is offline, Essential Kit may not be able to confirm a previous purchase. As a result, BillingServices.IsProductPurchased may return false, even for products the user already owns.

---

Developer Note

Important: All purchase tracking and cache management is handled internally by Essential Kit. Developers should be aware that BillingServices.IsProductPurchased may return false when the device is offline, regardless of the platform. To ensure a smooth user experience in such scenarios, developers are encouraged to implement fallback strategies as outlined below.

---

Recommendations for Handling Offline and Edge Cases

To improve reliability and user experience, consider the following:

1. Delay access to gated content until the store is successfully initialized.

2. Display fallback UI or messaging when purchase validation cannot be confirmed due to lack of connectivity.

3. Optionally, persist a lightweight list of previously validated purchases on your side and reconcile once the device is back online.

4. Design your UI to handle temporary unknown purchase states (e.g., loading indicators or retry options).

---

Summary

• Essential Kit handles purchase tracking and runtime caching automatically.

• On Android, a runtime memory cache is used. On iOS, the StoreKit transaction list is queried directly.

• Developers do not need to manage platform-specific logic.

• In rare offline cases, BillingServices.IsProductPurchased may return false for valid purchases.

• Implementing fallback strategies ensures a consistent and user-friendly experience.