How App Giveaways Work on Android and iOS
I’ve been covering software giveaways for years now, and the mobile ones still generate more confused email than anything else we publish. A paid app shows up at $0.00 and people assume something has gone wrong, or that there’s a catch buried somewhere.
Usually there isn’t. But the mechanics genuinely are different on Android and iOS, and on iOS there are two separate things that both get called a giveaway. This page explains all of it once, so the individual app posts can stay focused on the app instead of re-explaining the plumbing every time.
If anything here doesn’t match what you’re seeing on a specific deal, leave a comment on that post. We answer them.
Android: install it and you’re done
This is the simple one.
The developer sets a temporary promotional price on Google Play, usually $0.00, and Google publishes an end date and time on the listing. During that window, you open the listing, tap Install, and that’s the whole process. No code, no registration, no form. Nothing else is required of you.
The part worth understanding is what happens underneath. A promotional price of zero doesn’t turn the app into a free app. It stays a paid app that currently costs nothing, and Play still processes the install as a purchase. That’s why it lands in your library permanently: it sits under Library & devices in the Play Store next to everything you’ve actually paid for, and it reinstalls free on any device signed into that account, years later, at whatever the price is by then.
One thing to actually do: check the listing shows $0.00 before you tap Install. These run on a fixed clock. If you’re seeing the regular price, the window closed, and that’s the listing being accurate rather than our post being broken.
iOS: two different things, both called a giveaway
Apple works differently, and the two mechanisms behave differently enough that it’s worth knowing which one you’re looking at. We say which on every post.
The in-app offer
The app itself is free to download. You install it from the App Store, open it, and inside there’s an offer — a 1-year licence, sometimes a lifetime one, at $0. You tap it, it applies to your account, and you use the app.
This trips people up because the App Store listing looks like an ordinary free app with in-app purchases, and plenty of people assume they’ve landed on the wrong thing. They haven’t. The developer has set up a promotional unlock inside the app, and the free download is just the delivery mechanism.
Two details that matter here. The offer lives inside the app, not on the store page, so nothing on the listing will confirm it before you install. And the terms are whatever the developer set — a one-year licence expires after a year, a lifetime one doesn’t. We state which it is on every post, because “free” means quite different things in those two cases.
Promo codes
The other iOS route is a code the developer sends us to hand out.
Each code works once, and how many we have depends entirely on what the developer allocated for that campaign. Sometimes it’s a limited batch, in which case they go quickly and the post says so. Sometimes it’s a single code that works for everyone, which is obviously better for you and we’ll say when that’s the case.
To redeem one: open the App Store app, tap your profile picture, then Redeem Gift Card or Code, and type it in. It’s not part of the normal purchase flow, which is why people miss it. A few things worth knowing about Apple’s codes:
- They’re valid four weeks from the day the developer generated them, not from the day we published. Batches that have been sitting around have less time left.
- They work on any App Store storefront where the app is published. They aren’t locked to the country they were issued in, which surprises most people.
- Once redeemed, the app behaves exactly like a purchase, updates included.
- Apple won’t let you rate or review an app you got with a promo code.
Do you keep it?
Mostly yes, with one real exception.
Android promotional price: yes, permanently. It’s recorded as a purchase.
iOS promo code: yes, permanently. Same thing.
iOS in-app offer: depends on what the offer was. A lifetime licence is yours. A 1-year licence runs out after a year, and at that point you’re looking at the normal price. This is the one case where “free” has a deadline attached to it after you’ve claimed it, and it’s why we always say which type an offer is.
Two smaller caveats on the permanent ones. The price can return without warning, so if a deal looks good, take it that day. And if a developer eventually ships a rebuilt version as a separate new paid listing rather than an update, that’s a new app and a new purchase. Uncommon, but it’s the limit of “yours forever”. Updates to the app you installed stay free as normal.
Why would a developer give away a paid app?
Usually one of four reasons, none of them a trick.
Ranking and visibility. A burst of installs pushes an app up the store charts, where far more people see it. For a small independent developer, a few thousand new users is worth more than the handful of dollars a day the app earns at $1.99.
Reviews. More installs means more ratings, and a store listing lives or dies on its star average.
A version launch. Dropping the price around a major update gets the new build in front of people cheaply.
A pricing model change. Developers moving from paid-upfront to free-with-subscription often zero out the old paid version on the way rather than pulling it.
The economics are straightforward enough that you don’t need to hunt for a catch. The thing actually worth checking isn’t the developer’s motive, it’s whether there are in-app purchases waiting after you install. That’s a different question, and we answer it on every post.
You never need to sideload anything
Every legitimate app giveaway happens on Google Play or the App Store. That’s the whole list.
If a site offers you a “modded APK”, a “premium unlocked” build, an IPA file, or a download from anywhere that isn’t the official store, that isn’t a giveaway. Modified Android packages are one of the most reliable ways to get malware onto a phone, they break the app’s ability to update, and they’re a legal problem sitting on top of a security one. We don’t link to them, mention them, or treat them as a fallback when a promotion has ended.
If you missed one, the answer is to wait for the next one or use a genuinely free alternative. Not that.
Questions we get a lot
If I delete the app, do I have to pay to get it back?
No, assuming it was an Android promotional price or an iOS promo code. Both are recorded as purchases, so the app reinstalls free from Library & devices on Android or the Purchased list on iOS, however long it’s been. An iOS in-app offer depends on the licence terms rather than the App Store.
Does it work on my second device?
Yes, on any device signed into the same Google or Apple account. Family sharing is a separate feature the developer has to enable, so it works for some apps and not others.
The price already went back up. Anything I can do?
Not for that particular one. It’s worth checking whether the developer also publishes a permanently free version, since many do, usually with ads.
I’m not in the US. Does the deal apply to me?
Android promotional prices are set per storefront, so a deal live on the US store isn’t necessarily live everywhere, and we say which storefront we checked. App Store promo codes are more flexible: they work on any storefront where the app is published.
Is there any risk in installing one?
Not from the promotion itself. Same app, same store, same install process. The things worth checking are the ones you’d check for any app: what it collects, what it charges for later, and whether it’s been updated recently. We cover all three on every post.
Something isn’t working. Who do I ask?
Leave a comment on the post for that app. We read and answer them, including the awkward ones about codes that won’t redeem or offers that have vanished from inside an app.
Written by Chris Bruner, Senior Software Reviewer at WinningPC.
