NEW: Google has shared details on its new external offers program, the program they created to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act.

Google announced yesterday they would launch a program that would allow "developers of Play-distributed apps to directly lead users in the EEA outside the app, including to promote offers."

Today, a help center article detailing this program has gone live. Here are the key details:

- If you develop an app for mobile, tablet, Chrome OS, Android TV, or Wear OS that's distributed to users in the European Economic Area via Google Play, you can now opt into the external offers program, provided you meet the program requirements. There's a bunch of requirements you need to comply with listed on the help center article, but some of the more notable ones include:

a) Integrating the external offers API to direct users outside the app so Google can show the info screen and get reported of applicable transactions.

b) Provide customer support, refund methods, and a process to dispute unauthorized transcations for users completing external transactions.

c) Clearly inform the user about the destination page and purpose, with a URL that doesn't have additional parameters. You also cannot pre-populate data from your app.

d) Pay Google any applicable fees for transactions that are concluded outside the app following the external offer. This is the biggest point.

There are two separate fees associated with this program:

Initial acquisition fee: 5% for auto-renewing subscriptions and 10% for other offers of in-app digital features or services. This is a time-limited fee lasting two years to "reflect that Play is charging only for value it provided in facilitating the initial acquistion of the user through Play" (see below for more info).

Ongoing services fee: 7% for auto-renewing subscriptions and 17% for other offers of in-app digital features and services

Two years after initial acquisition period, developers can choose to discontinue Play's ongoing services for their app so long as the user consents. User consent is required because opting out means that ongoing services provided by Play such as "parental controls, security scanning, fraud prevention, and continuous app updates" will no longer be available for that app, however the associated fees won't apply to those users. Developers will still be responsible for reporting transactions for users who do not opt out on receiving ongoing services from Play.

Google says that these fees reflect the value provided by Android and Play to developers. Google argues that their service fees are not mere payment processing fees, as Play provides additional features and tools for developers and users.

- You can continue to use Google Play's billing system while participating in the external offers program.

Here's a chart from Google that demonstrates how a hypothetical app that uses both Google Play's billing system and the external offers program might be impacted:

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