Amazon Picks Up Bill For ‘Free’ Apps Through Underground

There are a lot of apps floating around on the Amazon Appstore that are labelled as ‘free’ but end up urging you to make in-app purchases. In response, Amazon has launched Amazon Underground, a shopping app for Android devices, to offer apps that are absolutely free with no hidden costs thanks to a deal its doing with developers.

Amazon Underground is made possible through a deal with third-party developers to waive the cost for a collection of apps, games and in-app purchases worth over $10,000 through the standard Amazon Appstore:

We’re paying them a certain amount on a per-minute paid basis in exchange for them waiving their normal in-app fees. To be clear, we’re the ones picking up those per minute charges so for you it’s simply free. Just look for apps and games marked with an “Actually Free” banner.

You can’t get Amazon Underground on Google Play because, you know, it’s kind of a competitor service. To download the Amazon shopping app, go to www.amazon.com/underground on any Android browser. From there, you can download the APK directly onto your Android phone and it will guide you through the installation process, which requires you to allow unknown sources.

Incidentally, Amazon Appstore has removed its Free App of the Day feature but hey, at least now we have Underground.

[Via Amazon Underground]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


3 responses to “Amazon Picks Up Bill For ‘Free’ Apps Through Underground”