Cancellations, Pauses, and Winback

Detect cancellation, pause, and winback states on Android by reading CustomerInfo. Most of these events are passive: your app observes them rather than initiates them. Open Google Play's manage screen with Purchases.sharedInstance.showManageSubscriptions(activity), which falls back to the Play subscriptions page when managementURL is null. Read the pause resume date from SubscriptionInfo.autoResumeDate.

Phase 1: Scope

Decide what state you need to surface to the user.

Backend win back campaign segmentation uses the CANCELLATION webhook cancel_reason field (UNSUBSCRIBE, BILLING_ERROR, DEVELOPER_INITIATED, PRICE_INCREASE).

Phase 2: Prepare

Confirm you already have a fetched CustomerInfo from Purchases.sharedInstance.getCustomerInfo(...) or a listener. You do not need to call queryPurchasesAsync with QueryPurchasesParams.newBuilder().includeSuspendedSubscriptions(true). RevenueCat resolves pause state from the server side subscription state.

Rules:

• Prefer showManageSubscriptions(activity). If you read managementURL yourself, it is Uri? and null for paused and account hold subscribers; do not call Uri.parse(url.toString()).
• Do not compute access manually from expirationDate. Read isActive and willRenew.
• Pause resume date is SubscriptionInfo.autoResumeDate in the SDK (REST: auto_resume_date).

Phase 3: Execute

Detect cancellation with remaining access

val entitlement = customerInfo.entitlements["pro_access"]
if (entitlement?.unsubscribeDetectedAt != null && entitlement.isActive) {
    entitlement.expirationDate?.let { expiry ->
        showCancellationBanner(expiry)
    }
}

unsubscribeDetectedAt is set when RevenueCat receives the SUBSCRIPTION_CANCELED RTDN. isActive stays true until the billing period ends.

Detect pause

val entitlement = customerInfo.entitlements["pro_access"]
val hasAccess = entitlement?.isActive == true
val sub = entitlement?.let { customerInfo.subscriptionsByProductIdentifier[it.productIdentifier] }
val resumesAt: Date? = sub?.autoResumeDate // non null only while paused (Google Play)

autoResumeDate is non null only while the subscription is paused; isActive == false alone cannot distinguish a pause from expiry or account hold.

Open the subscription management screen

Send the user to Google Play's subscription page with Purchases.sharedInstance.showManageSubscriptions(activity) (SDK 10.18.0+). It uses managementURL when present and otherwise opens Google Play's subscriptions page directly, which covers paused and account hold subscribers, where managementURL is null.

Purchases.sharedInstance.showManageSubscriptions(activity)

If you need the URL itself, managementURL is typed as Uri?. Pass it straight to an Intent; do not call Uri.parse(url.toString()), which is redundant and error prone.

Look up pause resume date via REST

From your backend, call the subscribers endpoint and read subscriber.subscriptions[<product_identifier>].auto_resume_date (ISO 8601, Google Play only, null unless paused):

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RC_SECRET_API_KEY" \
  https://api.revenuecat.com/v1/subscribers/$APP_USER_ID

Prefer SubscriptionInfo.autoResumeDate in the SDK (see Detect pause above) for display in the app. Use the REST field when your backend needs it directly, for example for win back segmentation.

Resubscribe before expiry

Google's resubscribe before expiry flow fires SUBSCRIPTION_RESTARTED. RevenueCat clears unsubscribeDetectedAt and sets willRenew = true. No extra code required, just re-read customerInfo.

Resubscribe after expiry

A resubscribe after expiry fires INITIAL_PURCHASE (usual on Google Play) or RENEWAL. Handle both the same way: rc-webhooks re-reads the customer after either, which restores access.

Phase 4: Verify

Notes

• Deferral and revocation go through the RevenueCat REST API with your secret key: POST /v1/subscribers/{app_user_id}/subscriptions/{product_identifier}/defer (body expiry_time_ms or extend_by_days) and POST /v1/subscribers/{app_user_id}/subscriptions/{product_identifier}/revoke (refunds and revokes). RevenueCat updates CustomerInfo and sends the matching webhook (SUBSCRIPTION_EXTENDED, CANCELLATION).
• Win back campaigns need no SDK code. They are configured in Play Console or the RevenueCat dashboard.
• RevenueCat sends a SUBSCRIPTION_PAUSED webhook (Google Play only) when a pause is scheduled, with auto_resume_at_ms. Do not revoke on it; access ends with an EXPIRATION whose expiration_reason is SUBSCRIPTION_PAUSED.

References

• Full chapter