Google has quietly extended the refund window for paid application purchases within the Google Play Store to a more convenient two-hour window from the initial brief 15-minute window that was introduced in 2012 after months of consumer backlash over the inability to refund paid app purchases for any reason. The 15-minute window was first seen as a compromise to allow customers to briefly test paid apps, but the window was still considered too short to make an informed decision on whether to keep the app or request a refund.
Now with the extended window in place, Google is likely attempting to drive more paid app purchases by taking even more risk out of buying paid apps and increasing the rate of paid app purchases in general, as Android users are considered much less likely to purchase paid-only apps compared to users on other smartphone platforms. However, there are still exceptions to the refund policy despite the increase in the refund window, such as repeatedly buying and getting refunds for an app over and over and not getting a refund for an app after buying it a second time and getting a previous refund for the first purchase of the same app.
