Google Play Subscription Localization

Use this skill to bulk-create or bulk-update localized display names, descriptions, and benefits for subscriptions across all Google Play supported locales. This eliminates the tedious manual process of editing each language in Play Console.

Preconditions

• Auth configured (gplay auth login or GPLAY_SERVICE_ACCOUNT env var).
• Package name known (--package or GPLAY_PACKAGE).
• Subscription products already created (use gplay subscriptions create first).
• Service account has "Edit and manage your app" permission.

Supported Google Play Locales

These are the locales supported by Google Play for subscription listings:

af, am, ar, hy-AM, az-AZ, eu-ES, be, bn-BD, bg, my-MM, ca,
zh-HK, zh-CN, zh-TW, hr, cs-CZ, da-DK, nl-NL, en-AU, en-CA,
en-GB, en-IN, en-SG, en-US, en-ZA, et, fil, fi-FI, fr-CA,
fr-FR, gl-ES, ka-GE, de-DE, el-GR, gu, he-IL, hi-IN, hu-HU,
is-IS, id, it-IT, ja-JP, kn-IN, kk, km-KH, ko-KR, ky-KG,
lo-LA, lv, lt, mk-MK, ms, ms-MY, ml-IN, mr-IN, mn-MN, ne-NP,
no-NO, fa, pl-PL, pt-BR, pt-PT, pa, ro, rm, ru-RU, sr, si-LK,
sk, sl, es-419, es-ES, es-US, sw, sv-SE, ta-IN, te-IN, th,
tr-TR, uk, ur, vi, zu

Verify which locales your app already supports:

EDIT_ID=$(gplay edits create --package com.example.app | jq -r '.id')
gplay listings list --package com.example.app --edit $EDIT_ID --output table

Subscription Structure in Google Play

Google Play subscriptions have a hierarchical structure:

• Subscription: The product itself (e.g., "Premium")
  • Listings: Localized display name, description, benefits per locale
  • Base Plan: A pricing tier (e.g., "Monthly", "Yearly")
  • Offer: Promotional pricing on a base plan (trials, intro prices)

Listings are set at the subscription level and apply to all base plans under it.

Workflow: Bulk-Localize a Subscription

1. List Existing Subscriptions

gplay subscriptions list --package com.example.app --paginate --output table

2. Get Current Subscription Details

gplay subscriptions get \
  --package com.example.app \
  --product-id premium_monthly \
  --output json --pretty

The response includes a listings object keyed by locale:

{
  "productId": "premium_monthly",
  "listings": {
    "en-US": {
      "title": "Premium Monthly",
      "benefits": ["Unlimited access", "No ads"],
      "description": "Get premium access to all features"
    }
  }
}

3. Prepare Multi-locale Listings JSON

Create a JSON file with listings for all target locales:

subscription-listings.json:

{
  "listings": {
    "en-US": {
      "title": "Premium Monthly",
      "benefits": ["Unlimited access", "No ads", "Priority support"],
      "description": "Get premium access to all features every month."
    },
    "de-DE": {
      "title": "Premium Monatlich",
      "benefits": ["Unbegrenzter Zugang", "Keine Werbung", "Prioritäts-Support"],
      "description": "Erhalten Sie jeden Monat Premium-Zugang zu allen Funktionen."
    },
    "fr-FR": {
      "title": "Premium Mensuel",
      "benefits": ["Accès illimité", "Sans publicité", "Support prioritaire"],
      "description": "Accédez à toutes les fonctionnalités premium chaque mois."
    },
    "es-ES": {
      "title": "Premium Mensual",
      "benefits": ["Acceso ilimitado", "Sin anuncios", "Soporte prioritario"],
      "description": "Obtén acceso premium a todas las funciones cada mes."
    },
    "ja-JP": {
      "title": "プレミアム月額",
      "benefits": ["無制限アクセス", "広告なし", "優先サポート"],
      "description": "毎月すべての機能にプレミアムアクセスできます。"
    },
    "ko-KR": {
      "title": "프리미엄 월간",
      "benefits": ["무제한 액세스", "광고 없음", "우선 지원"],
      "description": "매달 모든 기능에 프리미엄 액세스를 받으세요."
    },
    "pt-BR": {
      "title": "Premium Mensal",
      "benefits": ["Acesso ilimitado", "Sem anúncios", "Suporte prioritário"],
      "description": "Tenha acesso premium a todos os recursos todos os meses."
    },
    "zh-CN": {
      "title": "高级月度订阅",
      "benefits": ["无限访问", "无广告", "优先支持"],
      "description": "每月获得所有功能的高级访问权限。"
    }
  }
}

4. Update Subscription with All Listings

gplay subscriptions update \
  --package com.example.app \
  --product-id premium_monthly \
  --json @subscription-listings.json \
  --update-mask listings

The --update-mask listings ensures only the listings field is modified, leaving base plans and other configuration untouched.

5. Verify

gplay subscriptions get \
  --package com.example.app \
  --product-id premium_monthly \
  --output json --pretty

Check that all locales appear in the listings object.

Workflow: Export, Translate, Import

1. Export current subscription data

gplay subscriptions get \
  --package com.example.app \
  --product-id premium_monthly \
  --output json --pretty > subscription-export.json

2. Extract listings for translation

Use jq to isolate the listings:

jq '.listings' subscription-export.json > listings-to-translate.json

3. Send for translation

Send listings-to-translate.json to your translation service or team. The structure is simple key-value pairs per locale.

4. Merge translated listings back

After receiving translations, build the update JSON:

jq -n --slurpfile translations translated-listings.json \
  '{ listings: $translations[0] }' > subscription-update.json

5. Import translated listings

gplay subscriptions update \
  --package com.example.app \
  --product-id premium_monthly \
  --json @subscription-update.json \
  --update-mask listings

Workflow: Bulk-Localize All Subscriptions in an App

#!/bin/bash
# bulk-localize-subscriptions.sh

PACKAGE="com.example.app"
LISTINGS_FILE="subscription-listings.json"

# Get all subscription product IDs
PRODUCT_IDS=$(gplay subscriptions list \
  --package "$PACKAGE" \
  --paginate | jq -r '.[].productId')

for PRODUCT_ID in $PRODUCT_IDS; do
  echo "Updating listings for: $PRODUCT_ID"

  gplay subscriptions update \
    --package "$PACKAGE" \
    --product-id "$PRODUCT_ID" \
    --json "@$LISTINGS_FILE" \
    --update-mask listings

  echo "Done: $PRODUCT_ID"
done

echo "All subscriptions updated."

For subscriptions with different display names, use per-product JSON files:

for PRODUCT_ID in $PRODUCT_IDS; do
  LISTINGS_FILE="listings/${PRODUCT_ID}.json"
  if [ -f "$LISTINGS_FILE" ]; then
    gplay subscriptions update \
      --package "$PACKAGE" \
      --product-id "$PRODUCT_ID" \
      --json "@$LISTINGS_FILE" \
      --update-mask listings
  else
    echo "Warning: No listings file for $PRODUCT_ID, skipping."
  fi
done

Workflow: Localize Subscription with Base Plans and Offers

When creating a new subscription with localized listings and base plans in one call:

gplay subscriptions create \
  --package com.example.app \
  --product-id premium_yearly \
  --json @full-subscription.json

full-subscription.json:

{
  "productId": "premium_yearly",
  "listings": {
    "en-US": {
      "title": "Premium Yearly",
      "benefits": ["Unlimited access", "No ads", "2 months free"],
      "description": "Save with annual premium access."
    },
    "de-DE": {
      "title": "Premium Jährlich",
      "benefits": ["Unbegrenzter Zugang", "Keine Werbung", "2 Monate gratis"],
      "description": "Sparen Sie mit jährlichem Premium-Zugang."
    },
    "fr-FR": {
      "title": "Premium Annuel",
      "benefits": ["Accès illimité", "Sans publicité", "2 mois offerts"],
      "description": "Économisez avec l'accès premium annuel."
    },
    "ja-JP": {
      "title": "プレミアム年間",
      "benefits": ["無制限アクセス", "広告なし", "2ヶ月無料"],
      "description": "年間プレミアムアクセスでお得に。"
    }
  },
  "basePlans": [
    {
      "basePlanId": "yearly",
      "state": "ACTIVE",
      "autoRenewingBasePlanType": {
        "billingPeriodDuration": "P1Y",
        "gracePeriodDuration": "P7D",
        "resubscribeState": "RESUBSCRIBE_STATE_ACTIVE",
        "prorationMode": "CHARGE_ON_NEXT_BILLING_DATE"
      },
      "regionalConfigs": [
        {
          "regionCode": "US",
          "price": {
            "currencyCode": "USD",
            "units": "49",
            "nanos": 990000000
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Workflow: Localize Offer Tags

Offers support localized offerTags which can be used for display in your app:

gplay offers update \
  --package com.example.app \
  --product-id premium_monthly \
  --base-plan-id monthly \
  --offer-id free_trial_7d \
  --json @offer-update.json

offer-update.json:

{
  "offerTags": [
    {"tag": "free-trial"},
    {"tag": "7-days"}
  ]
}

Note: Offer tags are not locale-specific in the Google Play API. They are developer-defined identifiers used for filtering in your app. Localize the user-facing text for offer tags in your app code, not in Play Console.

Validate Locale Codes

Check which locales your app already has store listings for:

EDIT_ID=$(gplay edits create --package com.example.app | jq -r '.id')
gplay listings list --package com.example.app --edit $EDIT_ID --output table

This lists all locales with store listings. Your subscription listings should cover at least these same locales.

To see the full list of locales a specific listing supports:

gplay listings list --package com.example.app --edit $EDIT_ID \
  | jq -r '.[].language'

JSON Template: Minimal Multi-locale Subscription

Copy and customize this template for quick localization:

{
  "listings": {
    "en-US": { "title": "TITLE_EN", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_EN" },
    "de-DE": { "title": "TITLE_DE", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_DE" },
    "fr-FR": { "title": "TITLE_FR", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_FR" },
    "es-ES": { "title": "TITLE_ES", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_ES" },
    "it-IT": { "title": "TITLE_IT", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_IT" },
    "ja-JP": { "title": "TITLE_JA", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_JA" },
    "ko-KR": { "title": "TITLE_KO", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_KO" },
    "pt-BR": { "title": "TITLE_PT_BR", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_PT_BR" },
    "ru-RU": { "title": "TITLE_RU", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_RU" },
    "zh-CN": { "title": "TITLE_ZH_CN", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_ZH_CN" },
    "zh-TW": { "title": "TITLE_ZH_TW", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_ZH_TW" },
    "ar": { "title": "TITLE_AR", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_AR" },
    "hi-IN": { "title": "TITLE_HI", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_HI" },
    "tr-TR": { "title": "TITLE_TR", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_TR" },
    "pl-PL": { "title": "TITLE_PL", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_PL" },
    "nl-NL": { "title": "TITLE_NL", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_NL" },
    "sv-SE": { "title": "TITLE_SV", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_SV" },
    "th": { "title": "TITLE_TH", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_TH" },
    "vi": { "title": "TITLE_VI", "benefits": ["BENEFIT_1", "BENEFIT_2"], "description": "DESC_VI" }
  }
}

Agent Behavior

• Always list existing subscriptions and their current listings before making changes.
• Use --update-mask listings when updating only localized metadata to avoid overwriting base plans or pricing.
• When the user provides a single display name, use it for all locales (same name everywhere).
• When the user provides translated names per locale, use the locale-specific name for each.
• If benefits or description are provided, include them. Otherwise omit them from the JSON.
• Use --output table for verification steps so the user can visually confirm.
• Use default JSON output for intermediate automation steps.
• After bulk updates, always get the subscription to verify completeness.
• If an update fails, log the product ID and error, then continue with remaining subscriptions. Report all failures together at the end.
• Always confirm exact flags with --help before running commands.

Notes

• Subscription listings are updated atomically per subscription: one update call sets all locales at once.
• Unlike App Store Connect, Google Play does not require separate create calls per locale. The listings object is a single JSON field.
• The --update-mask flag is critical: without it, an update call may overwrite base plans and pricing.
• Title max length: 55 characters. Benefits max: 4 items. Description max: 80 characters.
• Use --paginate on list commands to ensure all subscriptions are returned.
• Use --pretty when inspecting JSON output for human readability.
• Always use --help to verify flags for the exact command.