u/mbeshkin

Any suggestions on online shops in Europe to buy siddurim and machzorim in Europe?

Ordering from Artscroll somehow works as well, but maybe there are some EU based shops?

We have a kind of a dream to go for a trip with an RV.

I am mostly concerned with shabbat aspects.

Maybe there are experienced travelers in this group and could share some hints, challenges and solutions?

Thanks in advance

I would like to expand user base for my project.

At the moment I have about 20000 apps installed and occasionally used on both Android and iOS. People are able optionally subscribe to avoid seeing advertisements. Main functionality stays free to use. I have number of paying users already.

So, I came with an idea to give 1 month of free subscription for 5 registered users. I do understand all the risks, but think it's worth a try.

Would like to hear the community opinion on such approach, maybe some best practices and possible challenges.

Rabbi Jacob Immanuel Schochet in his book with eternal question as a title "Who is a Jew?" brings such an example:
A young Jewish guy from Israel on his travels meets a nice Swedish girl, marries her and then they settle in Israel.
A young Jewish girl from Israel meets a nice Arab boy, marries him and moves to some of the districts of PA.
They all got sons.
A son of a Jewish guy grew up as an Israeli, served in army and protected Jews of Israel.
A son of a Jewish girl grew up as an Arab, joined Hezbollah with all the following consequences.

So, rav Schochet asks - who is Jewish? And answers - the Israeli is a good non-Jewish person, another one is a bad Jewish person.

The story is a bit anecdotal, but it's a good example how Judaism (orthodox in this particular case) works. It's pretty appealing to my own views. I feel it's wrong to accept into Jewishness only by good deeds and expel based on bad behaviour. Like we do not accept Trotsky as Jewish (yeah, I heard that a lot).
But I found that it's not like that for quite a big number of people. Coming from Soviet Jewish background with overwhelmingly huge number of mixed marriages, I see that it's not something widely accepted in my usual social circles.
I wonder if it's something very specific for my social bubble or very common globally.

P.S. seems like the title is misleading and it's not possible to change it. Let's call the post "How we consider who's Jewish?"

I have some 15 years of experience with Android development. And some of my apps have payments for various online services. Mostly it's about additional features and ads removal.

This post will be about my struggle with implementation of third party payment systems in Android.

Short historical preface:

Apple and Google did not allow paying for digital services using third-party payment systems in their operating systems. Developers gave 15–30% of every payment to the corporations. Unless you were selling physical goods, you were forced to pay this corporate tax.

What has happened in recent years?

• August 2020: Fortnite was removed from the App Store for using a third-party payment system.
• EU Regulatory Shift: A series of lawsuits led to changes for EU app developers, known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
• Fines & Enforcement: Further legal battles followed, resulting in the EU fining Apple €500 million for violating the DMA.
• May 2025: Fortnite returned to the App Store.
• Late 2025: Apple and Google officially permitted the use of third-party payment systems for digital services.

Around the same time, Apple and Google also allowed third-party payment systems in the US, South Korea, and Japan. Developers from other countries are still required to use platform-native payments exclusively.

What's my story?

So, basically I relied on this regulations and expected that my implementation of Paypal and Stripe will go without any problems.

First I just gave a try with a Donation button, which led to in-app page with a selection of payment systems. No any kind of problems appeared with this approach for 6 months.
Then I have implemented subscriptions and this feature went "unnoticed" by Google for 3 months.
At the same time just the same approach worked perfectly well on Apple.

Then just yesterday I have a received a warning from Google, that my app violates Payments Policy. And this might affect access to the app in a pretty big number of countries.

>Your app leads users to a payment method other than Google Play's billing system.

The suggested fix:

>Remove links that lead users to pay through a system other than Google Play's billing system.
OR
Enroll in our External Content Links program if you plan to lead users in the US outside the app, including to promote offers. Please visit our FAQ for more details

I am not Fortnite in any way ;) So, I decided to step back from this fight for a while and implement native Android payments.

My idea is to allow users to have their subscription for my app on all devices - Android, iOS, Web. So, backend is pretty involved into all this story. I am working on implementation of Android payments verification, just like I did with Paypal and Stripe before. Seems like pretty much has changed since last time I did it in 2018.

Conclusion.
As far as I see it is possible to use third party payment providers, but you need to implement a pretty complex solution to send reports to Google and then pay a fee anyway. And it will be available in a limited number of countries.

I have some 15 years of experience with Android development. And some of my apps have payments for various online services. Mostly it's about additional features and ads removal.

This post will be about my struggle with implementation of third party payment systems in Android.

Short historical preface:

Apple and Google did not allow paying for digital services using third-party payment systems in their operating systems. Developers gave 15–30% of every payment to the corporations. Unless you were selling physical goods, you were forced to pay this corporate tax.

What has happened in recent years?

• August 2020: Fortnite was removed from the App Store for using a third-party payment system.
• EU Regulatory Shift: A series of lawsuits led to changes for EU app developers, known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
• Fines & Enforcement: Further legal battles followed, resulting in the EU fining Apple €500 million for violating the DMA.
• May 2025: Fortnite returned to the App Store.
• Late 2025: Apple and Google officially permitted the use of third-party payment systems for digital services.

Around the same time, Apple and Google also allowed third-party payment systems in the US, South Korea, and Japan. Developers from other countries are still required to use platform-native payments exclusively.

What's my story?

So, basically I relied on this regulations and expected that my implementation of Paypal and Stripe will go without any problems.

First I just gave a try with a Donation button, which led to in-app page with a selection of payment systems. No any kind of problems appeared with this approach for 6 months.
Then I have implemented subscriptions and this feature went "unnoticed" by Google for 3 months.
At the same time just the same approach worked perfectly well on Apple.

Then just yesterday I have a received a warning from Google, that my app violates Payments Policy. And this might affect access to the app in a pretty big number of countries.

>Your app leads users to a payment method other than Google Play's billing system.

The suggested fix:

>Remove links that lead users to pay through a system other than Google Play's billing system.
OR
Enroll in our External Content Links program if you plan to lead users in the US outside the app, including to promote offers. Please visit our FAQ for more details

I am not Fortnite in any way ;) So, I decided to step back from this fight for a while and implement native Android payments.

My idea is to allow users to have their subscription for my app on all devices - Android, iOS, Web. So, backend is pretty involved into all this story. I am working on implementation of Android payments verification, just like I did with Paypal and Stripe before. Seems like pretty much has changed since last time I did it in 2018.

Conclusion.
As far as I see it is possible to use third party payment providers, but you need to implement a pretty complex solution to send reports to Google and then pay a fee anyway. And it will be available in a limited number of countries.