I don't quite see your point here. I mentioned that getting paid content from an iOS app was possible with some Android apps; I never said all. This didn't involve gifting the app at all. The app is free in the Android Play Store and costs $.99 in the iOS App Store. I bought the app on iOS, then bought additional paid content within the app. I then switched to Android, downloaded the free app from the Play Store, logged in with my credentials from the iOS app, and had access to the paid content from the iOS app on my Android devices. I still use the app to this day (almost four years later).
While you shared your experience, it doesn't seem like you downloaded every paid app on Android to see if you could migrate it to iOS to know whether or not this would be impossible with all Android apps. If I had bought paid content within this same Android app, I would have access to that paid content on iOS. Are you saying that my experience didn't happen and that I am lying about this?
The only paid content that transfers is those tied to an account system. Words with friends in app purchases are tied to your zynga account so they transfer. That applies to any platform those apps support. Nothing else transfers. You have to contact the developer for a iTunes gift purchase or an apk on android if they want to take that risk. You cannot gift on android or add a purchase to an account.
You don't need to download the whole app store to know that. What I stated is pretty cut and dry.
In app purchases tied to Google Accounts won't transfer. the same way those tied to your iTunes account won't from iOS, or from a Microsoft Account, or from a Samsung Account (Samsung Apps), or from Amazon app Store.
Games often use their own account system for saves and IAP so what you say doesn't surprise me. I didn't dispute that. I added elaboration to the issue.
Going to iOS is easy cause iTunes allow devs to gift the it apps to people who migrate. Going to Android from iOS will leave you repurchasing anything that is tied to the iTunes account and not a service account in that app.
In other words. If you had to pay up front for the app on iOS good luck. Some IAP are transferable.
I've moved platforms 5-6 (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry) times and have become quite familiar with what moves from platform to platform and the limitations inherent in each migration.
On Samsung devices you can sometimes buy a cheap app from Samsung Apps to unlock the new free version with tons of IAP to get full functionality. It can save you dozens of dollars for some expensive apps.
Sent from my Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk