I'm just learning about making apps, I have a question can you update your app on playstore through an api? Without having your users to re-download the app.
Checked the rapid api platform for this issue
You can upload a new app version and release an update via the Google Play Developer API. This is often used in automated continuous integration / delivery pipelines with tools like GitHub Actions or Gitlab CI/CD.
Per default, the Google Play Store will automatically download and install the updated app on your user's devices. Users can however disable automatic updates.
You can't circumvent a re-downlaod even if it happens automatically.
If some parts of your app change frequently, consider implementing those via a web view which embeds a website you control. You can change the content of the website remotely without requiring an app update.
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I'm developing an app for android in flutter. Only some people will use it so I do not want to upload it to PlayStore. The problem is, I can make it an apk and install it to devices but I can not update it. Is there a way or a program like TestFlight that I can also update the app for every devices using it?
Without uploading it is not possible, but you have the option to upload it and don't make it publicly available.
The Google Play Store equivalent of Apple's TestFlight is creating an application in the Google Play Console and set up a release that is available for testing and not available for production (live presence in the Store).
This way you app will not be publicly available and you have to add the testers manually, just as it is with TestFlight. New versions will be delivered to the user's who installed the test application. One limitation is that the users need a Google Account to participate in the resting.
You can read about the details here.
We use firebase to distribute test builds internally, check this: https://firebase.google.com/docs/app-distribution
In the past we were able to deploy private versions of our app to EMM's (e.g. VMWare, MobileIron) and test out managed configurations. But today, we are unable to test new app updates within a managed environment.
Android https://developer.android.com/work/managed-configurations
With new Google updates EMMs are no longer able to upload private versions of our app if the app package id conflicts with a publicly available app on Google Play. For regulatory reasons we are unable to just change the package id and test because it is technically not testing the same binaries. Best we can do now is simulate a managed environment using Test DCP : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.afwsamples.testdpc
Is this the best we can test without publicly releasing the app update to Google Play? We have contacted VMWare and basically got the same answer but would like a confirmation. Uploading the app to a closed testing track on Google Play and then trying to importing to EMM did not work either.
iOS https://www.appconfig.org/ios/
Basically the same issue for iOS. Apple has kind of removed the Enterprise Developer Account which we previously used to sign and upload our own versions to EMM. The new eligibility requirements are too much. Alternatively, none of the EMMs work with TestFlight. And for iOS we do not know of any app like Android Test DCP to simulate a managed environment. I read a few github chains and Apple forums where companies are just releasing the app publicly then testing to make sure everything works. That can't be right, right?
I was wondering if there is any way to automate the building of apk and ipa file and publish them into Google Play or App Store?
The idea is customer will be able to change some image and content from website console then build the apk or ipa with their own changes and publish the app into Google Play or App Store by their own from the website console.
So my question is, is there any tools or techniques that can be used to build the apk or ipa from website where by customer click event, that tool or technique will perform the build using the modified source code saved in the server and also publish the app using necessary process including app signing.
I am asking this because I found some app builder websites are providing this kind of service where customer can publish their app by their own.
I have searched the web for this, and did not find anything to try.
Yes, there are services for building & releasing apps automatically. A build server using the right tools can build your app and be responsible for signing & publishing to the stores. This takes a bit of time to setup properly, but once setup it shouldn't be much of a hassle.
Have a look at Fastlane, their service should match your needs for mobile apps and it widely adopted as a deployment solution. You can have a look at their doc on how to set it up yourself.
As to wether or not this is the proper solution for you remains discussable. If all your clients wish to do is update images & simple content, you're much better off with a CMS. This would allow your client to update all the content while the app is live. That way, you wouldn't have to push an update to the store just to change an image, and the app users won't have to update everytime (which you can never guarantee).
I have a question concerning Android app development. I'm about to develop an app that I want to give to test users. Testing the app on my own phone means plugging it in my laptop and updating it manually. Do you know any solution that provides automatic updating for in-progress-apps without plugging each phone in on each update?
Maybe there is a google play store function I don't know about yet that lets you "hide" you app before publication and you can share the link with designated people?
Thank you a lot!
The Play Store offers alpha and beta testing, which allows you to upload and distribute test builds via the Play Store.
If you use this feature, you control which version of your application testers will receive on their devices, and they will automatically get updates.
You do not need your application to be publicly available to use this feature.
We have a fleet tracking Android app which is isntalled on around 100 mobiles.
Problem is to update each mobile whenever there is a patch release. And unfotunately we have not set auto-update.
Now we need to call each driver and follow the process of update from google play.
This is becoming very tedious as they have to go to google play, search the application and install/update it.
And the mobiles are located all over the country.
Before it was easy as Goolge play was giving an option to know the apps installed on each mobile.
Need your advice on how do we manage/automate this update issue.
Build an in-app push notification that there's a new version and have an easy link to Google Play from it. However, this does have a bootstrapping problem, and you will have to make everyone install the new version manually (as in you call them and ask them to do it) at least once. Still, this is your only viable option, as Google Play developer agreement prohibits pushing app updates through other channels.
If you have email or IM contact with the drivers, you can also send them a message there's a new version with the direct link to the Google Play. They will have to open it on their device, of course.
The link format should be market://details?id=com.mycompany.myapp, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mycompany.myapp, or http://market.android.com/details?id=id=com.mycompany.myapp. Either of these three in general should work, though some OEMs have messed up their devices configuration and prevent Google Play app from intercepting the http/https form properly.
You could check a text file located on a server or something like that and then lookup if the current instaleld version is the same as the server version. If not you could download the new apk and open it. As far as I know this is not allowed by Google Play so you must remove the app from google play