I have multiple apps in my Google Play console and one of the app is very old like 5years, and I didn't updated it since then. It uses Location services in background, so under the "Sensitive permissions and APIs" I have to declare that this app uses background location, but there is also a requirement for "Prominent Disclosure" which must be done within the app itself. As my app was built on old SDK's and libraries, and I've no intention to keep this app active under play store, if I just want to put this "Prominent Disclosure" I would have to update many things to meet current minimum requirements of play store to publish newer version, which is basically time wasting and useless for me. Total user base is also only 3 users.
First I thought to remove this app from my account, but there is no way to do so and we can apparently only "Unpublish" app, which I've already done so.
So is it enough to keep this app "Unpublished" without worrying if Google may suspend my whole account and rest of apps just because of this app? Because other apps in my account has thousands of users.
unpublishing an app won't be against any policies and terms of usage as far as I know so unless any of your other apps are not in compliance with google developer policies nothing will happen to your account
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I published many versions so far. And, the users should use the most recent app. However, apkpure shows all the app list that I released.
How come this website take all the apk or abb? I don't want the website takes my applications and block the users in the app. Is there any way to do that?
Actually it's possible to do, using one of the Android features like app bundles. This could help you to verify non Google Play installation. Or even create behavior to crash/exit in such cases.
The whole idea of the approach, it's separation application features to different bundles which could installed be installed within Google play package manager. So you can check it's documentation.
Lots of android users can not access play store when removing the google restrictions, because they want apk file for install. Third party websites publish for that kind users, As well as some desktop users want APk file specially GAME APPs. I think they not Change original APK file.
I am an Android theme designer and I publish my theme apks on Google Play.
I'm finding a lot of users are basically just stealing my themes. These themes do not allow support for license checking. Many users are simply installing the theme, then making a copy and refunding and then simply reinstalling the copied apk.
This is a huge issue and what I'm wondering is if anyone knows a way to add code to ie: the manifest that would prevent the apk from being installed from unknown sources? It would be great to have it where it attempts to reinstall and then just fails.
Of course this will not 100% stop the thefts because they can likely adb push the app or decompile and remove the code but it will certainly stop a lot of it I believe. Before you just had to worry for the most part about users with root to access the data partition.
Now there are several non root required file apps that can copy apks from data which allows easy access for theft.
Google Play has a licensing service that checks to make sure the user actually did pay for the app on Google Play, called App Licensing. The Google Play Licensing service is primarily intended for paid applications that wish to verify that the current user did in fact pay for the application on Google Play. Here is the documentation on how to implement it into your app; https://developer.android.com/google/play/licensing/index.html
I realize that this is sort of a broad and perhaps vague question, but I'm looking for some common strategies for self-updating an app in android (not via Google Play, but directly from the application itself). Perhaps I could embed the actual app's APK within another APK which does the updating, but then (1) could the updater even modify itself while it's running and (2) more generally, how might one prevent another (supposedly malicious) app from modifying the updater? Any tips, links, or thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated!
I'm looking for some common strategies for self-updating an app in android
There is really only one strategy that I can think of:
Step #1: Determine that an update is available (e.g., monitor some URL for latest-version info)
Step #2: Download the update
Step #3: Kick off the install using ACTION_VIEW or ACTION_INSTALL_PACKAGE (latter available on API Level 14+), at some point when the user requests it, since the user will need to approve the update
could the updater even modify itself while it's running
The app being updated will have its process stopped during the update.
how might one prevent another (supposedly malicious) app from modifying the updater?
The update has to be signed by the same signing key as signed the original version, no different than via distribution through the Play Store. Hence, protect your signing key with your life (or perhaps with somebody else's life, if there's anyone around wearing a red shirt).
One thing to be aware of is that Google doesn't like this sort of behavior at all. Google bans self-updating Android apps...
Google has now changed the Google Play store polices in an apparent
attempt to avoid Facebook-like end runs around store-delivered
updates. Under the "Dangerous Products" section of the Google Play
developer policies, Google now states that "[a]n app downloaded from
Google Play may not modify, replace or update its own APK binary code
using any method other than Google Play's update mechanism." A
Droid-Life article says the language update occurred Thursday. APK
(standing for application package file) is the file format used to
install applications on Android.
I'm not sure if your app is or will ever be on Google Play, but if so I'd advise against doing this, as it could jeopardize your developer account.
I have just created a developer account at Google Play. Now I got to upload the application but I have a few doubts:
Can I add more then one android APKs for different applications?
Is it possible to upload an application for a testing and after that set the price of the app?
Is it possible to set such criteria where first 500 users get a free download and then the app will be paid?
Is it possible to delete an app and re-upload it if something gets wrong while uploading?
Multiple APKs for one application:
Multiple APK support is a feature on Google Play that allows you to
publish different APKs for your application that are each targeted to
different device configurations. Each APK is a complete and
independent version of your application, but they share the same
application listing on Google Play and must share the same package
name and be signed with the same release key.
Besides that, with your developer account you can create multiple application projects and provide your APKs for them of course.
No. After you have released an application for free you can not introduce a price for it. You'd have to create a new app project with a different package name.
This is not naturally supported by the Google Play Store. But you could implement this by writing a counter function that synchronizes over the web. You could also crawl/scrape your app page in the Google Play Store to get the install number. There are various ways.
After you upload your APK, there is some kind of sanity check integrated in the Play Store routine. This should prevent that anything goes wrong during the upload. Anyway, you can also upload a new APK, replacing the previous. That's how app updates work.
Your case overall sounds like you could use In-App-Billing to let your users access most functionality in your app for free, and after a certain time period has passed, offer them the full functionality after a payment.
Keep in mind that it is not a good practice to promote your app for free in the Play Store but then hide everything behind a payment wall inside the app.
Updated answer:
You need to have different package names (i.e. different app projects in your developer account) if you want to offer a free and a paid APK. It's actually a common practice and you'll find many apps in the Play Store that have a "free" and a paid "premium" version.
Very often, it would be easier for you to maintain and to update your app if the premium version only functions as a key (i.e. without actual functionality) that unlocks certain features of the free version. Therefore, you can check in your code if the user has installed the premium version.
Still, it would be more elegant to not "pollute" the Play Store with a dummy premium app and by implementing this with an In-App-Purchase of your premium functionality. Here is a good tutorial (besides the Android guide that I have linked above).
1)Yes, your account can have multiple applications. Or did you mean for the same app multiple apks?
2)No, once an app is free it can't have a price added to it later. If it has a price you can change what it cost though
3)No
4)You can always upload a new version, which seems to be what you want here.
I'd like to publish an app in the market to make it easy to install, but we're in early beta, so I'd like to prevent random people from stumbling on it and likely giving it a bad review because they can't log in (or whatever). Ideally, it would hide the app, unless you had a direct link to it.
Any way to do this? It looks like you can prevent outside advertising, but I would assume the app would always show up in market searches. You could set the maturity level super high, and try to lock down geography, but this all sounds like a bad idea.
You can go someway to 'hiding' the app, and dissassociate the beta from the full release:
use a secret name, so the app won’t be ‘stumbled upon’
use a separate market account
don’t fill in the description
give the app an expiry date
give the beta a different package name from the real app - this will ensure low reviews don’t get carried over to post beta versions
Have a look at HockeyApp. They provide a hosting service which allows you to make your builds easily accessible to invite-only testers, upload new versions automatically from your build scripts, and with a few small changes to your app you can get it to auto-update on users' devices.
On top of that you get nice error reporting.
I use it for distributing my beta builds, separately from the production-ready release builds which go on Google Play.
Just an update - the answer for most people will now be Google Play's alpha/beta testing & staged rollouts.