I have an app published in Google Play Store using my personal email id. However, we are planning to register as a startup and launch the app under a company name. When I contacted Google about this process, they said I have to remove the old app and publish it again as a new app from the new id. That would mean I will lose all the current users. Is there a way to do it without removing the old app or linking the old app to the new app? Or some way to force the users to download the update from the new publisher link?
I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this question. If it isn't can you suggest someplace where I could get an answer for this?
Apps can be transferred to another developer account without any apparent change to the end user. But if you change the app, Id like from android.app.gekkouga to android.app.startup (which is how I think the person you spoke to understood you), then you have to republish the app which by all intents and purposes is a different app, as PlayStore assigns each app a unique url based on the app's unique app id.
Related
My customer asked me to publish a new version for an app for both iOS and Android which used to be maintained by their former partner. Now that I'm going to take over the responsibility for this app, I wonder which data I need in order to publish a new version. The app will be completely redone, which means that none of the existing code will be used.
For Android: I think I'll need the originally used keystore and key from the original partner, right? Anything else?
For iOS: I honestly have no clue what I need. Do I need to originally used provisioning profile? Would that even work?
Note: The account under which the app is published belongs to my customer, not to the partner.
Thanks for any advise!
Your customer will need to give you access to their developer account, which you'll use to sign in on Xcode. Then the new project you create will need to have the same bundle id as the current live app. That should be all you'll need to do, as automatic signing will take care of the rest (including provisioning profiles)....assuming Xcode doesn't complain about the bundle id, in which case you might have to unlist and delete the current live app. Doubt you'll have any issues though
Is it possible to 'block/prevent' users from using an old Android app?
I mean - I've already unpublished app from Play. This means that app is not available anymore for downloading.
But I'd like to restrict users to carry on using current installed app (which has been unpublished from Play).
Is it somehow possible?
Regards,
There isn't a way to check if the app is currently published to the Play Store, however you can check if there is a new version available.
From the link above:
String response = SendNetworkUpdateAppRequest(); // Your code to do the network request
// should send the current version
// to server
if(response.equals("YES")) // Start Intent to download the app user has to manually install it by clicking on the notification
startActivity(new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("URL TO LATEST APK")));
Treating your users like this is not something you should do. Users have an expectation that once they have acquired an app they can keep using it, and you should respect that expectation.
But let's suppose there was a seriously good reason for doing it. Suppose your signing key and developer account had been compromised by an ex-employee, and you wanted to make sure users moved from the compromised app to a new app with a new package name.
You could then issue an update to the app which when loaded did nothing except display a message saying something like "This app is out of date and will no longer be updated. Please move to this app" and have a link to the new app in the Play store. Existing users would get the update, and while the old app is available to them, most users would not be able to get it.
As I said, this is very disrespectful behavior to your users in most situations, and I'd only recommend doing it if critical for user security.
I have a client for whom I have made three apps for different regions (App 1, App2, App3).
Now the client changed his strategy and instead of having a different brand for every region he wants just one global brand which also means one app. He obviously doesn't want to lose the users of the three old apps in the process so my question is: can I somehow merge all these apps into one on Google Play and Apple Store?
I couldn't find sufficient information anywhere. All I could think of was to update all three with a new package but that would mean that three apps (now with the same name and same everything) remain in the stores, which would probably result in deletion.
Is there any way to do this?
you should tell all the users of 3 applications by notification that they need to download new application and their data will be transferred into the new application.
While Prashant Jaiswal has already answered it, let me elaborate it a bit.
Step-1
Provide an update to each of your 3 apps that shows an overlay with a message saying that We have a brand new version the app and current version of the app is going to be obsolete. Please install the new app from playstore
Step-2
If there are any local databases associated with your app, then make a provision to update all the user data to server as a backup which they can retrieve again from the new app.
Step-3
If your app has social media login associated with your app, then it will no longer be continued, since changing the package name will result in creation of new app, so you have to make necessary changes in your server to handle the social media login.
step-4
Make the provision to accommodate the changes of step-1 to step-3 in your existing apps so that the migration can be taken place, and once user clicks on the install new version, begin your migration process before redirecting user to the play store.
step-5
Then use this link for Android Implicit intent to uninstall application? to uninstall your existing apps once the new app is downloaded and follow something similar for iOS part.
final step
All the above steps I mentioned by considering the general app design, there might be few more things that you have to consider based on the complexity of your app and its interaction with the servers
Just so that you know, you can not merge the three apps directly at
playstore. The only way to merge the apps is create a merged app and
redirect the users.
I have published an android app in the store, however, we lost the keystore, when I unpublish the current app and try to republish another app with the same name I've got a message saying that I couldn't publish an app with the same name, is there a manipulation to do ?
Thanks :)
Every application on Google Play needs to have a separate application id (like com.company.awesomeapp). So if you lost your keystore and can't upload the application with the id you had before, you will have to change the id (say, com.company.awesomeapp2).
One small note, now the application id is not the same as the application package. So you may continue to use the old application package internally (for the source files and in the manifest), but you need to change the applicationId in gradle.build to something new. If you reference the application id somewhere in the manifest, you can use a placeholder: ${applicationId}.
The solution for my problem was to rename the previous application and create an app with the same name.
I obviously had to change the app id also
Even though your old app is not available for download anymore, the Play Store still requires a different applicationId, because some users might still have the old app installed on their devices (it still may be 'supported' in the sense that users can buy in app purchases etc.), and it's the Android OS that explicitly denies installation of packages with the same name, and allows updates when the id and certificate is the same.
You could imagine a situation where you delete an app from the play store, and if it would allow creating a new one with the same applicationId, and someone got hold of your keystore and certificate, that person could upload a completely different app and trigger updates to users with your old app. Now, that would be very bad and simple solution is just to not allow same applicationIds.
On Android I think that you can 'unpublish' an application so that no new users can download the application but that the user who already have the application will recieve new versions that are uploaded to google play (or so it seems to say here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/113476?hl=en&ref_topic=3450986 )
However I can't find any information on iOS. Can I remove the app but still update existing customers with a new version?
Just for context the update I want to issue for both OS is basically an app which displays a 'app is now closed' message.
Any help would be gratefully received.
Can I remove the app but still update existing customers with a new version?
As far as I am concerned, you can't do this in the App Store.
No, this isn't possible. Once you remove the app, nobody will see it in the app store. Existing users of the app won't see any updates that you may have published before removing it that they never installed. It's just gone if you remove it from the app store.
You could publish an app update that includes some kind of notification system within the app, and keep that in the store long enough for most users to upgrade. Then after you pull the app from the store, you could update this message (presumably it would retrieve this message from your server) to state that the app is no longer available, and maybe direct them to whatever you have that you're replacing it with (assuming you're replacing it). Otherwise, I don't see why you necessarily need to inform existing users that you've removed the app. If there are server-side components that it accesses, and you're shutting those down, I guess the app will simply cease to function for existing users.
I also don't think there is a way to offer updates without new customers being able to buy the app.
Why not increase the price of the app to the highest price allowed in the app store, so that no one will buy it? That way you can offer an update for your existing customers, but effectively stop new sales. If the new price is $1999.00 US, I doubt if you will get any takers...