We are going to do a major update to an mobile app (both iOS and Android). When we do this update, we need to prevent the existing user using the older version anymore (in case if the new version is not auto updated) as some features might not work with the server update.
Is there any options in iOS and Andorid developer centers (for that app info) to mark that older version as cannot be used any more or to atleaset notify the users that they have to install the latest version when they try to use that app(incase they have switched off auto updates)
I have seen there are options to do it from the code by comparing it with the existing version and to notify the user. But since we have not implemented any such mechanism in our apps which is currently in the App stores, I don't think we can do the code based option for this version. That's why we are looking for other options like doing it though App store confugration etc..
Unfortunately, there is no solid solution for this issue.
One workaround if your app make any API calls, you can modify the response to let user know whey need to update the app. Or else, perhaps you can send a push notification to let existing user know they need to update the app.
Futhermore, you might need to implement force update mechanism, which is basically check user's current version with your latest app version, so you will know which version they are currently using. There are a few ways to do this:
Server side: You need to send app version to server and if it is not latest version, stop user and force user to go to AppStore/Playstore to update.
If you are using Firebase, you can take a look at Firebase Remote Config. I have not used it but I believe it would work.
Related
I have been looking for a while to send a message to a user when there is a new version of the app is released. When I upload a new version to the Appstore or GooglePlay a message should appear when the user opens the app, but does not have the latest version that will allow user to easily update the app.
Do you guys have any solution for this? It`s for IOS and android.
There are several ways to approach that problem.
Send remote notification for each user about new version being available. Problem with this solution is you have to get user's permission first, but it will be definitely the most convenient one to use.
In-App updates:
For Android: https://developer.android.com/guide/playcore/in-app-updates
For iOS: you will have to build similar logic on your own. You will need a server-side logic - just a file exposing latest version string. Then on iOS when user is launching the application, you can compare users version with that file - and if it's different, show a custom popup telling user there is a new version available and link to AppStore.
Problem here is that user has to launch the old version - which will not give you similar results as remote notifications, which will be shown without user opening the application.
I think the best solution would be to do both and cover all cases. Remote notifications will be definitely nicer way to do that for users that allows you to do so, rest of the users will be notified inside application itself. Just make sure to not notify user about update each time they open the application if they don't update it - best approach here will be to do it once per version maybe or even better make your version file to define it update is something really crucial and should trigger a popup.
I'm about to publish my first app on google play and I'm a little bit lost on how to manage my app version. I have my frontend app written with react native and I have a backend server built with spring boot.
In my backend I have my version number which is incremented on each build release.
My problem is that I don't know how to manage versioning in the react-native part: there's a version tag in package.json and I read here that I should increment versionCode in AndroidManifest file.
To summarize here are my questions:
1/ Should version in my backend, in package.json and in manifest file be always the same ?
2/ Is there a way to force user to update the app when I publish a new update on google play?
3/ When I publish a new version of the app, does users need to download full app size or there's a way to allow them to just download a partial size?
4/ If there's a mismatch between frontend and backend versions, users can perform actions or call some apis that aren't available anymore in my server, how can I prevent this to happen?
I know I asked many questions in one but as I said that's the first time I publish to google play and I wanted to separate my question on 4 parts to be more clear.
1/ Should version in my backend, in package.json and in manifest file
be always the same ?
No, they can be but practically it doesn't make sense. Your app might need a hot fix or you can implement features which don't require backend changes. The app version can then be changed independently.
2/ Is there a way to force user to update the app when I publish a new update on google play?
There is. You can either do this manually by sending a request to some endpoint at your backend and check if the apps version number is smaller than the version that your API returns. If it is, act accordingly in your app, e.g. show a message or prevent the user from using the app until they update.
Alternatively, you can uses In-app updates from the play-core library.
3/ When I publish a new version of the app, does users need to download full app size or there's a way to allow them to just download a partial size?
The Play store handles this automatically. Allthough I don't know for sure if it's a full redownload or a partial one.
4/ If there's a mismatch between frontend and backend versions, users can perform actions or call some apis that aren't available anymore in my server, how can I prevent this to happen?
To prevent such issues, you should familiarize yourself with the concept of API versioning. In short: If your API update introduces breaking changes, you should create a new version of it at a different endpoint in order to support backwards compatibility.
E.g.:
http://api.example.com/v1
http://api.example.com/v2
...
PROBLEM
I want to make sure that user of my app is not using a really old version of my app. Just like it happens in WhatsApp that if you are using an outdated version it shows a message that current version has become obsolete, update your app from playstore. I want to achieve this kind of behavior in my app too.
Way I thought to achieve this
To achieve this behavior I thought of hitting a web service at start of app which will give latest version number of app available in response. That version number will be updated manually in backend on new update release, and in app I will get the current installed version of my app through code(if possible) and compare it with the version returned from web service. Web service will also return minimum install version required. So comparing with it I will show user dialog for updating app from play store.
This is what I thought to achieve this behavior. I want to know if this is correct way of doing this and if not please suggest me more appropriate way of achieving this behavior.
Thanks
Yes, this is the correct approach.
If your app is using a web service, but not for everything, you can consider to only show the dialog if the service needs top be used. This minimizes the number of unnessecary requests to the server.
Normal is: Client sends request and own version number. Server checks version number. If it is recent enough, it handles the request, otherwise returns an OUTDATED response: If the client receives this OUTDATED response it can show a dialog and redirect to play store.
I have created the the android application and it was given to all my clients. Now I update my application and want that changes are done to all my clients. I don't want that client to uninstall the application and install the updated application again. I want that when the client opens the application shows a notification which asks the client to install the updated application and then log in.
I want to achieve this functionality does anyone have any idea how to do this?
Please do reply me it's very important for my side.
How did you distribute the application? Through the android market? If so when you upload a new version their phone will periodically notify them that updates to some of the apps are available. If you did not implement this functionality in the version of your application that has already gone out then I am afraid you don't really have a way to make this happen.
Moving forward what you can do to implement something like this is have a webservice that returns the current version code for the application. In your apps onCreate() method call this webservice and compare the result with the version code of the app on the system. If the one from the webservice is greater then prompt the user to go download the new version.
Edit: If you didn't implement this in the version you've given out already then you have no choice but to just send out a new apk file to them. You can use some process similar to what i've stated above in the new version so from here on out you'll be able to set a value on the server that will lead to the users being prompted to download new version.
In one of our projects where we are implementing an application using Android/HTML5/JavaScript there is a requirement for having an Android Auto update kinda feature which is as described below:
Update Native version: The Native version of our application should be easy to update. New versions should be possible to “push”, or at least notify, the user of. Does this require that we publish it to the Android Market?
As of now Notification of the new version can be send to the device but we need an approach to automatically download the new version and install ie., either update the existing version or overwrite it. Hosting the new version in Android market is the last option according to the client
If someone/somebody has earlier come across or implemented such a feature, could you kindly reply back.
If you are using the Android market , the best solution is to just notify the user that an update is available. Depending on the update or Application you may decide not to allow the user the access the app if an update is available.
You will always need to push a new APK to the market , the user may setup the auto update feature but I believe there is no way for an app to force the setting.
Any method which will allow the app to auto update would either need more privileges from users or a routed device , which I guess is not a big enough percentage of users to try the feature.
The android market allow to auto-update applications. Is you want to do it without using the android market, your users will have to enable apk install from unknown sources and they will have to confirm each installation (unless their phones are rooted I think)
There is a nice service called http://push-link.com
This hosts you APK and manage updates. You can choose how the user is going to be notified and see the progress installation of all version.
Cheers...