Currently having internal tests on the applications and it takes about 1-2Hrs for it to reflect on the playstore, is this normal behaviour or am i doing something wrong, or missing something thing, does google mean 2 hrs by "immediate" ?
yes.it will take more than one hour to reflect those changes in playstore.it is the normal process.
Internal testing track should make the download available within 1-2 minutes. On open and closed tracks it will take a couple of hours. Make sure you are using the right type of track: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213?hl=en
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I want to get the time spent on different Android apps by the user(ex: how much time was spent on the Youtube app, or Gmali app, etc).
I know that first i need to check if that app is currently running in the foreground(i know how to do that), but after that, how can i measure the time spent on that app?
I found getElapsedCpuTime () from the android references, but I think it can be used only to get the elapsed time for your current app only. If not, how can i use it to get the elapsed time for a different installed app?
Are there any other ways to implement this?
You may try Flurry that provides many tracking features. Also you may get current system time when the application starts and when it stops/destroy and on subtracting these two values you will get the time. Google Analytics also shows the device and time.
There might be a perfectly natural market answer to my question but I'll ask anyway.
I created a game and published it on Google Play in January 2012. After that it has seen a steady increase of downloads (over 50k combined, currently 200-300 a day) and I've kept updating it a lot. About two or three weeks ago I issued an update that had a weird effect on my new downloads. They almost completely stopped. I'm having a hard time believing that an update similar to what I've issued in the past has this kind of effect on user download decisions. Downloads dropped suddenly from 200-300 a day to 1-10 a day after the update.
I know I don't understand the Google Play search routines and stuff like that very well, but I still would like to know if there's a simple answer to my problem. What are the possibilities that an app upgrade will affect the visibility of the software.
BTW: My game update did not change the SDK requirements or available devices.
EDIT: I noticed a new permission has appeared in my application: "test access to protected storage" after I changed SDK target to 17. Can this affect my downloads?
From the day the app was launched till 30 days after that, your app appears in the 'Top New Free/Paid' app section in the play store (appears at almost the top in your app category). So for the first 30 days, downloads are awesome. Playstore suddenly drops it from the 'Top New Free/Paid' section and now your app will only appear in 'Top Free/Paid' section which is much more crowded and has more established apps to fight for a place.
The update surely has to affect on the downloads.
I will go so far and say that even the change in permission requirement is not responsible for the drop. One more permission request might change the mind of 10% of your potential consumers but not more than that.
Let me try and attempt an answer.
As per my understanding, Updates do not count in the number of Downloads. Simply because, the user has already downloaded them once. The Download count represents the unique number of downloads.
Unless the Update broke something or changed something drastic enough to drive away potential down-loaders, it has no effect on the number of downloads (per day) going down or going up. It may also be due to negative feed back and / or comments for your app. And although I cannot claim or give a source, I am almost certain the Update/s has nothing to do with stats going down.
Hoping any of this will help.
UPDATE
It is quite possible that the new permission is responsible. That being said, it really is a very subjective decision for the user to decide on the installation (because of the permission). Perhaps, to possibly remedy the situation, assuming the reason is the permission, you could put up a list of permissions used by the app and state the reason for using them in your app's listing. But that is the best that can be done to mitigate a further loss of users. Plus, you may perhaps see the stats getting back to normal too. Good luck. ;-)
In my case, when I changed the default language to English in the Play developer console - Control panel, the number of downloads drops from 300-400 to 1-30, it was frustrating. Before when I looked for my app by its own name it would come in the first or second option, after changing the default language dropped to the 30 position, then I thought if I switch back to the old default language maybe return to the first position, but this was more Terrible because the last change caused it to disappear from the positions. It only appeared with complicated searches that included keywords placed in the description of my app.
My app always supported 2 languages Spanish and English, by mistake when I first uploaded the app, I placed the default version in Spanish.
Typically there is no effect if you do not change the manifest sdk, feature or permission requirements.
It could be that what you see is not related to the version, but rather something else. Most likely it is because 30 days passed since launch. On the first 30 days after a new app is published, you get some boost from Google, but after 30 days, it stops.
What are the best practices on updating the apk files in the Android Market ? Is it ok to publish a new version as soon as i fix a minor glitch or should i consolidate a few bugs (if those or minor) and post it in a regular interval. Just released a game and got a extremely corner case crash issue and another minor glitch so i'm not sure if i release the fix right away.
Also are there any restrictions on the number of updates per time period ?
Even if there is no best practices as such could you (android developers) share how frequently you update your APK files for minor and major issues and what's your positive and negative experiences ?
Thanks!
Once a week is pretty optimal for generating new downloads and visibility. Based on my experiences and what I have read. Also weekends and holidays seem to generate more traffic.
I usually pack more changes into one update and release once in 1-2 weeks. Don't make updates if you have no real content. That may annoy users.
Read story #1: http://blog.edward-kim.com/an-android-success-story-13000month-sales-0
Read story #2: http://makingmoneywithandroid.com/2011/05/first-month-on-the-android-market/
People's experiences: Android Market - Time to wait between two updates
Market's "just in": http://www.google.bg/support/forum/p/Android+Market/thread?tid=5b8adbb9052fc55c&hl=en
Analysis when during day is most downloads: http://nhenze.net/?p=735
Discussion about time of day: Best time/day to publish to Android Market?
Personally, I think it depends on the type of application. If you are coding a type of tool that obtains more and more functionality with each update, users probably won't mind the frequent updating. Same goes for an application that has too many major bugs.
If you're coding a game though, I think updates relating to style of gameplay should be few and far-between. Users get used to playing a certain way and could get annoyed if they have to keep adapting to what essentially is a different game every time they update. Level pack updates are of course a different story though (I think those don't come fast enough sometimes).
Remember though, even if an update goes out for an app, it doesn't mean the user will download it. I've seen too many friends with 22 updates available... < drop down clear >
As far as I know you can update as often as you like. You pretty much have to decide what the balance is between annoying your users with frequent updates vs. making them happy by getting frequent bug fixes. For a while I was updating my own apps pretty much weekly and I never had any negative responses to that.
I'm trying to implement a trial app
I've searched this place,
no solutions found.
I know on PC some program can impose trial-day limit without reading system time,
how do they do it???
Here, this might help: http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/licensing.html
Though really, I think you wold have to do trial-day based on system time, still using the licensing service, though.
I personally have not used the app licensing, but glancing over it, it looks like it would work.
Well the simple approach will be to store the date when the app is first opened. And each time the app is opened, just check the date and proceed accordingly. You can save the data in either a file or the database.
I would like to know how many times I must wait to post an update for my application. I want to be sure that the update will appears in the "news" section of the Android Market.
You're trying to game the Market system. Don't do that. Update your app when it needs updating, i.e. when you have new features or bug-fixes.
In my experience, updating too often will make existing users angry, and you'll get several one-star "too many updates - uninstalled" comments. I think those are a bit dumb (I'm always glad to have well-maintained apps), but the bottom line is still - don't update if you don't have to.
You can update several times a day if you wish, there's no limitation regarding that. Personally, I tried to wait at least 14 days inbetween updates, but if I can hold out even longer, I will.
Updates are an hidden question to the user, "Do I really need this app?"
There are two buttons: Update and Uninstall.
Easy enough to press the Uninstall-Button.
So, with every update you will loose installations ...
S.
My experience: less than 2 weeks but I think also, that you have to change the description more than just a bit. I cant believe that the Market only check for "waiting time".
I always thought it was 7 Days.
You can update as many times you wish on Android Market Place. Normally, I try to update my app on NET-30 day basis. Reason being that for any new update, Google marks it as new app and try to promote the updated app in marketplace. Most importantly, the app is given a position in New Chart and that helps boost your download. On the other side, if you update often, you may annoy your users and they may leave bad comments if they don't see much change in UI and any extra feature being added. It's wise to update your app once every 2-3 weeks.