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.
I'm facing the same issue as in Stack Overflow question "Google Play services are updating" in Google Maps API.
Unfortunately, out of nowhere, some of my users are suffering this issue, as well as my own phone. On the other hand, for other users it seems to work perfectly fine.
This issue appears only on maps in my app.
I've tried to clean Google Services's cache on my own phone - still nothing.
On my emulator it works fine.
I've searched all over the Internet and haven't managed to find a working solution for this.
The most important part is this: Most of the solutions that I've found were ones that needed to be done on a specific device, like cleaning a cache and then restarting the phone. But, when we are talking about an issue that occurs and harm a large portion of my users - there has to be a solution on which I can use in order to help them all at once, by myself, without them needing to do some actions on their own phones.
Otherwise, it would be very frustrating for them, and it would make some of them uninstall my app, and because of what? A bug that I have nothing to do with? Everything worked just perfectly fine until about two days ago, and I didn't make any changes to my app since then at all... so... why?
This bug is reported by many people in the Google issue tracker. It looks like a wide range of Huawei devices is severely impacted by the latest Play Services update to version 12.6.73. Apparently something changed on the Google side and they are currently investigating what is happening.
The issue is tracked in the following bug:
Authorization Failure in Google Maps Android API v2 (Google Play Services 12.6.73, Huawei devices)
Star the bug and follow messages from Google engineers.
UPDATE 2018-05-15
Some messages from the bug
Have just got off the phone to Google and Huawei. Huawei seem to be
admitting responsibility. They told me there is an EMUI update due in 1 to
2 weeks that should fix "all google maps issues".
Also ah...#google.com states
Google has been able to reproduce the problem on a physical device and is now focusing on addressing the root cause through either a fix or other mitigation.
It looks like Google and Huawei have to look into this issue together in order to provide a permanent solution.
UPDATE 2018-05-16
Google posted the following message in the bug
In collaboration with Huawei, Google engineers have identified the root cause of this issue as an unexpected change to the filesystem permissions. The issue can impact any Android app on a Huawei device which renders a Google map.
Our engineers are preparing a new version of Google Play Services which should resolve the problem. It will be targeted to devices running Android 7.0 Nougat, or higher. We will post another update with the status of the rollout.
Thanks for your patience.
UPDATE 2018-05-17
Finally good news from Google
We are pleased to report that a beta version of Google Play Services is ready. We believe this version mitigates the issue on Huawei devices running Android 7.0 Nougat, or higher. An important caveat is that each time the device is rebooted, you will need to wait about one minute before launching the affected applications.
Starting today at midnight (Pacific Time), the beta will be rolled-out to a segment of the community that has signed-up for the Google Play Services Public Beta Program. It will ramp to increasing segments of the beta audience over the next few days. We invite you to join the beta program at https://developers.google.com/android/guides/beta-program to obtain an early release of this and future versions of Google Play Services. Once beta testing is complete it will be rolled out in stages to all users.
UPDATE 2018-05-18
As a follow-up to our last update (comment#342), we believe this issue is fixed in Google Play Services version 12.6.85. If you are still encountering the problem, please ensure your device has this version installed.
As previously noted, there can be a delay (usually less than one minute) between the time the OS is finished booting and Google Play Services starts. If you launch one of the affected apps during this window, it may not render a map. If this happens, re-launch the app after a minute or so. Subsequent launches of the app should succeed every time.
FINAL UPDATE 2018-05-22
As of 10:00 AM (PDT) on May 21, 2018, Google Play Services version 12.6.85 was pushed to 100%, following the initial beta rollout. We believe this resolves the Google Play Services issue on all impacted Huawei devices.
Huawei is working on a longer term solution which is beneficial to its users and developers.
We apologize for this incident and the impact it may have caused. We are conducting an internal investigation of this issue and will make appropriate improvements to our systems to help prevent future recurrence. Stay tuned for an Incident Report.
AFAICT there is nothing an app developer can do to fix it. As #xomena mentions in her answer Google is working on it.
Just to add the complete solution for an end-user here:
go to Settings > Apps & Notifications > App > Google Play Services > Storage
click Clear Cache
go to Manage Space and click Clear all data
Be aware that the issue reappears if you reboot your device
Someone created a video you can refer your users to at https://youtu.be/VgMtZnyem5Y
It's is going to be fixed soon, guys:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/79405933
Go to Settings → App → Google Play Services, and disable it to go back to the factory version.
Restart the phone and go to Google Play Store to do the update on Google Play Services.
It works for me. I can see the Google map again in a third-party app. If it says uninstall/disable, do that.
There is nothing you can do at this time, except clear Google Play Service data (without rebooting the phone). At the next reboot, maps services get updated, and the issue will be there again.
We just can wait for Google to fix it with a mitigation update, and Huawei give users new firmware via OTA that better comply with the last Google API without what seems like an "authorization" issue.
Today Google released version 12.6.85 on the beta channel which fixes the map bug.
You can suggest your user to subscribe as a beta tester:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.google.android.gms
Or direct download on APK mirror:
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google-play-services/google-play-services-12-6-85-release/google-play-services-12-6-85-040408-197041431-android-apk-download/
I tried disabling to restore to the factory version - unfortunately this means most of my apps required Play Services will not run, and I can't seem to reinstall the latest version.
I am using Honor 7x.
I prepared my own I published in android apps on Google Play. Downloading app. However, I publish every new device is installed after the application version is not automatically updated. I tried on all devices. I activated the automatic update option from the Google Play app.
Unfortunately, I get the same results. Is there that might help?
Solution.
Add validation code inside your own app to check application version and open Google Play if newer is released. You can store version somewhere in your own server.
Automatic application updates are not popular in Android devices. Sad but true.
Do not forget whether your enabled this option in your device https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/113412?hl=en
I've got a development partner who says that in order to fix bugs that cause an application on iOS & Android to crash on load that end users need to delete the original app and re-download the new updated version. Are they for real? Shouldn't it just be incorporated into a standard app update and work like any other update?
The answer depends on how your app was distributed. If you just sent out a link like http://www.mysite.com/mytestApp.apk, it's easiest to uninstall. If they're updating via the Google Play Store, you have to set your version number higher than the installed version. Users can then get the newer version more seamlessly. I haven't done an ad hoc distribution with iOS yet, but updates via the app store seem to work similarly to the Play store. Users get a notification and can then update if their device meets the required specs.
Usually an update should resolve these issues. However, I have seen rare instances where users running older apps will need to uninstall/reinstall to get the new version of the application working. Like I said, these are rare instances where some major configuration has to take place. It's not something most updates need to do.
Say I have an application that users have installed from the Play Store, if one of my users reports a bug and I want to send them a patched version of the app to test, they can install it to their phone just fine. But if I then update the app on the Play Store, will the user get the update? My testing seems to indicate this is the case, but is there any gotchas?
The way my build process works is that each time I build, it gets a higher version code, so the patched version will have a higher version code that the one currently in the Play Store and then the version I upload to the Play Store after sending my user the patch will have a higher version code again.
I'm taking a decently wild guess here, but it should work, provided the following are met:
The version code of the apk on Google Play is higher than that of the hotfix
The user originally installed the app from Google Play to begin with, and only updated it via side loading.
The hotfix and the Google Play update are both signed with the same key.
I'm decently sure this will work, as I recall a long discussion about this on one of the android google groups that ended with success. I unfortunately cannot find it right now.
If you do try it out, please post back with the results.
I don't see any issue with this workflow. As long as you increment the version number at each build.