I'm running beta distribution through hockeyapp and versions are going and sending emails but I'm looking for a way to enable a push notification. The devices we're testing with aren't setup for email so after seeing the mail, testers still need to open the app and find the new build. I was hoping to streamline that process to one click.
You can use the mandatory update feature available in Hockey app.
Go To App -> Manage Version -> Status
Scroll down to Mandatory Update feature at bottom
And set it to enabled.
Based on their description:
Update alpha/beta apps: The app will check with HockeyApp if a new version for your alpha/beta build is available. If yes, it will show a dialog to users and let them see the release notes, the version history and start the installation process right away. You can even force the installation of certain updates.
If you want to customize this behavior and display notification instead of popup you can do so by using net.hockeyapp.android.UpdateManagerListener
While registering for update receiver you can do following:
UpdateManager.register(context, APP_ID, new MyCustomUpdateManagerListener());
In your listener, you can display the notification using notification API. You can find details here
Note: Its mandatory to have Hockey App SDK to be integrated in order to streamline your process. More information regarding this integration is available here
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I have developed a Mobile App for both Android and iOS. Now every week we have 2 updates to be released. Most of the times Android and iOS users stops auto updates for the apps. But if there are critical updates or bug fixes or new features then we must ask user to update the app for better usability. For this I have found Android has In App Updates API. It says and I quote
Keeping your app up-to-date on your users’ devices enables them to try new features, as well as benefit from performance improvements and bug fixes. Although some users enable background updates when their device is connected to an unmetered connection, other users may need to be reminded to update. In-app updates is a Play Core library feature that introduces a new request flow to prompt active users to update your app.
However I am not able to find same kind of or similar like feature for iOS. I am not sure if Push Notification can do the same or not. Please advise.
No, App can not be updated or downloaded without the user's settings for Auto Updates.
But you can try an alternative way.
Like when the app opens or comes to the foreground, call an API/web service to check is there any critical update released based on the current version of the app? Based on YES/NO response, show an alert to users that new update is available and on OK click, take them to the Apple stores.
No, iOS does not have the auto update feature that Android has. Push notification would not work well for this, as 1) the user may disallow push notifications, and 2) the Push would not know what version the user is currently using.
If your app calls a backend web API or web service, then it is pretty simple for the app to call a method, say, getVersion() in the web service. The web service reads the current version as set in a config file and returns it to the app. It could also return a flag that says Mandatory = either Y or N.
In your app, you call the getVersion() method every time on start up. If the app's version number is less than the version returned in getVersion(), then you check to see if the mandatory flag is set to 'Y'. If so, you show a dialog that says a mandatory update is required before you can use the app, would you like to install this now? If yes, you navigate them to the page in the iTunes app store, and exit the app. If no, you exit the app. They will get the same message every time they try to run the app until they update it.
If the mandatory flag is set to 'N', you show a dialog saying that an updated version is available, would you like to install it now? If yes, then navigate them to the page in the iTunes app store, and exit the app. If no, you allow the app to open and continue. However, the user will again be prompted every time the app opens until they update.
You can make the getVersion() method work for both iOS and Android, if you pass the platform to the method getVersion(String platform), and then read the config file for android_version or ios_version (as the version numbers may differ between platforms) depending on what was passed in the platform parameter.
I made a game using AndEngine and I have made different updates three times and uploaded in google play store. I see that Google does provide a update notifications, but most of the people don't read the 'available updates' notification Google provides.
So When the users start my app, I want it to pop up a dialogue such as "A new version is available. Do you want to update?" and upon clicking the 'yes' button, it will link to the google market of my app.
Is there any way I could implement such device?
Follow this algorithm
launch app
check version from manifest
check version from a server (somewhere on the internet where you can update the version name/code manually when you release a new update)
compare the local and remote versions. If not equal launch a URL to your app.
I don't think there is a google api for that. The best way you can do it is to share a simple one line file with latest app version somewhere on the internet.
For example:
1. share a config file with content "1.0" which is a latest version of the app.
You can use google docs for that for example.
2. when your app start you read that file and compare the version there with your app version. If the version in the file is larger you show a dialog for the user.
I am creating an app in Android and iOS which has a requirement to alert the user whenever new app versions are available for the respective platforms.
Should i create a web-service to provide the app versions based on the platforms?
What data do i need in the web service to keep it generic? Android uses version code where as iOS uses major and minor version updates.
The app is login based. Should i check for the updates after the user logs in or before?
For android when a new version is released for the application in the market user will get alerted for the availability of new version. User will be alerted. Same as the case for iOS. No need of creating web-service
Should i create a web-service to provide the app versions based on the
platforms?
=> As such Android provides notification whenever new version is available, but as you mentioned its your business requirement, so i assume you want to implement/include some new features in new versions only.
so check version and implement such, you must have to have web service for the same.
What data do i need in the web service to keep it generic? Android
uses version code where as iOS uses major and minor version updates.
=> You can fetch version number from the current app. Check: Get application version programmatically in android
The app is login based. Should i check for the updates after the user
logs in or before?
=> There are 2 cases:
You can call web service and check whenever app is launched. (May be in splash screen or something else)
If you do include this functionality (version checking) inside Login, then you must have to check everything whether the user is already logged in or not. So i think this is not a good case.
If you are updating the application's version in the iTunes or Google play , The users get notified automatically by the providers. Or if you have changes within in the application such as a new feature is included you can notify the user using push notifications. Hope this help you.
For iOS, user gets notification from Apple itself when new versions of installed apps are available. These notifications appears at "App Store" app.
I am a beginner on Android as I am working on developing a new Android app. In my project I have some problems when the user click on an icon, it should redirect him to dot net website I did in my code.
If I want to update the apk file on customer mobile to update it should prompt to the user to download the new version. How can I achieve this?
Also how can I know this app belong me between many app on customer device?
I want to fetch the bugs and errors that may occurred on the customer device. How can I do it?
2.
If you release your app in the Google Play Store the updates are managed automatically by Google. You can just release another version of the app in the Google Play Store and all users will be notified from Google that a new version is available.
3.
If you release your app in the Google Play Store bugs will be reported automatically by Google to your Google-Mail Account.
Better to implement GCM push service in your application to send a notification about the update to all your application users.
http://developer.android.com/guide/google/gcm/index.html
This framework will give your application to support push notify the user from your server, and what you need to do in your application just track the received push and write a code to download new APk from server and install it automatically.
The second thing you asked about the Crash reports so the best option is use ACRA technology to get the your application report on server everything force close or logcat
Both are very easy to implement so enjoy!!
At first use GCM for push notifications like updates for your application.
Second useGoogle Analytics for any bug report crashes usage
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...