Update UI in android App without making users to update the App - android

I am building an app using , so the first time I upload the app to playstore, it will go with pre-defined Menu options and other stuffs.
Now, suppose I want to add a menu option in the Header of the App for any festive seasons or some awesome offers, and on clicking the menu, I should display the latest offers.
Is there any way to implement this feature without having to go through the process of again uploading to appstore and making users to update the app??

There is a concept of Over The Air (OTA) updates which you are referring to here. This is provided by Expo (by default create-react-native uses expo), firebase and Microsoft code push. You can read about it more here on official expo docs. If you are not using Expo then i prefer Code Push

Build an api endpoint you call at the app startup seems to be the easiest way to do this. Take a look at firebase if you don't want to build a full api and server yourself. Cloud functions are easy to use and could do the job in your case.

Related

Notification when there is an update

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.

iOS and Android app old version - prevent using

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.

Use Google Assistant to directly talk to my Android app and execute a very simple task

I am working on a project to integrate the Google Assistant with an existing Android app. The requirements are simple. Assuming my app is named TestApp and I want it to just change the background color of the app home page, I want to be able to say,
"Hey Google, Change background to black on TestApp".
I was given links to ActionsSDK, but looking into it, I see that it is only a stand-alone app that extends Google Assistant and has nothing to do with android itself.
The closest API I found that does what I need is the Voice Interactions. This is very similar to what I need done but it only allows preset voice triggers such as "call this person..." or "set alarm at...", but cannot do "change background..." like in in my example. According to this link, custom voice actions aren't allowed.
So my question is, is it possible to directly interact with my app and have it do a very simple task?
Thanks
You may want to connect an Android app property with your Actions project to sell your digital goods in the Play store. Implement digital transactions to sell your Play store items as part of a conversation with your Action.
To connect an Android app with your Actions console project, you will first need to connect a website to your project. Follow the instructions provided above in Connecting a website.
Once you've connected a website, under Android app, click the Connect App button and follow the instructions shown. Once you have completed the instructions over in the Play console, it may take up to 24hrs before the connected Android app is reflected in the Actions console.
Try this in Action on google
Right now there is no way to do communication between Android App and Google Assistant. If your GA is built upon Dialogflow API (specifically not using action-on-google), then you can use Dialogflow Android client in your Android App to communicate with Dialogflow Agent.
I wrote an app for my own use to brighten the screen when I was in bright sunshine and could not see the screen by asking the assistant to launch the app. Then on launch I executed code to make the change. A cheesy work-around I know :-)
you can try using this
[1]: https://docs.slanglabs.in/slang/
This will allow you to perform several actions through voice inside your app. You can use the console to add actions and utterances and there are some sample apps which might help you.
I have used it in a lot of my apps.
Feel free to reach out in case you need help, good luck!

Updating SDK in an app without effecting client /app

I want to test various marketing analytics or referral tracking SDKs for my app. Is there a solution that will allow me to integrate all these SDKs one by one without having to update my client side app?
Essentially I want to ensure users don't have to update the app each time I choose a new service to track campaigns or referrals.
Segment.io seems to do something similar for website. Is their a service that works for apps?
Whenever you ADD new libraries to your client side code, your app will have to be updated.
A traditional way to solve your problem would be to integrate all the SDKs you want and remotely select the campaign that you want to run.
Suppose if you want to your app to have Flurry and Apsalar, both of these would need to be integrated first and then on each run, you can tell your app which of these should be run.
Hope it helps.

App updates from server without App Store?

I have an idea about updating App without through AppStore:
After publishing, the app has two main functions, loader function and app content function. If I want to fix some little bug, which is only one line code sometimes, or just need to change the background of APP UI, even some logic codes. In tradition solution that is updated the APP to APP store and notify the user to update it.
Is it possible, using the loader function to download changed app content from server?
Does Apple and Android allow to do it?
Thanks a lot.
You can't do that in iOS app. You should submit your next version app to access the new features. If you try to download codes or any other runtime content. Your App should be rejected.
Please refer the apple-review guideline here.
Thanks!
According to the google play Developer-Content-Policy:
An app downloaded from Google Play may not modify, replace or update its own APK binary code using any method other than Google Play's update mechanism.
No, you can not do it. If you want to make any change in the application, you will have to pass through store formalities to distribute the application to end client.
For iOS, you can go with enterprise distribution option, but using that you cant distribute the application outside your Organisation.
For customisable background or UI customisable, you can take help of server to receive configuration from server.

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