I have an app I wrote for a small business that is being used by <10 people. Ideally i'd like to use Google Play to distibute updates, collect crash logs, and review device configurations.
Is it possible to prevent the app from showing up when people search for it, so I could just distribute the link that the owner can share with his employees?
I am trying to avoid setting up EMM and paying for enterprise level distribution.
And I am aware of the security concerns of people accidently stumbling on the app in the play store when it's listed under new. Preventing people from accessing it via search is all I'm concerned about at this point.
You could use the Alpha or Beta channel to do this. If the app is published Alpha or Beta only it is not visible in the general Play store to anyone outside the Alpha.
However, this is not a long term or multi-customer solution. Setting up an EMM based solution is much better, and need not be that expensive.
Related
So, is there a realiable way to update enterprise/intern apps remotelly?
I work in a company that spreads across my state, including some areas that the access is dificult, so I can't send someone to locally update the app everytime there's a new release.
I'm working with Android/Java at the moment, and we also use Azure DevOps to store the repositories.
I tryied App Center from Microsoft but didn't understood if that could help me update my app or not.
Also, we don't want to publish the application to the PlayStore and make it public. Unless, of course, if that's the only way.
Thank you for your time reading this, I will keep searching something related to this and also share here any solution that I can find.
There's different ways to do so I'll say some but there's definitely more.
You can use Push-link, read about it it does more or less what you are looking for.
Perhaps could work uploading the .apk to Google Play and just publish it for beta testers, here's an old Google Play Private App Guide pdf and perhaps it doesn't work anymore but give it a try.
Also what you tried with App Center perhaps what you are looking for is Distribution In-App Updates
Note: This is not recommended to avoid by passing Google Play to distribute an app
I have a app created in xamarin forms, I already know how to create the APK, the app is to be used internally, i dont want to publish to the appstore, how can the app be update when is available a new version ?
Depending on your resources at hand and requirements, you have a couple of options. These options include, but are certainly not limited to:
Visual Studio Mobile Center (link): probably the most obvious choice. Out of the box support for Xamarin, and 'just works'. You can set up different groups of users, add analytics and crash reporting, etc. In the future you might be able to take your configuration to its big brother: VSTS. But beware! The product is in preview right now. Preview in Microsoft-land means free for now, but doesn't have to be in the future. While I expect it not to cost much/anything for basic functionality, it is something to be aware of. Not sure on this, but I think you need to invite your users by hand, so you have to know who you want to invite.
Google Play Store (link): It's kind of a mis-use, but you could of course leverage the Google Play Stores capabilites for Alpha/Beta testing. Also here you have the ability to create groups and have some basic reporting options. In terms of delivering your app you have some nice options here like A/B testing and unlike Mobile Center (again, I didn't verify this) you can setup a link with which people can enroll themselves. Depending on your needs, this might be nice. In terms of costs, this will set you back 25 dollars once. And you could develop and distribute other apps if you'd like.
Manual: send the APK file manually or hosting it on a shared location. I would prefer this least of all. People are not notified of any updates and you don't have any insights apart from something you might have incorporated in your app. Also you don't have any control over who installs or sees the app, etc.
But of course the prefered way would be to do it through the Google Play enterprise program. See this website. This provides you and your end-users with a private app store basically. Or as they say:
A managed version of Google Play is used by enterprises and their employees to access a rich ecosystem of work and productivity apps.
You can have private apps, only available for your targeted audience and still leverage the power of the Google Play store. The experience for your end-users will be unified with the regular app store.
I couldn't find a straight answer, but it seems the private apps will also cost just 25 dollars once and is included in the regular Play Store developer license.
You have a good way to do that : Use Beta this a service provided by Fabric, you can upload your app with different versions and get access to different teams in your company. It's easy to use and quick to manage.
Hope it helps.
You have multiple options at your hand:
use Bitrise or Visual Studio Mobile Center (aka HockeyApp) to build and provide a downloadable version of you app
in addiont to Bitrise or VS Mobile Center you can set up your own store. Take a look at Relution for example
build locally on your machine and push it to:
a fileshare
an FTP-site
the user by mail.
The company I work for wants me to publish their app as hidden in the Google play store and from what I have found that is not really the case unless a) you create a Google apps work account and invite all clients/staff to join and b) keep it as a beta and use clients/staff as testers. Is it really any other way of publishing an application as hidden (not searchable) and accessible only by link lets say?
You can use private channel for distribution or check alternative solutions like crashlytics
Only people who joined the beta test program can download your app. I don't know if you can really hide it from other people because in that case it would be still accessible in other ways such as the package name.
If there is no option for that, then probably that is not possible
But you might be searching for this: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/2623322?hl=en
Edit:
If it is not a requirement to publish the app explicitly on Google Play, then you could upload it to your own web server and only let staff/clients have access to it.
You could then also implement a little updater in the app itself so it is kept updated.
Think about it. I have already made such an updater and it is not difficult to implement it.
Btw, if you don't mind, you may take a look at aptoide.com where you can publish apps but without being visible to other people.
I am currently working on an Android app and I am wondering which would be the best way to distribute it to customers. I understand that one can create a private channel but I haven't been able to determine whether our customers would be able to use it. From what I've gathered, a private channel is for internal distribution; I wonder if someone without an e-mail account from our company would be able to download it this way?
If Google Play is not the answer, what would you do? I know the app can be distributed through e-mail or links to download it but I'd rather avoid having users change their devices' configuration to allow installing APK from unknown sources.
Not sure what your beef with Google Play is but even if you're not intending to publish the app at all, you can still take advantage of the beta testing mechanism -- you can distribute a Google Play to limited audience -- i.e. a list of google accounts.
Apart from that, if I'm not mistaken TestFlight supports Android package distribution. Looks like they dropped Android support
Simple question, as i can remember there was an option at the developers console in the Play Store to make an app only visible to a set of email addresses. Or at least the app would be free for that set of emails.
So is there an option to make an app only visible to a specific set of email addresses on the Play Store?
I'm asking this because i want to test my app, therefor i have to email it to like 50 people (not a problem). But when i update the app in the "beta" stage i don't want to resend those emails, and ask the test users to update the current install. Using the Play Store updates would be more seamless and automatic.
Does anyone have experience with this situation?
Edit:
It seems that there is at the moment only one simple answer:
No, using Google Play it's not (yet) possible. But there are some alternatives out there, see accepted answer.
It would be great if Google could add this functionality to the developers console, this would allow developers to simply bring out new updates, and easily see crash rapports without having to publish the app in public.
Edit 2:
Now it is possible to Alpha and Beta test your applications! I believe since the 15 of may 2013.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213?hl=nl
Google Play now has alpha and beta testing built in:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213?hl=en
I personally don't remember seeing the option you mentioned, specifying email addresses for private delivery and therefore, I have no experience on that matter. In fact, a quick check in the Developer Console, revealed that the option is no longer available, which I am sure you already know since you posted a question for the same.
That being said, there is a web service I am aware of (never used it personally, but is recommended by quite a few of my developer friends and colleagues).
The website is: The Beta Family. A cursory look at their website so far hasn't mentioned any fees or payments for creating an account or uploading an app for testing.
They also have the email feature you mention in the OP which they call SuperSend where you specify a set of email addresses and the app is delivered to them.
You can get more information about the same here: http://thebetafamily.com/supersend/
It may not be useful if you are looking specifically for a solution with Google Play. But if you open to alternatives, I think this looks promising.
Hope this helps.
EDIT: Their FAQ's mentions that their service is, in fact, free.