I have a React-Native app in the Google Market. What I need to do is to create a separate version for our internal use (it will have some different functionality). Pretty much I need to have two apps in the market so I can have both of them on my phone. The closest answer that I found was this. I forked my app and from my understanding, I need to change all the package names to a new one. However, the problem is in my app I use Google Services like FCM, I use some extra packagaes like sharing and importing posts. And those are also tied to a package name.
Are there any tutorials to doing this, or do I need to create a blank project and start building it up from scratch, adding packages?
Sorry, if I am unclear about the explanations. I thought this was a common practice, but did not find much information about it.
You just need to change your apps name by cloning your repo and made some changes explained here.
Related
I want to start writing an application using Flutter as it suits my needs at this stage. In the future, of course, I will need to build a team and applications in Java & Swift. But if I release the application now on Flutter and create a brand, will I be able to completely re-upload the application code?
Example: for Google Play - change the Flutter code to Java.
I tried googling but can't find anything...
Yes, that is alright.
This happens all the time specially when a Proof Of Concept or hackathon idea gets adopted and has to be re-written for scale.
On iOS, it is important to keep the bundle identifier same as the original app. Similar restriction will be on Android. Other than that you can overhaul the underlying stack without any issue.
I published twice on the Play Store, the first time years ago before Flutter and the other lately made only in Flutter: the things they seem to care the most about are the format of the file you're uploading and the permissions required by your app. All the other stuff they require is to be filled manually in your app page.
I can't give you an absolute answer, but, from my experience, they don't care about how you created your apk file or your app bundle, as long the permissions and the app info you put on the app page are compliant with their policies.
Short answer, Yes.
Long answer: as long as you keep signing with the same certificate, yes.
I know there are different questions to this task, but I don't get much information about it.
I found out that AdMob is part of firebase now, but there's a way to use it without firebase. Besides there are no tutorials or information about eclipse - is it necessary to use Android Studio or is it just not documented?
Actually it does not matter if it is part of Firebase, because all of it belongs to the Google Play Services. To get the AdMob classes, you just need to add com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:10.0.1 to your build.gradle file (see the full list of all possible services here) which already explains your second question.
Android development in Eclipse is not supported any more. There is no Eclipse plugin any more. Google forces you to take Android Studio now.
I have an android app that is active on the playstore and I want to use the same code base (packages and everything) and publish another app which would be a different app on the play store. The new app would use most of the code from the older app but would also have newer functionalities added to it. Is this possible?
Package id is a unique id for google play, you can't upload two apps with one package.
Instead of this use library projects or create different flavors.
Of course it is possible. Use on your new app all your abstract classes and interfaces and implement them properly but dont forget to put them in a new package. No one is gonna tell you not to do it couse no one knows or understands that you are extening another application. Good luck
I have an android app with some activities. My question is:
Is that legal to use different AdMob ids for each because it will help me to monitor which activities are more frequently visited. Moreover, i also want different content of ads in each activity.
Thanks
IANAL but why would you use Admob to track which Activities are the most used in your app? Besides, since they issue just the one publisher ID for each app you configure on the Admob platform, I am sure they have a pretty good reason for it. Also, if you have, say, 20 Activities, you would essentially be registering 20 apps (non existent apps in the real sense). Not sure if that's a good idea either. But you might want a lawyer to clarify that for you if that is your primary concern and you have already decided that this is the best way to go about it.
Alternatively, if the only purpose is track which Activities are most used in your app, consider using the Android Native Application Tracking SDK. You can download it off their website here or from the SDK Manager from Eclipse. In The SDK Manager, it is under the Extras section titled Google Analytics App Tracking SDK
This is the Dev Guide that will help you get started with it: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/android/v2/
EDIT:
As pointed out by user908821 in his comment, you should also take a look at the Analytics SDK Policy.
There is nothing illegal with using a different AdmobId for different spots within your app. And if each Activity has certain distinct characteristics that make it more useful to a certain portion of your users then it may help to segment traffic and provide better eCPM.
But I would not be doing it just to track users. Use an analytics tools to do that.
I know it is technically possible to put the same application into the app store with 2 almost identical APKs (different package names and titles), although probably a bit dodgy - I imagine this would not be allowed by Google, but I don't see anything in their Ts & Cs that prohibit this
https://play.google.com/about/developer-distribution-agreement.html
E.g. "My cool app free" And "The awesomest app trial"
Question: Is this allowed?
Reason: A colleague and I were debating the effect of titles and descriptions of downloads (based on different indexes/user searches) and wondering if people ever post a game/app with 2 different ones to see which is more successful
You can if the package name of the app is different, as you said. This is done quite often for apps with trial and paid version. Regarding your question, we have right now around 6 apps in Google Play which are different branded versions of the same app. This means, they have their own package name, splash screen, and some database data, but the app is really the same. So far we didn't get any trouble with Google, so I would say it's possible.
Just for reference, in case you are interested in doing something similar, the best option in terms of maintainability of your app, consists in using an Android library project.
Basically you have one main big project with the "Android Library" option checked in Eclipse. You have all the main code there.
On the other hand, you create two additional projects linked to your library. They will just need their manifest.xml and some activity to call the main activity of the library. Their package names must be different if you want to publish both apps in Google Play.
Additionally, you can override some resources for every project. For instance, you could have a boolean in /res/values indicating whether the project is a trial or paid version, with different values for them. Then, in the library you could check this boolean to show advertisements if it's a trial version.
Another useful thing you can do is using a custom splash screen for every app, by having different image resources in every project with the same name.
As far as I know, it is allowed and certainly has been done in the past (malware masquerading as popular games). Provided the app you're publishing is your own work (and really only the name is different), then I can't see anyone reporting it either.
It is prohibited according to Play Console Developer Program Policy (effective October 21, 2020).
We don't allow apps that merely provide the same experience as other apps already on Google Play. Apps should provide value to users through the creation of unique content or services.
Here are some examples of common violations:
Copying content from other apps without adding any original content or value.
Creating multiple apps with highly similar functionality, content, and user experience. If these apps are each small in content volume, developers should consider creating a single app that aggregates all the content.