I have a native android app in google play and now I have made a new version of the app with ionic 2 framework.
How to update the app and is it possible to notify the users about the new version of the app?
I quess I have to remove the old one and upload the new one.
This is exactly what you need:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/7159011
Because you completely rewrote your app please read this too, the most important part is "Prepare your APK":
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/113476?hl=en
If you follow these guides existing users will be notified about new version automatically by Google Play Store.
The existing users can download the update from your app listing page on the play store or when they select My apps on the Play store. Also if they have enabled auto update for your app then the update will be downloaded and installed automatically.
More about this here.
and as #Abhishek recommended, if you don't have any code for checking updates in your previous version of app then users will not get notified automatically.
also you don't have to remove the old app to upload the new one, you can deactivate the old app if you want it to no longer served to the user, OR you can retain it if you still want it to be served to the users.
Google play usually updates applications automatically. You just need to add upload APK and click Release. You don't have to remove old APK.
In less than a day or something all users of your application will be notified by Google Play that new version is available and if user configures his phone to install apps automatically, then apk will be installed in background as soon as update will be ready.
Also you can notify your users about new version using PUSH notifications. Of course if your previous release does not contain code to enable PUSHes, then you cannot send such notification.
And one more thing: if you use your previous keys to sign APK then everything is fine and you don't need to do anything with APK at developer console, otherwise you need to rollback application and/or re-publish it.
Related
I'm having trouble getting my app update started. Another program periodically updates the databases from the server, additionally, a new version of the software is imported the same way.
So the issue of importing from the server is already resolved, but I can't create a function that will start the update. It is enough for me to run the file itself and ask for an update.
The file is located in the downloaded location.
This kind of behaviour It's not recommended by Google due to security reasons. (App could be updated without a review by Google Reviewers).
Scenario 1:
If your app, for some reason, needs to be updates before user keeps using it, Google provides a "In-App update" Lib.
Check it out: https://developer.android.com/guide/playcore/in-app-updates
Scenario 2:
Your app is under development and you want to update your app to the testers.
You have two options:
Firebase app distribution: https://firebase.google.com/docs/app-distribution
Testers will be notified when a New version Is release. Firebase will make it easier to them to download the apk/bundle and install it.
Google Play Console test Channel: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9845334?hl=pt-BR
Your app will be on Google Play, but not public. You'll be able to set authorized testers to download it. When you upload a new version to this channel, testers will be notified and will be able to update it, same way It happens with an app that's in production.
I make an Android launcher app and I published this app in the store.
The problem is it seem the people don't receive the update of the app automatically...
They have to go to the store and click to the update button.
It's the same when Sync is enabled in settings & background Data is not restricted.
Maybe because it's a launcher and the Google Play Store doesn't update the app who are being used (to not reload it) ?
Google Play can take upto 24 hours to push application updates across all its servers.
Just wait for a while, and all your eligible users should receive the update. However, if your update adds feature requests that some devices don't support, they will not get the update. And one more thing you must make sure that the app u have installed in ur mobile is not apk built with debug keystore.. the play store will show always as "Open" button instead of "Update" if the play store app certificate doesn't match with installed app certificate. I realized this when i did trial and error with debug and signed apk's. Only signed apk worked. And use versionCode for comparing versions instead of version Name.
I would like to know if this is possible.
Our users download & install APK from Play market the first time,
and afterward while the application detected that a new version is available, it can auto download & install new APK (using the same signature as original one) from our custom server, even if the allow side-loading setting is unchecked in user's device?
Or we must upload the new update APK on Play market again, and let user manually download & install from market?
thanks.
Use the Google Play Store update mechanism. It's the one and only way to deploy updates.
Some time ago Facebook also tried to implement their own update mechanism for their app and the result was Google temporary removing the app from the Play Store because of that.
If the user has installed the app from Play Store then the updates must come from Play Store only. Otherwise there would be signature mismatch problem.
You need to change the "version code" and "version name" and upload new APKs to the Play Store again.
And user's do not need to manually download updates if they have "automatic updates" enabled.
UPDATE
I saw your last comment and just thought to help.
We want to ensure our user always running the latest version of
application.
Yes, I can understand this requirement. The users who have "automatic updates" enabled (most of the users have) will automatically get the latest version of your app.
And those who don't, will get a notification to choose if they want to update now or postpone it later (may be they don't have enough internet data or time to download app app updates now).
The Trick
I can give you a trick. You can use your custom server to check if the user is currently using the latest version of the app or not. So if any user who is using the outdated version opens your app, the app checks to see that from the server and then prompts the user to update the app immediately. You can also take the user directly to the Play Store to update the app. Simple, isn't it?
Hope it helps.
You have to upload the APK to the Play Store again. Depending no the user's settings he will auto-update the app or manually download the update from the store.
I have application that is installed in Android device. later on I update the apk and provide the new version for it in play store. my question how my application get know, new version for it now available in play store and update it.
Like others have said, Google Play will handle the updating. But that doesn't mean you can't put a check into your app that checks to see if a new version is released (by either parsing Google Play data or making a call to your website to get the latest version #) and alerting the user that there's an update available.
But, the user could ignore the update and could have auto-update disabled, and the old app will continue to run just fine.
I have an unpublished app on Google Play which I want to update for my existing users, but not let new users download it.
The Google Play documentation seems to be saying that this can be done by simply uploading an updated apk (and not re-publishing the app):
Unpublished Apps
Existing app users will still be able to receive app updates, even if you unpublish your app. If you don't want new users to find and download your app but still want to provide updates to your existing users, set your app to Unpublished in the Developer Console.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/113476?hl=en
But it seems unintuitive that an "unpublished" application would work that way. If the documentation is correct, how does Google Play tell the difference between an 'existing' user and a 'new' user?
Just a follow up: pushing an update to the unpublished app does make the update available to existing users only, but the app does not update automatically for these users. They must browse to the app page, where the app will have an "Update" button which can be triggered manually.
(This is just speculation, I'm not affiliated with Google in any way or anything)
The existing user probably has the app associated with the Google account they use to log in to the Play store.
If you look at your own profile in the store, there's a list of all the apps you've ever installed. I'm guessing the update would be available only for people who have your app in their lists, and the app will still be invisible for new users.
Whenever a user that has the app installed wants to update it, he requests an update of the app, it's different from re-installing the app as data from the app (a save from a game, or some saved preferences etc) are kept untouched, google play can easily detect that since it can detect what apps you have installed.