I am trying to submit my almost finished game (first app) to the alpha testing but after hours of research I still can´t.
Inside the Google Play Development console / Game services in the "Testing" tab I filled my alpha testers list but after that there is only 2 switches, there is no "APK" tab like the tutorial said and no "upload" button.
In the "publish" tab it says "ready to publish" which is odd since I haven't uploaded any APKs yet, I wonder what will it publish if I click it. I don't want make mistakes here since published apps can't be deleted as far as I know.
Finally the weirdest thing is that in the upper tab "all applications" it says "you don't have applications" while in the "linked apps" tab the game is in the list.
What am I doing wrong? I know that for someone who already publish an app this would be extremely obvious but not for me please help.
What I understand is that you are trying to upload an alpha testing APK, while you are looking into gaming services testing (which will test gaming serviecs if you play using any of the mail ids you listed there)
To upload alpha APK, see in the picture, in APK tab, you will get 'alpha testing' tab, scrolling that down, you can find a button to upload your APK.
PS - even if you make slight changes in your app listing description, 'publish' button get's activated. So nothing to worry about there.
Related
Google upgraded the Play Store developer console on 18th April 2017 and as a part of this upgrade, the APK page (which was used to create new app releases for alpha, beta and production tracks) was replaced with an App Releases page.
Managing closed beta testing on the APK page was a pretty straightforward process, you simply choose the beta tab and select from the list of testers previously added.
Since the upgrade to App Releases, I'm unable to manage the testers lists from the page.
As per Google's help page on this topic -
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213, I should get an option to manage the testers list under the "Choose testing method" option. However, as can be seen in the screenshot below, that option is not there:
I've also tried emailing Google in this regard, but haven't heard back since. :(
Any help or pointers in this regard will be greatly appreciated.
I had this problem too. It's just an issue with their CSS. Click the blank space next to "Closed Beta Testing" on the right, it will expand the section.
I contacted Google Developer support by email regarding this issue and they instructed me to use Google Chrome to access the Play Console (I was using Safari).
On Google Chrome, you can see the down arrow next to the "Closed Beta Testing" option, which is not visible in Safari (due to a CSS issue as given in #andrewprocter's answer above). However, clicking on the empty space to the right of "Closed Beta testing" (where the arrow should actually appear) opens the menu containing the testers list.
I have an app that's close to launch. In prep for this, I've put it into production with "Timed publishing". It's ready to go, all I have to do now is click "Go Live".
However, I have a bug fix and I want to put out a beta for it now, before I'm ready to release the app to the world at large.
I've managed to upload the beta, but how can I release it to my beta testers through the store. Previously when I've played with Timed publishing, it didn't actually go out to the Beta testers until I clicked "Go Live".
I don't want to do that, because I'm not ready for my app to be made public at all, and I'm afraid it will go anyway.
I've tried switching to Advanced mode and Deactivating the version in production right now; however, it won't let me save. It complains The application could not be saved. Please check the form for errors. But don't see anything on the form that looks like an error.
How can I do this, or what should I be looking for to find the error?
I got an answer out of Google:
We don't currently support the functionality of removing production APK. If you press "Go live" button on the upper right corner, both production and beta version will be published on Play Store. It's not possible to keep production version silent and only have beta version live.
We currently require that once a Production APK has been published, the app must always have an APK in Production. This requirement is in place so that we are in compliance with the DDA by ensuring that once an app has been made publicly available, that it remains available for any users who may have installed it.
In my not so humble opinion, this is a deficiency in Google Play's system. I can see that requirement once it has been made public, perhaps even only after someone has actually downloaded it, but until then I as a developer should be able to pull it completely or be sure it's going to go straight to a Unpublished without ever appearing on the store so that no release happens by accident.
Google continues:
If you would like to prevent users from downloading your latest production version, since you haven't made it live, one option is to edit the previous production APK file to which you want to roll back with a higher version code than the current APK file. You may then upload the old APK as an update.
After you make sure the production APK is not the one you want to present to public and the beta APK is the right one, you can then press "Go live" so users will still see the previous production version while testers can download beta version.
The other way is to unpublish the current app and then publish a new app with a new package name for beta testing only. [...]
Both those are round about ways of accomplishing the work I need to do, it just adds more effort on my part to set up another app for my beta testers to use. It would; however, allow them to use both side by side on the same device when it goes live.
Right now I'm facing the same problem, but I think it's not possible to publish a beta if timed publishing is enabled without going live.
Here is the reference about this topic I found in Google support:
Reference link: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6334282?hl=en&ref_topic=7072031
As title states. I clicked on "Publish" in the google play developer console. And it said my app now got uploaded. But I dont know which apk file was uploaded. How can I find out?
EDIT: I am 100% signed in correctly. Here is an image of the tabs on the left.
In the tab with the android robot picture, it says I have no applications. But in the tab with the google controller thing, I can click on my app, look at the game details, leaderboards, achievements etc and I can click publish but I dont know what it's publishing...
Go to your Developer Console (All Applications) and then click on the app. On the left, there is a list of things to choose (Statistics, etc.) so click on APK.
That will tell you everything about the version and version code of the APK. You can click on the latest version to get some details on it, and at the top of the page it even tells you the package name.
You can by checking the version of the app. Click on all apps -> apk, then you see a list of apk's you uploaded and the current version number.
Are you sure that your app is on play store and not only in play game?
If you upload it with your account should be appared in the tab with android's icon
How to publish beta test-version in Android play store ?
I'm trying to allow beta test my phonegap build app in the android play store. I already uploaded a signed apk in the beta tab and added a google+ group with some users inside ... but I'm slightly surprised that I cannot find how to install or even find this app on the testers smartphones. I opted myself as user in the group but cant see a link to the app or something like that. Shouldn't the app be already visible to beta users in the app store? Or do I have to push the publish button? The info popup tells:
"Your app can only be used by your testers when it is published to Google Play.
If your app has no production APK then it will only be visible to Alpha and Beta
testers. The link that your testers can use to opt-in will be displayed here when
you have published your app."
Sounds to me that it should be published. But doesn't it mean that the beta apk will be moved to the published-area and not being then a beta any more? I'm afraid that the app will be then visible to all users in the play store not only for my beta testers.
Could someone explain me how to publish a beta for my testers only?
EDIT:
It seems that everything I need is the opt-in link that is missing. Any idea why?
In order to be able to get the link to share with your group you have to first press the "Publish" button in the upper right. After doing this you will see the link to share with users appear as brheal shows above.
I'm adding this graphic to the discussion to help clarify exactly which one to press and which to not press.
Per the discussion above I was still a bit worried about pressing the publish button. I just did it and it works.
For more clarity I thought I'd share what it looks like. After publishing your beta apk you have to wait up to 24 hours (it took mine about 12) and then go to 'Manage list of testers' in your 'Beta Testing' tab. When it's ready you will see the opt in link available to share:
This is really an issue Google should address ASAP. You enter the console hoping to find the sections but the documentation says something else altogether. I just solved this and found the link, here are the steps updated with the current UI of the console which is not matching the documentation:
Open Google Play Console
Open your app
In the left panel go to Release management -> App releases
Scroll down to Open track, Closed track or Internal test track section according to your case, click Manage
Go to the section Manage testers and click Internal test
At the bottom you will see the link if everything is properly configured and the app is published.
VERY IMPORTANT
You need to configure the internal test list, I assume that if you
are looking for the link you've already done this.
The app needs to be published, remember it takes some hours, otherwise you won´t be able to see the link.
Here are the screenshots:
Not enough points to comment, hence a separate answer.
My suggestion is to upload a new build after setting up the beta testing.
I created a new app and rolled out the Beta version of the app.
After that I enabled the "Closed Beta testing" for a list of users - alas no opt-in link was ever generated.
After scratching my head a bit I released a NEW build which generated the opt-in link immediately.
I figured that enabling the "Closed Beta testing" AFTER the Beta version was released could have caused the issue and is maybe why the UI is constructed the way it is.... just a guess.
Try and release a new build.
I created my first Android app and wanted to let some users take part at the new Google beta testing feature. Unfortunately my app got published as a production APK and is visible to everyone now. That was not my intention, because my app is far from being released.
If I unpublish my app it also get's inaccessible for the beta testing users. So I have to keep it published to run the beta test.
What are my possibilities to make the best of this situation?
Using a dummy app as production APK?
Keep it unpublished and start with a new package name all over again?
Easiest way would be to delete the published app, but Google says NO.
You can put your Google Play Developer Console into "Advanced Mode" by clicking the button in the top right corner. Then you can activate/deactivate APKs as necessary, and upload APKs specifically for beta testers only. You do not need to change the package name.
After filling in all the details, In your developer console dont upload your APK to the production tab, only upload it in the Beta tab and click publish. Now wait for it to get published and find the playstore link which you can find after clicking the "Manage list of testers" link which is under the "Beta testers". Share this link with your beta users.
Even I made similar mistake before and then unpublished my app. Started again the publish process with different package name as Google remembers your app by the package definition. You won't be able to delete an unpublished app. That needs to be unique. When you create your app, don't upload the apk first, just prepare store listing. Once done, you will see all the panes, production, beta, alpha under APK menu. hope this helps.
Provided the constraints you have, I guess your best option is to set the filter of the APK to no devices if allowed; if not, set it to a single device (one you figure there are almost none in the market).
Additionally, you can change your publishing options for no country (or, again, to a single small country), although I think that might impact the beta testers as well...
I've just found myself in a similar situation (app was published to production prematurely, and I need to do some beta testing). Jorge's answer got me thinking. I found an option under "Pricing and Distribution" which allowed me to restrict distribution to my organization.