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.
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 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.
Is there any way android provides to restrict my custom application to get it published other than Google play store? And this app will not be a paid app so I can't use LVL feature and as per below discussion, we can't publish free app with licensing check:
LVL behavior on client side license validity check for free apps
So, not able to find any ways to restrict it to publish my free app to other stores :(.
Why I want to restrict it to publish it to other stores:
Because any hackers can download your app from google play store and inject malware in it and publish infected app to other stores.
Please provide me the guidelines to achieve it.
It doesn't matter. If you're worried about someone injecting malware into your APK just think- they can just as easily lie, say that they're your app, and upload pure malware. They don't actually need to be your app.
Beat them to it. Publish your app on the alternative app stores so that when they try to upload the package name is already taken by your original, clean version.
Here's an idea. Get the installer from here when your app opens and check if it is from Google Play by comparing it to com.android.vending. If it is not, block any use of the app.
But of course hackers can still download your app, remove this kind of security and upload it to other stores. But I guess this can give you an idea? Also Gabe Sechan's answer is possible too.
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.
Here's the scenario i am trying to achieve:
Publish/have an app in the Android app store
However - i do not want it to be searchable through the android market search, etc.
The only way people can access the app is if i give them an explicit link to download
Is above possible? If so - how? All FAQs/instrucitons i have seen publish & make it searchable for the whole world - but i want it only accessible through #3 above.
Thanks.
Try this site https://www.push-link.com/, you can upload apk on your private account and only can be accessible thorough automatic generated link and QR code. This service contains user notification on new versions and bug reports.
Two things that are problematic with the link to an APK approach:
Some of the devices out there (I m only aware of the Motorola Atrix) don't have the "Unkown Sources" option, meaning that this won't work on them.
You loose the ability to auto update the app if you want.
I would recommend adding a login process where only your users will have access to the actual application. This way, you still have the Market advantages and only those people can activate the application.
The main disadvantage is that the application will be open to search in the Market, but as far as I know, this won't be a problem since people will immediately uninstall it since they won't be able to activate it.
In your case, what I do is, I dont upload the application to the Market and distribute it from my server.
I mean this is simple, sweet and it also saves my $25 for the market account...
Don't do this. Just publish the APK to your own website, then give the users the URL to the APK, they can download and install it directly. The only thing they'll need to do is ensure that Menu-Settings-Applications-Unknown sources is ticked.