I have a question concerning Android app development. I'm about to develop an app that I want to give to test users. Testing the app on my own phone means plugging it in my laptop and updating it manually. Do you know any solution that provides automatic updating for in-progress-apps without plugging each phone in on each update?
Maybe there is a google play store function I don't know about yet that lets you "hide" you app before publication and you can share the link with designated people?
Thank you a lot!
The Play Store offers alpha and beta testing, which allows you to upload and distribute test builds via the Play Store.
If you use this feature, you control which version of your application testers will receive on their devices, and they will automatically get updates.
You do not need your application to be publicly available to use this feature.
Related
I'm developing an app for android in flutter. Only some people will use it so I do not want to upload it to PlayStore. The problem is, I can make it an apk and install it to devices but I can not update it. Is there a way or a program like TestFlight that I can also update the app for every devices using it?
Without uploading it is not possible, but you have the option to upload it and don't make it publicly available.
The Google Play Store equivalent of Apple's TestFlight is creating an application in the Google Play Console and set up a release that is available for testing and not available for production (live presence in the Store).
This way you app will not be publicly available and you have to add the testers manually, just as it is with TestFlight. New versions will be delivered to the user's who installed the test application. One limitation is that the users need a Google Account to participate in the resting.
You can read about the details here.
We use firebase to distribute test builds internally, check this: https://firebase.google.com/docs/app-distribution
In the past we were able to deploy private versions of our app to EMM's (e.g. VMWare, MobileIron) and test out managed configurations. But today, we are unable to test new app updates within a managed environment.
Android https://developer.android.com/work/managed-configurations
With new Google updates EMMs are no longer able to upload private versions of our app if the app package id conflicts with a publicly available app on Google Play. For regulatory reasons we are unable to just change the package id and test because it is technically not testing the same binaries. Best we can do now is simulate a managed environment using Test DCP : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.afwsamples.testdpc
Is this the best we can test without publicly releasing the app update to Google Play? We have contacted VMWare and basically got the same answer but would like a confirmation. Uploading the app to a closed testing track on Google Play and then trying to importing to EMM did not work either.
iOS https://www.appconfig.org/ios/
Basically the same issue for iOS. Apple has kind of removed the Enterprise Developer Account which we previously used to sign and upload our own versions to EMM. The new eligibility requirements are too much. Alternatively, none of the EMMs work with TestFlight. And for iOS we do not know of any app like Android Test DCP to simulate a managed environment. I read a few github chains and Apple forums where companies are just releasing the app publicly then testing to make sure everything works. That can't be right, right?
We are adding Android Auto and iOS CarPlay support to the existing Android/iOS versions of an app. We are able to successfully test the Auto application using the Android Media Browser simulator as directed by the Android developer documentation.
We also have a stereo head unit that supports both Auto and CarPlay. We are able to use the CarPlay app successfully on the head unit, and we are able to use published Auto apps on the head unit. However, we can't see our development app on the actual device.
The Auto documentation is still a little bit thin, but I'm gathering based on some wording I've seen that Auto apps get some special flag (or similar) added by Google Play when they pass review:
Before making the app available to Android Auto users, Google Play
submits your app for review against the Auto App Quality criteria and
notifies you of the result. If your app is approved, Google Play makes
that app available to Android Auto users.
Based on this, is at all possible to run Auto apps on hardware before they've already been published and approved through Google Play?
This seems like a frustrating chicken-and-egg problem. We'd like to have the confidence that things look good on actual hardware and on target devices before publishing.
It is now possible to test your Android Auto apps on Auto-enabled head units. The procedure is to upload your app to the Play Store in an alpha channel, which you can then install to your device and test in a car. You will even receive feedback from the Auto review team for your app. [Wayne Piekarski]
Follow this
You can also install the Desktop Head Unit (DHU) to test it in software before submitting it to the Play Store. I used this method to make sure most of the quality issues were resolved with my app before submitting it. The DHU does not require the apk to be signed by Google.
Also, submitting it through the store usually takes several hours before you can test. The DHU is, obviously, immediate feedback.
Here's the link: https://developer.android.com/training/auto/testing/index.html
The short answer is no, you can not. It is due to the driver safety review. It will not be able to run on the real device until the app is approved.
But I think, you can contact Google and they can do something about it, if you really need to test it in your car.
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
Is it possible for an android application to act as a custom market place?
The imagined behavior of the app:
Download XYZ app from the built in Google Play Store
Opening XYZ app yields a UI similar to that seen in the Play Store
The user can navigate through XYZ app and select a custom app supported by XYZ to install on their phone
This custom app would not be located on the Play Store and the .apk would be directly installed from the context of the XYZ app/marketplace to the users phone
I did some research and found alternative Android App Stores such as:
Amazon App Store for Android
GetJar
SLideMe
F-Droid
But is it possible to have an alternative marketplace like this that can be accessed from an app that was downloaded from the Google Play Store? Does google allow this type of practice?
So I suppose the heart of my questions is: Is it possible to create an android application that has permissions to install other 3rd party applications directly to a users phone? (without needing to leverage the Play Store or needing to jailbreak the phone)
Thanks in advance for the answers and insights! And please let me know if anything I'm saying doesn't make sense.
(Extra Credit: I would also be curious to learn about the feasibility of doing this with an iOS app as well)
To add to the other answers, you will have problems with some of Google Play's rules. AFAIK they don't allow your app to direct users to a different store. So you won't be able to keep your app on Google Play store in that case.
EDIT
It is not in the Terms and Conditions, as confirmed by #Cumulo Nimbus.
It is in clause 4.5 of the Developer Distribution Agreement:
4.5 Non-Compete. You may not use the Market to distribute or make available any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the
distribution of software applications and games for use on Android
devices outside of the Market.
My interpretation of the above was, and still is, that we can't point people to a different app store.
Kudos to #zmarties for pointing me at the Developer Program Policy which links out to the Developer Distribution Agreement. I knew I'd seen this somewhere...
In terms of iOS, Apple does not allow different app stores unless you jailbreak (iOS-speak for rooting) your phone. They are not as open minded as the Google.
Android apps don't need to be rooted in order to install third party apk's. The use just needs to allow this in their settings. The apps you have listed simply instruct their users to enable this setting.
The best example of a third-party "free as in freedom" app store would be F-Droid
Technically it's possible.
The current Developer Program Policy does not seem to prohibit it either - all they have to say on the matter relates to installing "dangerous products" from outside the play store:
Dangerous Products: We don't allow content that harms, interferes with the operation of, or accesses in an unauthorized manner, networks, servers, or other infrastructure.
Malicious scripts and password phishing scams are also prohibited on Google Play, as are apps that cause users to unknowingly download or install apps from sources outside of Google Play.
Having said that, I can't quickly see any alternative apps stores that are themselves in the Play Store.