Our app was rejected by Amazon for not properly displaying the localized prices for our in-app purchase items. The reviewer said we were displaying the US prices, while displaying the British pound currency symbol. We are using the Apportable SDK for cross-platform development.
When using Apportable's StoreKitAmazon (TARGET_APP_STORE=amazon) in debug builds, I can only test with the Amazon SDK Tester, and my JSON file can only return one set of price values, regardless of the locale. I can't seem to be able to side-load the release build of the APK (because of the Amazon DRM) to connect to Amazon's production environment. So I can't test in a live production environment before submitting for review. Reference: Testing Your App with SDK Tester
But in using Apportable's StoreKit (TARGET_APP_STORE=google, GOOGLEIABV3=true) in release builds, I'm seeing the price/currency symbol mismatch if I set my device's locale to English (UK), on my Android device (Nexus 7, Lollipop 5.0). So this issue is appearing in the Google Play Store version too. Reference: Testing In-app Billing
But I suspect that the prices would match the locale's currency if my device was set to access the UK AppStores (Google Play Store or Amazon AppStore).
In general, is there a way to set my device to do access non-US App Stores for testing purchases? Do I have to set up a Google Account or Amazon Account outside of the US with a non-US credit card?
If anyone has suggestions on how to test this on Android or Kindle Fire devices, I would appreciate it.
BTW, our iOS version retrieves the proper prices and currency symbol for the locale by accessing the SKProduct's price and priceLocale property, and using the proper NSNumberFormatter. But the Apportable SDK's implementation of these classes doesn't appear to return the correct values. Also, on iOS, we use a Sandboxed iTunes user account to test in alternate App Stores.
Devices: Nexus 7, Lollipop 5.0; HTC One, Kit Kat 4.4.2;
Apportable SDK: 1.1.23.1
Apparently, it's very easy to create a new account in the Amazon UK store at http://amazon.co.uk, and you will be able to download free apps without needing to enter billing or payment information. This will only allow a developer to test localizations for in-app purchases for apps already in the Amazon Appstore.
However, if you needed to use Amazon's Live App Testing feature with that account, you will need to enter a billing address.
I haven't tried a similar technique with a temporary Google Wallet account for the Google Play Store.
So until Google and Amazon allows developers to create sandboxed user accounts in different countries like in iOS, this is the best solution I can find.
Related
I have an app which is published as closed testing in google play. But it is available only to testers whose emails have been added. But I want the app should be visible and installable to the people/testers ONLY TO THE PEOPLE WITH THE APP LINK. Which means that anyone who has the link can see and download the app but, if people search on the playstore, it should not be visible to them. How can I do so?
What you looking for can be archived in Play store private Android apps in Google Play, but you have to have one of these accounts types
Supported editions for this feature:
Frontline
Business Starter
Business Standard
Business Plus
Enterprise
Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus;
G Suite Basic and G Suite Business
Essentials
Cloud Identity Free and Cloud Identity Premium.
If you have one of these accounts types associated with your play store account then you can list private Play Store listing of your app
on How to do it, please take a look here
https://support.google.com/a/answer/2494992?hl=en
So I'm using the Android Management API to manage and handle deployment for an app to a kiosk device I am working on.
I've created an organisation, created a policy, and ensured the app is limited to managed google play only, and assigned the organisation to the app.
I've enrolled some devices onto the policy, and when the app is moved to prod (currently this is fine as there are only a handful of test devices on that policy), it downloads and installs.
However my issue is that if I use the alpha track, and then assign the organisation to that alpha track, the new alpha version of the app never gets installed.
Using the opt-in URL (not ideal, as the policy doesn't have Chrome on it, so I would need to specifically add chrome just for alpha testing), then sign into google with an account on that organisation. It then tells me I am enrolled into alpha, and it may take a few hours for the app to show up.
The google docs on this are extremely vague
If your app is private, you also need to add the organisation
associated with your test to your targeted list.
Like 16 hours later, no app, only the prod version which comes pre installed. If I call that device from the Android Management API, and show installed apps, it shows only the prod / previous version of the app.
So my question: How do I get the app onto the device via the alpha test channel, while using a private app + organisation?
Update 2019-09-09
The Android Management API now supports distributing testing tracks:
You can find the list of available tracks for an app with Application.appTracks[]
You can set the available tracks for a policy in ApplicationPolicy.accessibleTrackIds[]
Initial answer 2019-03-14
The Android Management API doesn't support distributing testing tracks at the moment. We are working on adding support for it, however I cannot share a precise timeline at the moment.
Once support is added you will be able to set a field in the ApplicationPolicy to distribute testing track of an app to a device. Similar to how it is currently possible using the Play EMM API (see documentation).
Unfortunately there is no workaround. Using the opt-in URL from the device would not work with the Android Management API. And you cannot use the Play EMM API for devices managed with the Android Management API.
I've developed an android application that has been distributed in a foreign country. When I uploaded it to the play store, I didn't go through alpha & beta testing I just promoted it the play store directly. Now we've had a couple of issues with the application but as it was distributed in a foreign country, we couldn't download it.
I fixed the problems and re-uploaded the application to the play store with no issues. I then added a test project to google play store and put it through alpha testing again only distributing it to a foreign country. Even in alpha test, I cannot download the application as it says I am not allowed the app in this country (the UK).
I feel like this is very poor because it stops me knowing what the app looks like once it's been uploaded (Even going through the process of testing the application before it went live, there were still issues with the app). As the client we developed this app for is also based in a foreign country (The same as where the app was distributed), they found the issues before us.
What I've Tried
On the phone FTPing into a server that is situated in the same country as where the application is distributed,
Rooting the device (Using SRSRoot for Android One Click) Which didn't work even though it said it had worked!
Downloading apps to allow me to access foreign Google Play Stores (Needed to root the device)
So I have three questions:
How can I download and test a foreign application through the Google Play Store?
Is it possible to do this without rooting a device?
Is there any Test software (E.g. TestFlight for Ios as apple bought it and it now cannot be used for android) I can use instead of going through Alpha/Beta testing on the Google Play Store?
Any information on this would be greatly appreciated, Thanks.
We need to post our android application to china users other than Google play store which is blocked for china users.
So we thought of Amazon app store, but there is no confirmation that the amazon appstore is accessible for china users?
Kindly let me confirm about Amazon app store for china users.
Amazon launched their App Store in China at the beginning of May 2013.
In addition to US, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain (Mentioned in the Wikipedia article), Amazon Android Appstore was recently released also in Japan.
And during a project on which I am working, it seems that it will also be in China... (I found references to China in the Amazon Appstore app), so we have to wait and see.
There is also SlideMe that is a global store (also available in China, with localized client!) that has a feature for Local Apps to see local apps providing you set the settings to that specific country &/or language.
You can find more details on their site, http://slideme.org , they even updated their mobile client just a couple of weeks ago.
No, the Amazon Appstore isn't available in China, and is only available in select countries.
From Wikipedia:
The Amazon Appstore is a mobile application store for the Google
Android operating system and was opened on March 22, 2011. Available
in US, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain only.
There are certain app stores that are available in China, the answer from your other question lists some of these.
Edit:
As Thilo mentions, the Amazon Appstore is now available in China.
I'm in my fourth year at university and I was considering making an Android application as part of my dissertation.
I was wondering, what sort of demographics are available for Apps that are downloaded? e.g. Age, Sex, Location, etc.
The Google Play Developer Console gives you some statistics about your application installs/usage, but it is limited to mostly technical data:
Android Version
Device
Country
Language
App Version
Carrier
So for your purpose it looks like only country and possibly language are relevant. If you need more information you'll have to ask the user (or trick them into telling you ;) ).
In the developer console you have the following statistics:
Downloads over time
Android version
Device
Country (of download)
Language (of the device)
Active installs by app version
Carrier