I wish to unpublish an app from Play Store and inform all existing users to move to a new app location at Play store. I understand that once I unpublish an app, new users will not be able to view it, but existing users are still tied up to it. Is there a way to inform existing users to move to the new app?
Update the existing app to include the disclaimer, and that "Support for App XYZ will be discontinued beginning <Date>, at which point you might consider using App ABC <link to play store>".
Then unpublish the app on that Date. Users who installed XYZ previously will still get the latest published version (via auto-update or when they see it has an update in their installed apps list), while others who haven't downloaded it at all before will have no idea that app XYZ existed at all.
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My apps are removed by Google Play, I hope to delete or hidden them from my app listings, how can I do? Thanks!
BTW, I can't unpublish the removed app from google play.
And more, I have read the article How to remove application from app listings on Android Developer Console
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No, you can unpublish but once your application has been live on the market you cannot delete it. (Each package name is unique and Google remembers all package names anyway so you could use this a reminder)
The "Delete" button only works for unpublished version of your app. Once you published your app or a particular version of it, you cannot delete it from the Market. However, you can still "unpublish" it. The "Delete" button is only handy when you uploaded a new version, then you realized you goofed and want to remove that new version before publishing it.
and after the update on may 2018 :
Delete an application or a game
You can permanently delete your draft apps or games from the Play
console. You can also delete:
published applications or games that have not been installed on any
device.
published applications or games that no user has the right to
reinstall.
In this case, contact our support team to request the final deletion
of your app or game data.
I have an unpublished application in the Play Console. But early this application was published, and some users installed it. Will they receive new updates?
Yes. If you unpublish an app, users who already installed it will continue to receive any updates you might send out.
They won't be able to search for the app if they're trying to do a fresh install, but it will appear in their library.
It even says this right below the publish option:
Note your app will continue to be available to existing users.
If you click "Learn more" you'll see:
When you unpublish an app, existing users can still use your app and receive app updates. Your app won’t be available for new users to find and download on Google Play.
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.
I have published an app in Google Play a few months ago. That app have some downloads and data from users in Console Google. I will release a new version, but while I'm finishing, I want remove it temporarily - keeping all that data and download numbers. Is it possible or when I cancel the publish all data will be deleted?
Please note that you unpublish (and this means just what name says, nothing more) not just APK - you hide all related stuff (app's page in Google Play etc). To end user it looks like the app is gone. For you - it is still in your console, you can edit description, images, see comments, stats or update APKs etc., but unless you publish it again, nobody will see these changes.
https://stackoverflow.com/a/13493065/7303462
You could do that by unpublishing your app. You can re-publish it by installing a newer apk of the app and all the data will remain the same, you'd not loose any of it.
PS: You cannot delete an app from your account. Published and unpublished apps will remain in your account.
Update 2022 :
You can go to "Google play console -> Release -> Setup -> Advanced Settings", but as google says :
Unpublished: New users cannot find and install your app. Existing users can still find it and will receive updates.
Published: New users can find and install your app
I found a solution so that you can restrict the region of your app if you do not want to delete and republish it. This prevents even existing users from finding your app. In the published list of your app, you should keep at least one country, and you can select the country with the lowest downloads.
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.