I have an app that i used to host on a private server and send the link to the new version by using GCM.
I now host the app on the Play Store. When i have an updated version, i increment the version code and publish it to production.
Can anyone tell me why the phones are not receiving a notification of the update?
I have checked the notification checkbox in the app itself and i have checked auto-update from within the play store app settings.
I've had a look around SO and certain individuals seem to think that in order to receive a notification, the app must implement GCM? Others think that the Play Store app regularly checks the version number of the installed app against the new one hosted on the Play Store, then notifies.
Can anyone explain what the users ought to see from an updated app on play store and what i have to do for them to receive a notification.
thanks in advance,
Matt
Dear unchecked auto update from your Google play for the app.
because if that is checked when your app will be updated you will not be asked for permission. it will automatically install update.
have patience, some times it take more time to send update to users.
There is no need of gsm into this process. uploading new app is enough.
They should receive a notification, if the following are true:
They installed the app through the Play Store. If it was downloaded from your web server, they'll get no updates from the Play Store.
They have automatic updates enabled.
Even if the above conditions are true, it may take a day or two for the update notification to be displayed.
Related
This is been in my mind for several days now, I did not have this dependency before. But following has happened.
In my app I have coded to tell the user that a new version is available and ask him to update if he wants. And the catch is I do not know when the app update is available.
So my question is, is there any means to know when the app is published in the beta channel? And I really think there is something wrong with pushing beta updates(While creating testers group on Google Groups not on Google+)
The simplest way is to send a push notification to your users, when you update your app on play store. On the basis of the push notification, you can either show it in the notification bar or you can set some preferences of your app, which can be used later to notify the user that an update is available.
I am developing an Android app. During development, I want to push the app several iterations to 50 selected user so that they can test the app for bugs etc. These update should happen automatically. I know I could send emails with the .apk file to the selected users, but this is not an option. The update should happen automatically, same like if the app was downloaded through the Google Play Store.
Basically something similiar as Testflight.de or Fabrics.io for iOS...
Play store provides Beta testing for exactly the same reason. The specified beta testers will be able to receive updates as your app is updated.
You can check the details here
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213?hl=en
I want to publish my app game version 2.0 in google play. And there is already a version 1.0 here. My game is a online game, so i have a game server myself of version 1.0 the app connected to.
My question is. When a publish my app version 2.0, it cost about a day until it is available in google play. Can't I specified a time my app v2.0 available in google play so i can update my game server at the same time, because my client and server version must be same.
Any one has any solution?
One way is to serve the update yourself via your own server. If you have this setup on your existing app in the play store, awesome. Otherwise you have to have to push an update to the old app ASAP (through the play store) that is compatible with your current game server, that will contain this check on your apk server.
You will have to check the server version, and if it's been updated, fetch the updated app. Also add some code that checks if the apk server is providing a binary or redirecting you to another url. If it's the latter, you can have your app open a browser to open that link (as to why you want to do this, read on.)
Let it settle down a bit (2 days should be enough), then update both your game server and play store app at the same time.
Now you can modify the apk server so that it redirects everyone to the play store link of your app.
Users that were updated through the apk server may be prompted with a new version in the play store again, though the update doesn't really add anything (AFAIK there's no way to query if an update is available in the play store through the play store itself). Also I don't know how Play Store checks for an update -- if it's just the version code and version name from the manifest, they may not be served with the update anymore (which is good).
Users that were not updated through the apk server but were able to get the patch for the server checking mechanism will now run the app and find that they'll be redirected to the playstore, of which they will now download the update.
The only limitation with this solution is that users that were not able to get the server check mechanism patch may have to figure this out for themselves that they need to update via play store. You can help them by sending a notification email regarding the update.
There is no way to do this short of requesting it of Google themselves. A release/update isn't instantaneous worldwide either; the speed will differ by region. I assume this is as there are multiple data centres delivering the data.
If you have the resources, you could run both versions concurrently for 24-48 hrs while the update gets validated by Google and propagates.
Otherwise I think you will have to be offline to some users for a period. You should announce the downtime through whatever form of communication you have with your users in advance.
Yes, you can pick a specific time to publish your app now.
Answered here
For more info
Me and my team recently published an app on Google Play. My knowledge tells me that all I need to do is to change the versionCode in the AndroidManifest.xml file everytime I upload the new APK and from there, Google Play does the job of notifying the users about an available update. I am in touch with many real world users who say they never got a notification about app update despite the several updates we have published to the original app. I know that there are certain device level playstore settings such as "Update app only on wi-fi" etc. and I've verified all such combinations of scenarios. I still believe that all the users are not notified about the new version available. So my questions are
1) Am I missing anything in the first place?
2) What are my options to make sure the user gets notified about the available update?
You can not reliably tell when your user will get notified. Update notifications are dependant on battery status, network availability, user activity and compatibility.
I just want to understand how android apps update notification works. What are requirements for update notification to work (Google play store ,google services ??). Any useful link will be helpful.
I feel android has information of what are apps purchased by user, so when user connect to internet some service should look for updates available. If this assumption is correct then I want to know information about user owned apps is passed from device or kept server side ?? I wanted to know updates will work for a side loaded app or not.
This is handled by the Play Store client. App history is associated with your Google account, that is why you can (automatically) install the same apps when you get a new device. It is kept on the server and cached on the device. Android keeps track of who installed a particular package (Play Store, side-load, etc.), but generally you can update an app as long as the updated is signed with the same certificate. Whether or not you will get notifications about side-loaded apps is entirely app to the Play Store app. Last I checked, it did show notifications, but you cannot rely on this. If you are dealing with side-loaded app, you'd better have your own update check mechanism.