My company has an app published in the google play store/android marketplace. One of the issues that we're fixing in the next version of the app is adding back xlargeScreen = true (it was somehow set to false in the previous version, so now the app isn't showing up on larger tablets). We're trying to get the alpha/beta testing setup so we can make sure we have all our problems fixed before we push the apk to live.
I've uploaded an apk to alpha and published it. I made a google+ community, added it to the accepted testers and sent out the link for the app. But, when we go out to the link and get set as testers nothing happens. If I go to the google play store, it shows the date for the newest upload to the account but the 'install' button attempts to install the previous live version (which is incompatible with the test device, yay!). Also someone else used their device and all the install did was install the old version to their device.
I've considered the "wait up to 24 hours for the publish to go through" being the problem, but the first alpha was uploaded Friday at lunch and would not work at lunch today, on Monday. I moved the old apk to beta and put a new one in alpha (more bug fixes yay) at lunch today. I checked all the settings and everything looks correct, but I can't see how I'm suppose to actually download the beta or the alpha at this point. And if I'm suppose to download the production version 1) How am I suppose to do that on the device that's incompatible with the production version and 2) how do I choose between the beta and the alpha version?
Ok, so it takes about 2 hours to be published for alpha/beta and it will be availible in the google play store in place of the live app if you opt in.
My specific problem was the the new alpha/beta apk was still incompatible with the device. I wish there was some notice on the page to show that you are viewing a test version (or better yet, a way to select alpha/beta/production on the google play page after you opt-in).
Turns out that <uses-permission> will in some cases make a device incompatible if it's missing the feature. Adding <uses-feature android:name="problem feature" android:required="false" /> for the offending permissions fixed my issue.
Related
I believe this question would be a repeat of this question:
Android in-app products not appearing in Play Store or app
but that question does not answer my question clear enough, so I'm asking again.
I have an app that I would like to test the in app payment feature, and I have read that in app products will only be available once the app has been published to at least beta or alpha.
I want to publish the app to beta or alpha, but it seems like in order to get a opt-in URL, you need at least one version of the app released to the public(playstore), if I am not wrong, and I do not want to do this as the app is still in development.
Is there a way to do a alpha testing before releasing no versions of the app to the playstore?
Here is a screen shot of my google play console:
Edited:
Why am I not seeing a opt-in URL here?
So it turns out that it takes like 2, 3 days until the alpha or beta testing goes live. The official documentation does not say anything about it, and it actually makes it sound like it happens instantly.
You'll receive an update to the for your app if you already have it installed on your device.
If you don't have your app installed, download it on Google Play.
Note: It can take a while for you to receive the update.
You can leave the testing program at any time. You can switch to the public version of the app if that's available.
To switch to the public version:
Uninstall the testing version.
Install the public version on Google Play.
Note: It can take up to a few hours before you can download the app's public version.
For current version Of Google Play Console:
Release > Testing > Closed Testing > Alpha
1. Click On Testing (Option Under Release)
2. Select Closed Testing.
3. Select Alpha Track.
4. Upload Your app Bundle or Apk.
Follow these steps on your Console:
1) Complete store listing, pricing & distribution, content rating
2) Upload your apk and release to alpha
3) Complete in-app products (Requires billing permission from manifest)
4) By opt-in url you can test the application
I have an app that's close to launch. In prep for this, I've put it into production with "Timed publishing". It's ready to go, all I have to do now is click "Go Live".
However, I have a bug fix and I want to put out a beta for it now, before I'm ready to release the app to the world at large.
I've managed to upload the beta, but how can I release it to my beta testers through the store. Previously when I've played with Timed publishing, it didn't actually go out to the Beta testers until I clicked "Go Live".
I don't want to do that, because I'm not ready for my app to be made public at all, and I'm afraid it will go anyway.
I've tried switching to Advanced mode and Deactivating the version in production right now; however, it won't let me save. It complains The application could not be saved. Please check the form for errors. But don't see anything on the form that looks like an error.
How can I do this, or what should I be looking for to find the error?
I got an answer out of Google:
We don't currently support the functionality of removing production APK. If you press "Go live" button on the upper right corner, both production and beta version will be published on Play Store. It's not possible to keep production version silent and only have beta version live.
We currently require that once a Production APK has been published, the app must always have an APK in Production. This requirement is in place so that we are in compliance with the DDA by ensuring that once an app has been made publicly available, that it remains available for any users who may have installed it.
In my not so humble opinion, this is a deficiency in Google Play's system. I can see that requirement once it has been made public, perhaps even only after someone has actually downloaded it, but until then I as a developer should be able to pull it completely or be sure it's going to go straight to a Unpublished without ever appearing on the store so that no release happens by accident.
Google continues:
If you would like to prevent users from downloading your latest production version, since you haven't made it live, one option is to edit the previous production APK file to which you want to roll back with a higher version code than the current APK file. You may then upload the old APK as an update.
After you make sure the production APK is not the one you want to present to public and the beta APK is the right one, you can then press "Go live" so users will still see the previous production version while testers can download beta version.
The other way is to unpublish the current app and then publish a new app with a new package name for beta testing only. [...]
Both those are round about ways of accomplishing the work I need to do, it just adds more effort on my part to set up another app for my beta testers to use. It would; however, allow them to use both side by side on the same device when it goes live.
Right now I'm facing the same problem, but I think it's not possible to publish a beta if timed publishing is enabled without going live.
Here is the reference about this topic I found in Google support:
Reference link: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6334282?hl=en&ref_topic=7072031
I have been trying for several weeks now to get the Google Alpha / Beta testing functionality on the Play Store to work with no success. As far as I can tell I have followed the process but clearly something is not working from my side. I hope someone on SO can tell me what I'm doing wrong.
I have created both an Apha and Beta testing community.
I have added the Beta testing community to the Beta testing section that relates to using Google+ communities to test. My Beta testing community does have members added.
Although I have an Alpha testing community, none of the Alpha testing methods are currently enabled.
On my test device, using a Google account that is a member of my Beta testing community, I only ever see the version of my app that is currently in Prod. I have spent days waiting just in case it takes a couple of days to show up (at least a week which I assume should be long enough).
I need to test the release version because I am trying to test some inapp billing functionality that I had to change due to security warnings from Google relating to my current Prod version.
BUT: if I load the release version of the app directly (instead of downloading from the Play Store) I can see that it is seeing this account as a "test account" because when I test the inapp billing I get the correct message telling me that the subscription will renew every day but I won't be charged. However the Beta version of the app never appears in the "BETA" tab in the Play Store.
I have noticed something "strange" (possibly) in the developer console though: When I click on the "Beta Testing" tab it shows 10399 supported devices and 0 excluded devices for the Beta app. However if I click on the line of the Beta app where you can promote the app etc, the details that are then displayed indicate 0 supported Android devices. Why would this be? This seems to be conflicting information on the console.
Note: The current Prod version of my app was developed using Eclipse. I have recently converted to Android Studio and this is my first upload using Android Studio.
Where else should I be looking to get my app to appear in the Play Store
Thanks
I was just setting up the Beta testing release for the first time and couldn't make the app visible in Play Store. Found the reason in Play Console Help:
After publishing an alpha/beta app for the first time, it may take a few hours for your test link to be available to testers. If you publish additional changes, they may take several hours to be available for testers.
After about 35 minutes the app was published.
As this might not be the issue mentioned in original question, it might help someone.
In my case I had published the Beta version and had created the testers but not linked them together. What I had to do was:
Go to manage releases
Choose a testing method - Closed Beta Testing
Then when testers list shows, make active the group of testers you would like to test the app.
Save
Get Opt-in URL link and paste it in a new tab (you should be logged in to google)
Then click at the "Become a Tester" button
You should now be a tester and ready to go.
#Important If you still can not find the app by searching in Play Store just copy the "Opt-in URL" into your tester phone's browser and you should see the app.
Hope it helps
What solved this problem for me was clearing my Play Store app data.
In my case, I had already been on the testers list for days, already accepted the invitation link, and already gotten testing working on other devices. But, the Play Store still wouldn't show the beta version of the app on this particular device.
I went to "App info" for the Google Play Store app, "Memory", then "Clear data". Then I re-opened and was able to see the beta test app.
Disclaimer: Use with caution. Clearing your app data may remove some important information. I haven't personally experienced any problems with it, but that doesn't mean you won't.
The suggestion from #Edgehog to use Open Testing solved my problem regarding being able to see my app in the Beta tab of the Play Store.
I have not found a reason yet why the closed beta testing (using emails or groups/communities) would not work.
Make sure you also check this answer
browser cache
an actual active "testing track"
We are having the same problem in my company. Currently we are investigating possibility that maybe first install on beta channel installs prod version and updates to beta channel version when first app update is released on beta channel. It is weird workflow but the comment on Play Store "Future updates will include beta versions" supports this
There are a couple of reasons why this might happen but admittedly we did not 100% confirm this.
1) One reason is that you are viewing Google Play under another account that is not on the beta tester list.
2) The other might be an issue (or feature) with the release management. Added a user to an existing closed beta release list. Changing a list does not activate or force a Save for the "Managed testers" section. After we edited another field (e.g. feedback channel) then the Save button became active and we clicked save. This might only then propagate changes. We cannot 100% confirm this was the issue we were facing but our experience points to this.
I have not updated my Android app for quite a while. Now I would like to use the Alpha Test to run some tests of the In-App Purchase features.
Problem is, that I do not see how I can install the Alpha version on my device using the Play Store. I did the following:
Created the APK in Android Studio 2.1
Logged into the Google Play Developer Console
Selected my app and switched to APK/Alpha-Test
Uploaded the APK the the Alpha Test and published it
It is a closed Alpha Test and I am the only tester. The e-mail address I entered in the tester list perfectly matches the address of the Play Account I am using on the device.
Opened activation URL in Chrome on my Device. Play Store webpage is shown, saying that I am a tester.
Clicked the link to the Play Store and downloaded the current Version of my app
Checked if there is an update to the Alpha Version, but there is not
I uploaded/published the alpha APK on three days ago. Even if it can take some hours before an update reaches the store, three days should be long enough, shouldn't it?
I found other threads dealing with this kind of problem and in some cases the solution was to clean the cache of the Play Store App and restart the app. However this did not change anything in my case.
So, none of the suggested solutions I found worked for me. Any other idea what I can do?
UPDATE:
Still not possible to update to the alpha version. I now switch from a Closed Alpha Test an Alpha Test using a Google+ Community. However, the result is the same:
While logged in with my developer account, I switched to Google+ and created a new Community.
Invited my test user (one of my other accounts) to the group.
Copied the URL of the Goole+ Community to the Aplha Testing section in the Developer Console.
Published the changes.
When visiting the test URL (https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.mycompany.myapp) I got the message "You are not a tester"
Checking the e-mails of my test account. Found the invitation to the Google+ Community and joined.
When visiting the test URL I could now click on Become a tester and now I am tester.
Downloaded the App from the Play Store using my test account. Just received the public version.
No update to the Alpha version available...
UPDATE 2:
Also after switching to a Public Alpha Test still no update available.
I am running out of ideas...
After two weeks I was finally able to solve the issue. I share the solution here, just in case somebody encounters the same type of problem:
I contacted Google Support to find out, if there is any known problem that prevents the test version from beeing downloaded. They told me, that the uploaded APK was not compatible with my test device (Nexus 5) due to an incompatible ABI version.
This was quite confusing, sinc my app did not use any native code and thus did not configure any ABI version at all.
Finally Google told me, that the ABI version of the APK was identified as commons-io-2.4.jar. This still does not make sense, since this is obviously not an ABI version. However with this information I was able to move on and find a way to avoid the problem.
Android Stuido copied the commons-io-2.4.jar file into the lib folder within the APK. The Dev Console identified the content of this folder as ABI version (which does not make any sense) and thus the APK was marked as not compatible with the device.
Either there is a bug in Android Studio (copied the file into the lib folder) or the Dev Console (identifies the lib content als ABI version).
SOLUTION
Since I did not need the commons-io-2.4.jar anymore, I could simply remove it from the project and the new version is distributed without any problem in the Alpha/Beta Test Channel. I have no idea what I would have done, if the app would depend on this lib.
The information in the Dev Console on wether an APK is supported by specific devices or not is quite confusing:
The public version of the APK was (of course) compatible to thousands of different devices, including the Nexus 5 I use for my test. The Dev Console shows the same information (the one of the public APK) for the test APK as well. Thus I assumed, that the test APK is correct and compatible. One can only see the information about the test APK, by clicking on the APK in the Dev Console.
So I'm having trouble uploading a new APK to the play store with billing enabled.
Currently I have a published app that is paid and I want to change it to a subscription app such that the users get a yearly subscription and hence latest data to the app.
Now my issue is that the developer console will not let me upload a draft APK with the permissions for billing enabled. I log into the dev console, go to APK, change from simple to advanced mode, save my new APK as a draft and once uploaded I get the following error:
This configuration cannot be published for the following reason(s):
All devices that might receive version 1 would receive version 2.
Some devices are eligible to run multiple APKs. In such a scenario, the device will receive the APK with the higher version code.
I updated the Version code and the version number to be one higher than the current as well as different combinations of upping only one of the two values with still no success.
The app is being signed with the same keystore.
Thanks,
DMan
Figured out what this actually means now. Basically it was just telling me that I need to archive the current apk in order to actually publish the new apk. The new apk was successfully added as a draft. This message was just worded a little awkwardly and actually means that in order to publish version 2 version 1 must be archived NOT that there was anything wrong with the saved draft I performed.
Thanks,
Dman
Yes, all you have to do is to disable the old aplication, after that a the Publish botton will be available to push on the top left area so your new APK will be published
Did you disable your first version? By default, after uploading in advanced mode, both your first and 2nd version are activated. Looks to me like it's just saying that you've got 2 APKs active, that will reach the same devices thus one of the 2 is useless.