I am about to publish my first app. There would be updates and new version of this app coming soon. I want to know if there is a way I can make users download the updates/new versions compulsorily. (I have seen many apps doing that.)
Do I have to make any changes in the code for this? If yes, what will be those changes?
Related
I got a question about the Google play console, I published the new update of my application, but I need specific users (Android 33 latest version) to reinstall my application through the update, is there any option that could help me to make the google play uninstall the application then install the new update.
No, that's not possible and probably not desirable as users may lose their app data (which may be ok depending on the user case). However, if the device backup is enabled and your app supports it, app data is usually restored when the app is reinstalled - including databases and preferences. So that will very likely not really help.
Instead, you should implement a patching mechanism that is executed for the specific users after the update was installed.
Depending on what you need to change, there are several ways to implement:
SQLite SQLiteOpenHelper offers onUpgrade(..) to migrate data from one version to another.
For other things, you can always implement such a simple patch mechanism yourself depending on what you need to change based upon SharedPreferences as described here: How to run code only when my app is updated.
I have uploaded my app on google play store. I need when I do an update in my app the old versions of the app doesn't work on user devices until they updated the app. For example when I make an update when the users that have old versions of the app opens it a dialog opens to them asking them to update the app to be able to use it , How can I do that?
You can't go and change old versions retrospectively - the code is already out there on devices.
If you want this feature in new versions of your app however, I would recommend using something like Firebase Remote Config. That will let you control the minimum version of your app on a server, so you could give the users a week to update, then change the config on the server, and the app will know to ask the user to update.
This is more of a feasibility question as I am new to mobile development.
Suppose there are already existing users using a version IOS and Android version of an application. However for some reasons, a total new application(re-wrote) is to be built to replace the existing one.
Is there any way we can update all the existing users with the new application without them having to re-download them?
Update:
I found an answer for android
Pushing an update to Google Play that will replace the existing app
But what about IOS?
Your biggest feasibility challenge on iOS is Apple. From the App Store Review Guidelines
2.7 Apps that download code in any way or form will be rejected
2.8 Apps that install or launch other executable code will be rejected
So that makes it pretty unfeasible. They take this pretty seriously too: you'll probably lose your dev account, and certainly that app, if they notice you at it. So I would very strongly recommend you not attempt an in-place update, simply upload a new release to the App Store and let the user update according to their automatic or manual update settings.
If it's absolutely necessary that the application be updated immediately for continued functionality, the way developers typically handle a forcible update is to check their version on launch against the current version somewhere and pop up a modal that tells the user to go to the store app and update.
I've got a development partner who says that in order to fix bugs that cause an application on iOS & Android to crash on load that end users need to delete the original app and re-download the new updated version. Are they for real? Shouldn't it just be incorporated into a standard app update and work like any other update?
The answer depends on how your app was distributed. If you just sent out a link like http://www.mysite.com/mytestApp.apk, it's easiest to uninstall. If they're updating via the Google Play Store, you have to set your version number higher than the installed version. Users can then get the newer version more seamlessly. I haven't done an ad hoc distribution with iOS yet, but updates via the app store seem to work similarly to the Play store. Users get a notification and can then update if their device meets the required specs.
Usually an update should resolve these issues. However, I have seen rare instances where users running older apps will need to uninstall/reinstall to get the new version of the application working. Like I said, these are rare instances where some major configuration has to take place. It's not something most updates need to do.
We have project requirement where we need to force the user to upgrade the app in android and iOS both. And the application we have developed using the Hybrid technology phonegap + dojo.
I have few question with respect to that
Is it possible to make the user upgrade the app as soon as he opens the application
If yes then is there any API's available to perform this task in Android and iOS.
Is there any restriction from Apple and Android to make user upgrade forcefully.
Please can anyone help me in this. thanks a lot.
There is no API for this, but you can create a service that returns the version number of the latest allowed app or something to that effect, that can get checked on application launch and if it does not match you can ask the users to update.
I'm not sure if Apple/Google have any restrictions on this, but I've worked on a project that does this and there weren't any issues on either platform.
The only catch here is that if you already have an app in store then this might not be so feasible.
So to answer your questions:
No
No
Not 100% certain, but I don't think so.
Not if they don't want to. With mobile devices some people are sensitive about rationing out their limited bandwidth so there would be a small uproar if this was allowed.
It may be a bit late now if your app has already left the stable, but would it not be more user friendly for your app to check for updates and gently inform the user that if they do not update then the app will not be able to function until they do. If a user truly doesn't care about that sort of thing there are settings on there device to allow updates automaticly