I developed a new Android App and I would like to test the app among my inner friend circle. Therefore I want to publish the app to Google Play, but the app should not be visible to normal users, when they search for related keywords.
Only if I send the exact link to a user to, like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mydomain.myapp, I want them to see it and download it.
Is it possible to hide your App from search results?
BTW: I know this is not totally programming related, but who else would know, if not developers.
The "APK" section of the Google Play Developer Console has a "Beta Testing" tab that you can use to make versions available only to certain users.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213?hl=en
Related
Looking at the documentation here.
On Google Play, when you create an open beta:
Users can find your open test via search on Google Play. Once users find your listing, they can install your app normally.
This is not the behavior we want for our open beta. We don't want the app to be discoverable by searching the store. We only want the app only to be accessible by a link. This is possible using iOS's TestFlight platform.
We don't want a closed alpha because we don't want to manage a list of emails. We'd like anyone with the link to have access.
Is there any way to make a "link-only" open beta in Google Play?
You actually can't. However, you might be interested in creating an alpha test, instead of using mails, using a Google Group.
Reference in Closed test: manage testers with Google Groups.
I am working on finding a way to make a widget for my Android device to show the number of installs I have on my Android app. So far my idea is to make an app that reads information from the Google play console but I can't find any way to get that information. Any ideas how?
Google play does not offer any official APIs to get that information, but you can use third party APIs for that if you want to.
One example is apptweak.
For similar needs you can use unofficial api that is here on google codes.
it can be used to retrieve app details and other android market data. like :
>You can browse market with any carrier or locale you want.
>Search for apps using keywords or package name.
>Retrieve an app info using an app ID.
>Retrieve comments using an app ID.
>Get PNG screenshots and icon
There is already an official Google Play console app that offers this information and a lot more.
It doesn't have a widget, but you could contact the developers to ask for one. I sit near them so I'll mention the request.
In the Google play store there is a "More by X" part on the page of the App. I want it so that the app is available by searching for it, but the other apps are not visible when you click on it.
The reason for this is that companies do not want to see similar apps created for competitors.
How do you do this?
As far as I can tell, there's no setting for this in the Google Play Developer Dashboard.
To avoid having apps created for other companies appear at the bottom of the page for their app, the company needs to create their own Google Play Developer account. You can then have the app transferred to them so it shows up under their company name.
But that only works if you're OK with not having the apps under your (business) name in Google Play. If you're not then they just have to live with it.
Long story short: I created a mobile webapp a while ago and it seems fairly popular, especially on Android. Today I discovered someone created an Android App and listed it in Google's Play Store that just wraps my website.
My plan is now to create an Android Application myself, then show a message to users using this app that there is "a new version" of the app they can "upgrade" to in order to keep using my webapp.
I already know how to identify the set of users who are using this app from within JavaScript land, however I want to make transition as smooth as possible (ideally having the users click a button and be in the Play Store's page where there is a [Install] button). I've been reading lots of answers on this topic here but they all assume that one is in control of the android code, which I'm not:
Is there a way to break out of an WebView to a specific page in Google's Play Store ?
If all else fails, the message can say "please search for 'name of the new app' in play store", however that seems not ideal from a UX point of view.
I basically want to detect the path from where users are getting to my android app market page.
What are the different keywords for which users are searching and thus viewing (if not necessarily downloading) my android app.
If they are clicking on my app from top free / top new free/ top free games
I can see that the above information being passed in the browser when I click on app icon through a certain path (like search, featured, top free etc.)
I want to catch this information and if possible, analyze so that I can better optimize my app performance on google play.
PLease Note: I am NOT talking about referral tracking which is provided when a referral link is clicked and that app is downloaded through google play app. I just want to analyze the behaviour of user when they are browsing the google play on their browser and finally reaching to my app display page.
Generally, no. As far as I know, Google doesn't expose that information for the most part. As for the information you found passed to your app by earlier version of the Market app, that was specific to the Market app and is referral tracking. It just happens that you're talking about organic referrals.
recently Google play and Google Analytics announced they would start sharing data with easy integrations, if you already have integrated the sdk in your app, just follow the process to enable sharing data. and you will start seeing data from both platforms including keywords and installation sources according to this link. http://analytics.blogspot.com/2013/10/google-play-integration.html