I've googled this and have only found bad answers from a year or more ago, so I'm hoping things have changed.
I have developed an app for an apartment complex and they want only their residents to be able to download/see it in the marketplace. It has to do with submitting maintenance requests and rental of common facilities, so, for obvious reasons they don't want just anyone seeing it, but want the convenience of the market place for distribution.
Can this be done without any of the goofy workarounds like garbling the name with a random string or changing the package name?
Here you can do like below:
Publishing on Google Play guide can show you the ins and outs and publishing to Google Play, but in a nutshell you upload the app to the Google Developer Console, and then publish it by going to “Product Details”, “Publishing Options”, “Restrict Availability” and checking off “Make this application available only to users of my Google Apps domain”. The app will then be sent to your Private Channel. Source: TechRepublic
But here is My suggestion:
If it's for residents only then you should upload APK some where on web (Instead of uploading on play store) and give them web link. Residents will download APK directly from that link. There way your APK will be hidden from rest of the world.
Related
I have a subscription based web-service that allows you to monitor industrial machines. It supports Raspberry PI and Android.
Right now, the Android APK is downloaded from my website, but I want to put it in PlayStore to be able to push silent updates (most of the devices running it don't have a screen).
My question is how to make it "hidden" in PlayStore ?
I want only people coming with a link from my website to be able to download it. I want it to not appear in searches or in any Store listings (new apps, popular, etc). The only reason to have it in the store is for silent updates that are not possible in any other way.
I don't know if there is an official solution for this, but Apps with only Alpha and Beta apks are always hidden in the Playstore.
Google Play now allows you a new way to distribute internal applications(Google Play Private Channel):
The Google Play Private Channel for Google Apps (the Private Channel)
allows Google Apps domains to distribute internal Android applications
to their users through the Google Play Store.
Here you can find the announce on Google Enterprise Blog and here the instructions to set up this feature.
Is it possible to publish an iOS App in App Store and Google Play Store, which is unlisted and can't be found by search? Only people, who have the link to the App in the Store can download it. Is this possible?
Both Google Play and Apple's App Store have options for publishing Enterprise apps. The two stores have different options and conditions, but it's possible.
Other options that are available to you is to release the app as an Alpha or Beta version for specific people on the Play Store, or simply create an .apk file and allow people to install it without passing through the store.
On the Apple App Store, you also have the option of having your app approved by the review team and then using codes for specific users to redeem on the store (but you only have about 100 of those per version) or submitting the app for TestFlight review (which is a much shorter process), in which case you'll be able to install the app on 1,000 different devices.
I hope one of these options works for you. Good luck!
Yes, this exact thing is now possible in the Apple ecosystem. It's called "unlisted apps". See here. Not sure about Google/Android.
I am currently working on an Android app and I am wondering which would be the best way to distribute it to customers. I understand that one can create a private channel but I haven't been able to determine whether our customers would be able to use it. From what I've gathered, a private channel is for internal distribution; I wonder if someone without an e-mail account from our company would be able to download it this way?
If Google Play is not the answer, what would you do? I know the app can be distributed through e-mail or links to download it but I'd rather avoid having users change their devices' configuration to allow installing APK from unknown sources.
Not sure what your beef with Google Play is but even if you're not intending to publish the app at all, you can still take advantage of the beta testing mechanism -- you can distribute a Google Play to limited audience -- i.e. a list of google accounts.
Apart from that, if I'm not mistaken TestFlight supports Android package distribution. Looks like they dropped Android support
Is it possible for an android application to act as a custom market place?
The imagined behavior of the app:
Download XYZ app from the built in Google Play Store
Opening XYZ app yields a UI similar to that seen in the Play Store
The user can navigate through XYZ app and select a custom app supported by XYZ to install on their phone
This custom app would not be located on the Play Store and the .apk would be directly installed from the context of the XYZ app/marketplace to the users phone
I did some research and found alternative Android App Stores such as:
Amazon App Store for Android
GetJar
SLideMe
F-Droid
But is it possible to have an alternative marketplace like this that can be accessed from an app that was downloaded from the Google Play Store? Does google allow this type of practice?
So I suppose the heart of my questions is: Is it possible to create an android application that has permissions to install other 3rd party applications directly to a users phone? (without needing to leverage the Play Store or needing to jailbreak the phone)
Thanks in advance for the answers and insights! And please let me know if anything I'm saying doesn't make sense.
(Extra Credit: I would also be curious to learn about the feasibility of doing this with an iOS app as well)
To add to the other answers, you will have problems with some of Google Play's rules. AFAIK they don't allow your app to direct users to a different store. So you won't be able to keep your app on Google Play store in that case.
EDIT
It is not in the Terms and Conditions, as confirmed by #Cumulo Nimbus.
It is in clause 4.5 of the Developer Distribution Agreement:
4.5 Non-Compete. You may not use the Market to distribute or make available any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the
distribution of software applications and games for use on Android
devices outside of the Market.
My interpretation of the above was, and still is, that we can't point people to a different app store.
Kudos to #zmarties for pointing me at the Developer Program Policy which links out to the Developer Distribution Agreement. I knew I'd seen this somewhere...
In terms of iOS, Apple does not allow different app stores unless you jailbreak (iOS-speak for rooting) your phone. They are not as open minded as the Google.
Android apps don't need to be rooted in order to install third party apk's. The use just needs to allow this in their settings. The apps you have listed simply instruct their users to enable this setting.
The best example of a third-party "free as in freedom" app store would be F-Droid
Technically it's possible.
The current Developer Program Policy does not seem to prohibit it either - all they have to say on the matter relates to installing "dangerous products" from outside the play store:
Dangerous Products: We don't allow content that harms, interferes with the operation of, or accesses in an unauthorized manner, networks, servers, or other infrastructure.
Malicious scripts and password phishing scams are also prohibited on Google Play, as are apps that cause users to unknowingly download or install apps from sources outside of Google Play.
Having said that, I can't quickly see any alternative apps stores that are themselves in the Play Store.
I've published an app and I have a theoric doubt. In my google play administrator page, it shows me that my app was downloaded by 18 devices, but when I look at the google analytics, on the same period, I have over 100 devices.
I've looked for other links on Google, but every link that I found redirects to Google Play, so Google Play should count it. Is there any way to download the app from google play, and then, get the apk?
The funniest part is that I didn't spread this app and when I look at the place of the users, it's from India, Sudan, etc..(I'm from Brazil, the other side of the world)..
Yes there is a way. Apk can be downloaded from Google Play and than shared as file somewhere else. These downloaded apks are disributed commonly in these countries like India etc.
For example there is an extension to it for chrome https://lekensteyn.nl/apk-downloader/.
So I would say your Google Analytics data are valid.
Is there any way to download the app from google play, and then, get the apk?
Sure. Copying the APK off of a device is not that difficult. In addition, software pirates bulk download pretty much everything uploaded to the Play Store and make it available from their own sites.