I googled around and tried to find out something about the new Samsung App Store. I built an App for Google Play and I wonder if I can deploy it to the Samsung App Store.
The Android SDK isn't specially built for Google Play I guess. But looking at the Samsung SDK docs it seems quite different from the standard SDK.
Does anybody has any experience with Samsung or knows a link where I can find more info?
Thanks!
Google Play is a non exclusive app store. You are free to distribute your app via other channels, such as Amazon App Store, Samsung App Store, emailing apks and even direct downloads from your own site.
Any app that has been written with the Android SDK should work on any device running the supported versions Android (assuming the OEM has a bug free and AOSP based ROM).
Keep in mind though that some devices that have the Samsung App Store may not have Google Play and may not be able to use Google Services like In App billing and licensing.
Be warned with Samsung Apps, they take huge fees, there are many intermediaries (agents, commissionaires). While in Google Play you get 70% of the sales, in Samsung Apps you barely get 30-35%... And you are paid 6 months later.
Related
We are building an app in Unity for the Samsung S21 specifically, and we are noticing an interesting bug that resembles the following: https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/issues/android-not-enough-storage-space-to-install-required-resources-error-when-building-app-bundle-with-split-application-binary.
We have isolated it to phones that are "Fully managed" with Samsung Knox, and have noted that this occurs across all apps made with Unity, including major commercial releases on Google Play. This does not appear to be an issue with non-Unity apps.
After a factory reset, our app installs fine, but once it is updated or uninstalled and reinstalled we get the message "Error: Not enough storage space to install required resources." I have noticed that certain folders do not delete after the app is uninstalled--specifically /files/il2cpp and /files/Unity, and I cannot delete these on Knox-protected phones, while I CAN delete these folders on standard devices.
My Knox security settings say "User Deletion: Disallow."
I know that Knox is the issue here, but I am curious if anyone has any explanation what in particular with Unity is causing the problem. My suspicion is that this is because my Knox security settings do not allow me to delete, but it is interesting that this only seems to be the case in Unity apps as apps not developed in Unity (NBA Live is an example) uninstall and install fine. It is also worth noting that this all seems irrespective of the link I put above with the initial bug that claimed it was related to splitting the application binary.
We determined that using the Managed Google Play store only for downloads does not produce the issue. Any downloads from the commercial store--specifically Unity apps--will cause this issue. There is no workaround for this. If the organization with which you are working would like to be able to install a specific app on a phone with an account managed through Knox it must allow the specific app on the Managed Google Play store.
I've created an app which uses Google Billing for in app purchases. I've tested the functionality on a number of real devices, as well as on emulators in Android Studio and it appears to be working fine.
I don't have any real devices that are running lower than android API 24, and although I can create a virtual device in Android Studio, it doesn't look like I can create one with Google play store functionality.
If I pick a device with Play store functionality...
...I'm only shown recommended system images down to API 24 (the same is true regardless of which device I pick)...
I can see plenty of other images under the 'X86 images' and 'Other images' sections, but none with Play store functionality.
Having tested on other API's, I'm pretty sure this will work, but it would be nice to be sure. Is there any way I can be sure without purchasing a physical device?
Official answer: No, there is no way if you want a "trustful" test environment.
Google has never released (and probably never will) emulator images with Google Play below API 24.
If you want test your app with API below that level your only option is buying an old phone with Google Play installed.
Unofficial answer: Online you can find some guide/tutorial which teach you how to install Play service and Play store on emulator images, like this one but I did not try them and don't know if they really works.
I'm working on a game which integrates Google Play Games Services. It works fine on a physical device. But when I run the app on an emulator it says "Install Play Games Services" as shown below.
I'm using x86_64 Android 6.0 (with Google APIs) image for emulator. I've tried other images too but all had same result. The emulator has Google Play Services 8.4.89.
I've tried updating the emulator images to the latest. But it didn't help.
One thing that worked partially was sideloading the Play Games apk to the emulator. It worked on some emulators and it was hard to find the apk corresponding to each emulator configurations. Also I feel this is not the genuine/official way to resolve this as it's a hacky workaround.
So I'm looking for a solution that is officially recommended to resolve this problem.
Please don't suggest to click the INSTALL button as it will work only on a real device.
I had same problem when I used Games.API.
Install Google Play APK Expansion Library then Play Games Services will be in emulator.
Install Google Play APK Expansion Library in SDK Tools
Google now officially adds Play Services to Nexus5, 5x, Pixel, Pixel 2 images. When creating a virtual device consider there is a Play Store icon in the Play Store column or not.
Some Emulator images are marked (Google API), and some are marked (Google Play). In my limited experience the (Google API) do not contain the play store, so do not permit updating the play game services or install from scratch if its not there. The (Google Play) has the play store, so I can get rolling by letting it upgrade itself and install Play Games. I tested this on x86, and API 26,27,28.
According to Google's documentation they recommend running on a physical device, so I guess some hassle might be expected, though it did seem to work for me.
With thanks to this medium post by Daishi Kato, its possible to download the GoogleApps (opengapps) and install it manually.
I just realized a number of my apps do not show up on Google Play store on OS 2.3.6. I have this Samsung Galaxy Y with 2.3.6.
For example this Speedometer app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.valueapps.utilities.speedometer
When accessed on the above mentioned device, Play store says the device isn't compatible.
What factors make your app disappear from a particular phone's Play store?
I've installed the app directly on this phone using USB cable+eclipse ( dev environment) and it works just fine. It's not compatibility issue for sure.
If your phone will not let you download apps on google play then download an online apk of an older version of the app.
I am working on a project which requires the use of Google Maps and is aimed for tablet PCs running the Android OS. We have purchased an Archos 101 Internet Tablet to test our implementation, but what I have quickly noticed is that any application that I install which uses Google Maps immediately crashes on startup (throwing a ClassNotFoundException on the class which extends MapActivity). I then learned that Archos is not a "Google-certified" device and apparently does not support the Google Maps API.
I understand that we may need to acquire a Tablet which is confirmed to work with Google APIs for Android.
I wanted to know if anyone has ever tried to develop a Google Maps application on one of these tablets?
As a follow up, what tablet would you suggest for developing a Google Maps application?
EDIT: I have tested the same implementation successfully on both the Android Emulator and a Nexus One phone. I want to stress that the issue seems to be the lack of support for Google Maps on the Archos 101 tablet. Also, this is just a prototype, and we are not developing anything for the market quite yet, so the workaround is acceptable in this case.
I wanted to know if anyone has ever tried to develop a Google Maps application on one of these tablets?
ARCHOS tablets do not have Google Maps, and so you cannot develop apps that use the Google Maps add-on using those tablets. You can, however, display classic Web-based Google Maps in a WebView or something.
As a follow up, what tablet would you suggest for developing a Google Maps application?
Any tablet that legitimately has Google Maps and the Android Market. If you have an Android Market developer account, if the device shows up in the filter-out-these-devices list, then it legitimately has the Android Market.
I'd seriously consider a Honeycomb tablet, as that will be the OS flavor that most tablet devices will be running in the future.
Despite all the research I had been doing pointing to the conclusion that this was impossible, my peers persisted, and I did end up finding a workaround that I thought I should share.
I found a package which installs the necessary components onto the Archos for it to support Google Apps functionality. The version I used can be downloaded here.
After installing the apk using adb install, I ran the app and clicked "Install only core apps". After rebooting, I tried to run my Google Maps program again, and it worked.
EDIT: This "workaround" may no longer be valid as the link to the package has been taken down. Try searching Google Apps Installer for Android (version number).