I am new to developing Android applications and I have an idea for a project which involves a free base application and a number of plugins which the user would have to purchase. As far as I have been able to figure out, I should package the plugins as services which the main application will access and I have a vague idea of how this is achieved.
Here is my question.
Is it possible to sell these plugins on Google Play store and, more importantly, how would I make sure that the user will only be able to purchase the plugin once the base application has been installed?
Or is there a way to specify that the base application will be installed together with the plugin?
I have read about filters but somehow I can't seem to find an appropriate filter for the task.
Thanks
Is it possible to sell these plugins on Google Play store
Yes. GO Launcher does exactly this for themes. Themes can be put up by third part devs, and users can download them to use them
how would I make sure that the user will only be able to purchase the plugin once the base application has been installed?
There is no option to do this. The best you can do is run a check for your base application when your app is installed and run, and if it isn't installed prompt the user to install it.
Related
I published many versions so far. And, the users should use the most recent app. However, apkpure shows all the app list that I released.
How come this website take all the apk or abb? I don't want the website takes my applications and block the users in the app. Is there any way to do that?
Actually it's possible to do, using one of the Android features like app bundles. This could help you to verify non Google Play installation. Or even create behavior to crash/exit in such cases.
The whole idea of the approach, it's separation application features to different bundles which could installed be installed within Google play package manager. So you can check it's documentation.
Lots of android users can not access play store when removing the google restrictions, because they want apk file for install. Third party websites publish for that kind users, As well as some desktop users want APk file specially GAME APPs. I think they not Change original APK file.
I am developing a non-free android application. How can I prevent others from sharing apk to other users, like if I am using share-it or Xender we can share a apk which is installed in our application to others. Is there any way to prevent our application from sharing the apk?
Please add your thoughts.
You cannot prevent it from being downloaded or shared. It's a problem each app faces, even well-known apps apk are available easily over internet, all you need is to search for it :)
What you can do is restrict User to use it, if he has not purchased it.
Assuming this app will be on Google Play, & what you need is Play Billing Library
Using this you can identify user has rights to use this app or not.
if the user has not purchased it, he will not be able to use your app.
If this app is not going to be on Google Play store, you can see respective app store billing library.
Set allowBackup="false" to your application in your androidmanifest file.
Read more about flags - https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/application-element.html
I have been developing a free game (with ads) on the Android Market. Now quite a few people are requesting me to do a paid version without ads. I have no experience in keeping multiple versions of a single app.
I have already factored out the app on Eclipse: a library project and a (free) app project. Now I'm going to add a new project for the paid version.
My main problem has to do with the most efficient and reliable way to import old settings and data from the free version if it happens to be already installed on user's phone.
Ideally, I want users not to have to export data and settings manually.
I think hardcoding file paths is not robust.
I am too lazy and daunted to implement a ContentProvider.
Is there an easy way to query for data and settings from another app of mine, given the package name?
Thank you very much.
You don't need to copy anything or even install another app. Just add an in-app purchase to the free app that disables ads.
Barry
Here's the scenario i am trying to achieve:
Publish/have an app in the Android app store
However - i do not want it to be searchable through the android market search, etc.
The only way people can access the app is if i give them an explicit link to download
Is above possible? If so - how? All FAQs/instrucitons i have seen publish & make it searchable for the whole world - but i want it only accessible through #3 above.
Thanks.
Try this site https://www.push-link.com/, you can upload apk on your private account and only can be accessible thorough automatic generated link and QR code. This service contains user notification on new versions and bug reports.
Two things that are problematic with the link to an APK approach:
Some of the devices out there (I m only aware of the Motorola Atrix) don't have the "Unkown Sources" option, meaning that this won't work on them.
You loose the ability to auto update the app if you want.
I would recommend adding a login process where only your users will have access to the actual application. This way, you still have the Market advantages and only those people can activate the application.
The main disadvantage is that the application will be open to search in the Market, but as far as I know, this won't be a problem since people will immediately uninstall it since they won't be able to activate it.
In your case, what I do is, I dont upload the application to the Market and distribute it from my server.
I mean this is simple, sweet and it also saves my $25 for the market account...
Don't do this. Just publish the APK to your own website, then give the users the URL to the APK, they can download and install it directly. The only thing they'll need to do is ensure that Menu-Settings-Applications-Unknown sources is ticked.
Recently I came across a few apps (such as Clockworkmod's Rom Manager) where in order to get the pro version you had to download another APK. However once this APK was downloaded Rom Manager automatically knew this APK existed and added new functionality's. For example another app is the Astro app in which you can extend it by downloading modules from the Market.
Now I know how to check for the existence of another app, and I also know how to interact between apps via services. However my question is,it seemed like Clockwork and these other apps are using different apks for a plug-in type architecture. How does one do that? Have they predefined an entire plugin architecture and service model so whenever a new apk is installed the main app can check if its a module and call commands on it? Or is there something else going on?
I think these apps just know their plugins and how to use them. Plugins are separated to save some space or to add paid functionalities to free apps. Note that there are no 3rd party plugins to these apps - all of them was created by apps authors.
Actually I think it is technically possible to create real plugin system for Android apps. You could search for installed plugins using broadcast receivers, then talk with them through some API. However adding extensibility through plugins isn't trivial task, so I don't think it makes much sense to create such apps for mobile devices.