I'm starting developing and app about fights and violence and i'm planning to distribute this app through the Google Play Market, like i did with all my other Android apps. I usually develop and publish apps for children, so i'm scared about publish something that is really far from my other published apps. For example I'm scared about the fact that an user, while is looking for one of my child related app, can see the violence app in the "other apps from this developer" section.
Is there a way to avoid that or the only solution is to buy another developer account?
Unfortunately, More from Developer and related search on site and Play app is based on developer's name.
For example, search for more from developer looks like this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=publisher_name and for devices market://search?q=pub:publisher_name
The only option is to register separate Google Play publisher account.
To create another account for the sheer purpose of publishing an application which is violent and should not be seen by users of your other applications, is purely a subjective matter. If you believe this is the best way of doing so, go right ahead. I don't see how it will affect any other factor.
That being said, when you publish an application, you already have the option (a mandatory one, I might add) to select the Content Rating. The recommended selection for such an application could be High Maturity. Read more about it at this link.
Related
I have a app created in xamarin forms, I already know how to create the APK, the app is to be used internally, i dont want to publish to the appstore, how can the app be update when is available a new version ?
Depending on your resources at hand and requirements, you have a couple of options. These options include, but are certainly not limited to:
Visual Studio Mobile Center (link): probably the most obvious choice. Out of the box support for Xamarin, and 'just works'. You can set up different groups of users, add analytics and crash reporting, etc. In the future you might be able to take your configuration to its big brother: VSTS. But beware! The product is in preview right now. Preview in Microsoft-land means free for now, but doesn't have to be in the future. While I expect it not to cost much/anything for basic functionality, it is something to be aware of. Not sure on this, but I think you need to invite your users by hand, so you have to know who you want to invite.
Google Play Store (link): It's kind of a mis-use, but you could of course leverage the Google Play Stores capabilites for Alpha/Beta testing. Also here you have the ability to create groups and have some basic reporting options. In terms of delivering your app you have some nice options here like A/B testing and unlike Mobile Center (again, I didn't verify this) you can setup a link with which people can enroll themselves. Depending on your needs, this might be nice. In terms of costs, this will set you back 25 dollars once. And you could develop and distribute other apps if you'd like.
Manual: send the APK file manually or hosting it on a shared location. I would prefer this least of all. People are not notified of any updates and you don't have any insights apart from something you might have incorporated in your app. Also you don't have any control over who installs or sees the app, etc.
But of course the prefered way would be to do it through the Google Play enterprise program. See this website. This provides you and your end-users with a private app store basically. Or as they say:
A managed version of Google Play is used by enterprises and their employees to access a rich ecosystem of work and productivity apps.
You can have private apps, only available for your targeted audience and still leverage the power of the Google Play store. The experience for your end-users will be unified with the regular app store.
I couldn't find a straight answer, but it seems the private apps will also cost just 25 dollars once and is included in the regular Play Store developer license.
You have a good way to do that : Use Beta this a service provided by Fabric, you can upload your app with different versions and get access to different teams in your company. It's easy to use and quick to manage.
Hope it helps.
You have multiple options at your hand:
use Bitrise or Visual Studio Mobile Center (aka HockeyApp) to build and provide a downloadable version of you app
in addiont to Bitrise or VS Mobile Center you can set up your own store. Take a look at Relution for example
build locally on your machine and push it to:
a fileshare
an FTP-site
the user by mail.
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.
How does an Android device identify an app as "market" or "non-market"?
The situation is that I've an app I want to make available to a set of customers, rather than the entire world, but don't want them to have to go through the extra steps of allowing their device to install non-market apps. I'd like to distribute it through a company website behind a login wall without losing the ease of installation for a play app.
The private channel, designed for companies to distribute internally, isn't quite what I had in mind. I'm distributing to clients of my company, each of which has many employees, via a per-client website.
I don't have a problem with somehow presenting the app to Google to get it signed, sealed, etc. "Why not just use the market" is a reasonable question, and I'm considering that option too.
I'd also rather not violate Google's terms of service in the process.
Clarification:
I appreciate the answers so far. I am asking about the mechanism the Android OS uses to determine if something is a market app.
This should give you the right information:
PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
String installationSource = pm.getInstallerPackageName(getPackageName());
A result com.google.android.feedback indicates, that the app was installed using Google Play.
Hope this helps ... Cheers!
p.s. this related link looks quite interesting
A "market" app is an app that you download from a trusted marketplace (usually Google Play but some devices like the Kindle Fire allow downloads from the Amazon market), so in your case you have to tell your users to allow installation of non-market apps.
What about showing the login screen on the app instead of the website? In this way you could publish it easily on Google Play. This is how
similar apps do (like this one : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.intermedia.securisyncinternal.ui)
Simple question, as i can remember there was an option at the developers console in the Play Store to make an app only visible to a set of email addresses. Or at least the app would be free for that set of emails.
So is there an option to make an app only visible to a specific set of email addresses on the Play Store?
I'm asking this because i want to test my app, therefor i have to email it to like 50 people (not a problem). But when i update the app in the "beta" stage i don't want to resend those emails, and ask the test users to update the current install. Using the Play Store updates would be more seamless and automatic.
Does anyone have experience with this situation?
Edit:
It seems that there is at the moment only one simple answer:
No, using Google Play it's not (yet) possible. But there are some alternatives out there, see accepted answer.
It would be great if Google could add this functionality to the developers console, this would allow developers to simply bring out new updates, and easily see crash rapports without having to publish the app in public.
Edit 2:
Now it is possible to Alpha and Beta test your applications! I believe since the 15 of may 2013.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213?hl=nl
Google Play now has alpha and beta testing built in:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213?hl=en
I personally don't remember seeing the option you mentioned, specifying email addresses for private delivery and therefore, I have no experience on that matter. In fact, a quick check in the Developer Console, revealed that the option is no longer available, which I am sure you already know since you posted a question for the same.
That being said, there is a web service I am aware of (never used it personally, but is recommended by quite a few of my developer friends and colleagues).
The website is: The Beta Family. A cursory look at their website so far hasn't mentioned any fees or payments for creating an account or uploading an app for testing.
They also have the email feature you mention in the OP which they call SuperSend where you specify a set of email addresses and the app is delivered to them.
You can get more information about the same here: http://thebetafamily.com/supersend/
It may not be useful if you are looking specifically for a solution with Google Play. But if you open to alternatives, I think this looks promising.
Hope this helps.
EDIT: Their FAQ's mentions that their service is, in fact, free.
My app is basically supposed to sell ebooks and need to distribute via Android Market. For payment options, I would like to use PayPal. So, straight to the point, am I allowed to use paypal as payment option for digital goods(in my case Ebooks)? I had googled for it a while. But nothing worth referencing came up to me.
I also read through Android Market terms and didn't quite get it whether they allow such option for in-app billing. All I see from their docs is referring to Google Checkout. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Well, just for information, I refer to http://www.google.com/mobile/android/market-tos.html .
Just to keep up, http://www.android.com/us/developer-content-policy.html#showlanguages this link may well more specific to my situation.
In general, you need to be careful - the TOS of the Android Market generally require you to use Google's payment processing options to charge users (see "Paid and Free Applications").
That said, they name two exceptions, one of which seems to apply in your case - "Where payment is for digital content or goods that may be consumed outside of the application itself (e.g. buying songs that can be played on other music players)". If your app sells ebooks in the form of standard files (like epub or pdf), you should be in the clear.
I believe you can sell digital content using paypal via your app - however I don't think you can use Google's In-App Purchasing system - that has to go through the Market Place, and is linked to a Google Checkout account.
So you'd need a separate delivery and authentication system.