I've read over the google play documentation, but I didn't see where it really explained the app update process. Once you deactivate the old app and activate the new app, is it live for customers? I was under the impression that there was a publish option after activating, but no real way for me to know besides doing it. Any ideas?
After you activate your apk on your app and click publish in the right hand corner, your app is live to customers. Note that this is only for the first publication of your app on any subsequent updates your app is already published
To publish an update, you click on the APK files in the top right. Then below your existing apk details you will see a button to upload a new apk. Click on this and upload your new apk file. However your users will not be getting their updates just yet, your first have to click Activate on your new apk file, which will appear to the right of the description of your new apk.
After you have done this it the update will go to your users, but often it will take a couple of hours for the play store to process your update and send it to your users
See here - Android developer console app update
You upload your new apk, save it, activate it. That will tell you that the old one will be replaced. And publish it. It takes in average to one hour to become visible.
For more information refer to the Update your apps site.
Related
I have a native android app in google play and now I have made a new version of the app with ionic 2 framework.
How to update the app and is it possible to notify the users about the new version of the app?
I quess I have to remove the old one and upload the new one.
This is exactly what you need:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/7159011
Because you completely rewrote your app please read this too, the most important part is "Prepare your APK":
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/113476?hl=en
If you follow these guides existing users will be notified about new version automatically by Google Play Store.
The existing users can download the update from your app listing page on the play store or when they select My apps on the Play store. Also if they have enabled auto update for your app then the update will be downloaded and installed automatically.
More about this here.
and as #Abhishek recommended, if you don't have any code for checking updates in your previous version of app then users will not get notified automatically.
also you don't have to remove the old app to upload the new one, you can deactivate the old app if you want it to no longer served to the user, OR you can retain it if you still want it to be served to the users.
Google play usually updates applications automatically. You just need to add upload APK and click Release. You don't have to remove old APK.
In less than a day or something all users of your application will be notified by Google Play that new version is available and if user configures his phone to install apps automatically, then apk will be installed in background as soon as update will be ready.
Also you can notify your users about new version using PUSH notifications. Of course if your previous release does not contain code to enable PUSHes, then you cannot send such notification.
And one more thing: if you use your previous keys to sign APK then everything is fine and you don't need to do anything with APK at developer console, otherwise you need to rollback application and/or re-publish it.
I have published an app in Google Play a few months ago. That app have some downloads and data from users in Console Google. I will release a new version, but while I'm finishing, I want remove it temporarily - keeping all that data and download numbers. Is it possible or when I cancel the publish all data will be deleted?
Please note that you unpublish (and this means just what name says, nothing more) not just APK - you hide all related stuff (app's page in Google Play etc). To end user it looks like the app is gone. For you - it is still in your console, you can edit description, images, see comments, stats or update APKs etc., but unless you publish it again, nobody will see these changes.
https://stackoverflow.com/a/13493065/7303462
You could do that by unpublishing your app. You can re-publish it by installing a newer apk of the app and all the data will remain the same, you'd not loose any of it.
PS: You cannot delete an app from your account. Published and unpublished apps will remain in your account.
Update 2022 :
You can go to "Google play console -> Release -> Setup -> Advanced Settings", but as google says :
Unpublished: New users cannot find and install your app. Existing users can still find it and will receive updates.
Published: New users can find and install your app
I found a solution so that you can restrict the region of your app if you do not want to delete and republish it. This prevents even existing users from finding your app. In the published list of your app, you should keep at least one country, and you can select the country with the lowest downloads.
I'm using android studio. I have developed an app and now I want to upload it to Google Play. I have a license and I have uploaded an app before, but I didn't really know what I was doing at that time.
What I want is to upload my app to Google Play, and then upade it without losing the reviews and rating. How do I do that?
And, what is the best way to force a user to download an update? I am going to upload the app to Google Play and to Amazon Appstore (for android), so a link to Google Play or something similar is maybe not the best solution. I was thinking - a toast message "please update the app". What do you think?
Updating an existing apk on Google Play Store:
1) Go to your Google Play Developer Console
2) Select All applications in that select "Your Application"
3) Select Upload APK.
4) Choose from the Production, Beta, or Alpha channels and select Upload your APK.
It take few hours to publish update. more information about upload, publish, etc.
Forcing users to update: There are three things
1) It is not possible in Google Play Store, unless user have set automatic update on.
2) You can use external library like UpdateChecker, AppUpdater, etc.
3) You can change your application structure in that way that whenever user starts you application internal contents get update. (This is not a feasible option, I guess)
What is KeyStore?
It is used to build singed apk.
Keep your keystore in a secure location. If you lose your keystore, you'll need to publish the app with a new package name and a new key. If you need to do this, you should also unpublish the original app and update its description
Please check out this library, actually it provides what you want with simple approach.
https://android-arsenal.com/details/1/3094
When you publish a new version of your app to the Play Store, you will not lose any of the prior ratings for that app.
You can't force users to update your app. It is fully under their control. Some people may have automatic updates turned on, but for those who do not, they have to choose to receive the update.
Google added this new feature you can add to your app to force in-app update based on if you want the update immediate or flexible
https://developer.android.com/guide/playcore/in-app-updates/kotlin-java
I have an unpublished app on Google Play which I want to update for my existing users, but not let new users download it.
The Google Play documentation seems to be saying that this can be done by simply uploading an updated apk (and not re-publishing the app):
Unpublished Apps
Existing app users will still be able to receive app updates, even if you unpublish your app. If you don't want new users to find and download your app but still want to provide updates to your existing users, set your app to Unpublished in the Developer Console.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/113476?hl=en
But it seems unintuitive that an "unpublished" application would work that way. If the documentation is correct, how does Google Play tell the difference between an 'existing' user and a 'new' user?
Just a follow up: pushing an update to the unpublished app does make the update available to existing users only, but the app does not update automatically for these users. They must browse to the app page, where the app will have an "Update" button which can be triggered manually.
(This is just speculation, I'm not affiliated with Google in any way or anything)
The existing user probably has the app associated with the Google account they use to log in to the Play store.
If you look at your own profile in the store, there's a list of all the apps you've ever installed. I'm guessing the update would be available only for people who have your app in their lists, and the app will still be invisible for new users.
Whenever a user that has the app installed wants to update it, he requests an update of the app, it's different from re-installing the app as data from the app (a save from a game, or some saved preferences etc) are kept untouched, google play can easily detect that since it can detect what apps you have installed.
My app is being tested using Google Play. I am one of my alpha testers, naturally. I released a new alpha version of the app. I was expecting it to update automatically on my device. But it's not updating. Am I missing a step? According to Google
Once they install the app and opt in, they'll automatically be updated
to the new test version.
Nothing with Google Play is automatic. They have a caching system much like Apple App Store among others. From my experience, once or twice a day the cache system gets flushed and the market gets updated.
At some point after that, the updates get pushed. This can be a multi-day process unfortunately.
Just had the same problem. My update wasn't available after 48 hours. Tried closing the app store and restarting the phone, which didn't work. Then I went into the phones settings and cleared the play stores cache, which worked immediately, and I could download the latest alpha version.
In addition to the time it takes for app updates to fully process, the Google Play app itself also caches app information, so your users (and you) may be seeing a cached version of your Google Play list.
Here's a trick to force Google Play to fetch the latest version of your app. This works every time for me.
How to reset the Google Play app's cache:
Force close the Google Play app
Open the Settings app
Go to Applications > Application Manager > Google Play Store > Storage
Click Clear Cache
The Google Play app's cache should now be reset. Try finding your app again and see if it shows the latest version.
Google announced on March 2018 the availability of an internal test track.
According to documentation:
You should create an internal test if you want to quickly distribute
your app for internal testing and quality assurance checks.
[…]
An internal test can have up to 100 testers per app.
I had a similar issue where my tester was able to see the production version of my app in Play Store but not the new Beta version update even though it was uploaded many hours before and available to other Beta testers as an update.
I had added him as a Beta tester to my Google Group, also added as a test user in my Google Play Store account. The solution was to force stop Play Store then restart it again.
The Beta Update was available as soon as he went back into the play store and searched for the app.
This might work for you:
On your Android phone or tablet, open your Settings (possibly represented by a cog icon), then click on Apps.
At the top of the screen, click the 3 dots in the top right corner to open more options and click show system apps.
Scroll down and tap Download Manager.
Tap Storage Clear Cache and clear data.
Open the Google Play Store and the updated version will be there to download.
reposting #Aeramor comment as an answer as this solved the issue for me.
Force quit AND clear the play store cache/data and it will update instantly
It may take some time to get the update from the android device. For me for "Internal testing", after uploading an update, I was getting it from my device for a while. Once I cleared the cache for "Google playstore" app of my android phone, I got the update immediately.
While clearing the Google Play cache resolved one issue for me, I noticed something else strange that may help someone out. When I clicked "About this app" on the app page in the Play Store, the version shown for my app was the previous version number. This made me think that the new version was still unavailable and I just needed to wait. However, after waiting several hours for the new version to appear on the Play Store, I decided to try downloading it anyway, and lo and behold, the latest version had been installed.
1 - Upload APK in alpha test
2 - Add your email in one google group or google plus community
3 - copy the link test provided by google play and press accept button
Now just wait until your application became updated.
It tooks 72h for me to update close testers app. Without removing caché or anything, just...waiting 3 long days :(
I found that the link I provided to testers was almost immediately going to the newest version. No need to clear cache or any other steps required.
Just check to see the link goes to the new version, then inform testers to click the app link for the update and install it.
fyi, this was for an internal test release with an email list of testers created in play console. Also, the first release had a delay before a link was available, but subsequent releases were available through the link provided to testers very shortly after rollout.
I did all of the above (cleared cache in Google Play and Download Manager), restarted my phone, and then checked for updates in the "My apps & games" located in the settings drop down (3 bars on the left of the search bar when opening Google Play) and there it was, voila.. waiting to be updated. About 5 minutes after I updated my app, I got my email saying my update was live.
Don't forget to pass in WIFI mode to get the update (depending of your settings).
Recently faced this issue and contacted Google Play Developer Support. Here are the instructions. Maybe it could help someone...
Please make sure that the tester email you used must not be opted into
multiple testing tracks. Please ensure that your testing group is only
enabled in only one testing track.
I recommend you to opt out of all the testing tracks and clear the
cache and data for the Play Store app and your device’s download
manager. This will clear any settings and temporary information saved
to your device. You can still access purchases you’ve made from Google
Play, like apps, music, movies, and books. Here's how:
Open your device's main Settings app.
Tap Apps or Application manager (depending on your device, this may be different).
Tap Google Play Store
Tap Storage.
Tap CLEAR CACHE > OK.
Tap CLEAR DATA > OK.
Tap the back arrow to go back to the main menu.
Select Downloads or Download Manager.
Tap CLEAR CACHE > OK.
Tap CLEAR DATA > OK.
Relaunch the app.
IMHO, the most crucial point here is the following:
Please make sure that the tester email you used must not be opted into multiple testing tracks. Please ensure that your testing group is only enabled in only one testing track.
Accessing Google Play test app updates
TLDR:
add users to tester list with email matching their device account; internal testing track is fastest; they must opt in using app-specific link on the web; if testers don't see update, have users Force Stop and clear app storage for Google Play Store, then visit your app's listing page in Google Play Store again.
Notes on getting/giving access to beta test updates from Google Play
Internal Testing is the fastest. Other testing tracks can take time to Review and release. You will get an email when the review process is complete.
Testers will need to opt in from an app-specific link; this is emailed out to each user the first time they're eligible to test a release, but it's also available from Play Console (see screenshot below)
Testers must be signed in to their Android device with an email/account matching an entry in your Testers list (e.g. Internal Testers)
Once the Internal Test is released, or the Review process is complete for Closed/Open testing, apps can be updated from the Google Play Store
Google Play Store caches app data, so it may take time for any particular device to show available updates. To see available updates immediately: Long press on Google Play Store, visit App Info screen, Force Stop, visit App Storage screen and clear storage, reopen Google Play Store, and visit app page; you should see any available updates.
Edit testers from Play Console > select app > menu item Testing > [Internal|Closed|Open] Testing
Example instructions for testers:
Visit this link and click the button to opt-in to testing (Example link: https://play.google.com/apps/internaltest/INTERNAL_ID/join?hl=en-US)
Open Google Play Store and search for App Name. Open the app listing.
If you don’t see an option to “update” the app, install a test/beta please Force Quit and Clear Storage for Google Play Store:
Tap and hold on Google Play Store app icon (you may have to swipe up to find it, or it may be in your “recent” bar at the bottom of the screen)
Tap “App info”
Tap “Force Top” option on App Info screen
Tap “Storage & cache”
Tap “Clear storage” option
Now visiting Google Play Store again and search for APP NAME
Install/update the beta and open the app again