I want to create a game for android, but this game will have a level. If I put my app in the Android Market how do I update this app after it's already been uploaded?
You have to provide mechanism of saving user's data to a file or database, making user able to continue playing game from the point where he/she was before update. After that when you have a new release of the app signed with the same key and uploaded to the android play store, users will get a notification and will be able to download and update your app. Preinstalled PlayStore app on android devices will complete that task. Every time user starts your app check settings file and setup app's properties for the user for continue playing.
You publish your apk via the Developer Console. You can upload unpublished drafts of your app without disturbing the published version. Once you choose to publish an update, then the Google Play store will offer the update to your existing users. Migrating your user's data is as described by Maxim.
You can sign up for a Google Play publisher account here: https://play.google.com/apps/publish
Related
I've been working on my first app but haven't yet submitted it for review on the Play Console, only internal testing. Long story short, I trashed my project folder that had been configured with signing keys and am now trying to re-upload my app (recovered via Git) to the Play Console. I resigned it with new keys and as expected this prevents me from uploading my current app as a newer version of the original (now trashed) app. If I try to submit my app as a new app I receive an error:
You need to use a different package name because "com.example.app" is already used by one of your other applications.
I have a strong preference to keep this package name. Is there any way to delete the existing draft app? The only workaround I have found so far would be to create a new Google account and start fresh. Any help is appreciated.
I googled "delete app google play console".
This led me to this SO post that had this answer which points to this help article that says:
Delete an app or game
You can permanently remove draft apps or games from Play Console. You can also delete:
Published apps or games that haven't been installed on any devices
Published apps or games that no users are entitled to re-install
In these cases, contact our support team to request that your app's or game's data be permanently deleted.
Where "contact our support team" lead to this page.
How can I notify the user that the current app is been removed from the play store and there is a new app available in the store?
You should push an update on your old app before removing it, (notify the users that the app has migrated/removed for some reason), then put a link to the new app in the play store. Then take down the old app from the play store to stop users from accessing the old app.
Depending on your scenario:
If you have access to the current version of the app, you can create one last update, which has a popup indicating that there's a new app downloadable. You can create a button with the direct link to the play store and devices will accordingly open the new app link.
If you don't have access to update the current version of the app, you can send a push notification indicating that users should download a new version before X date, and after that you'll take the app off the play store. This would obviously depend on if you have a push-notification feature coded into your app
If you don't have access to the keystore file (forgot the password), you can try to bruceforce it by using this script: https://code.google.com/archive/p/android-keystore-password-recover/wikis/HowTo.wiki
If you have access to the e-mails of the users that have installed the app (in case they have created an account for example), you could send them an e-mail explaining how they should download the new app before X date.
App signing was enabled in the app and restored the keystore using app signing feature.
Thanks
I have configured the open beta tests in the Google Play Store using a link like https://play.google.com/apps/testing/<my app package name> to invite my users to join the beta.
The users can download the app but when a new update is available the users didn't receive the update. Why ?
The only way for the users to download the update is going in the Play Store page of my app and click on the update button.
It seem beta apps doesn't have the same update system than published app.
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.