I have 2 Applications 1 with Ads and 1 without Ads.
I created one without ads and then copied the project in eclipse. I named the new project AdFree. I then proceeded to add Ads to the other project. Now, both Projects have the same com.mycompany.myapp name so when I tried to upload it it said I already had a project with that name even though the APK's where named differently.
I want it so if they have the Free (Ad based version) version and they purchase the one without ads, it will replace the Free Version that is already there.
You can't do that. You have two solutions:
A) Make two different versions, with two different package names. This way the user will have to uninstall the ads supported version when he buys the ad-free one.
B) Make a single app, ad supported, with the possibility to remove ads with In-app biling service (This will require a little research, but I think the result is better, since you have to deal with a single app).
There should be more options to handle your problem, but these are the most common solutions.
Related
I am wondering what is the best way to have two different versions of an android app. I would like to have version of my app with ads and one without ads (the paid one). What is the easiest way to achieve this ? I have found something called version flavours here but since I am new to android development I am not sure if that is what I want. Please any suggestions for addressing this ?
You could have two versions of the application in Play store. However, you would have to maintain these separately and it is frustrating to upgrade from free to paid with this approach. If you chose this way of maintaining your application, you would have to have two projects, one for each version. This would result you into having two copies of almost identical source code.
One approach I've seen people do is that the free version also contains the premium features which are unlocked once the user installs a paid unlocker application from the store. However, this has the same result as the first option: you would have to maintain two applications (this time different, though) and the users would have to install additional software.
The best option is to include the premium version as an in-app purchase. The app would contain all the premium features but would be locked by default. Once the user pays for the in-app product (in this case the premium membership), he would unlock all the features.
You can read more about in-app billing here.
Why not just publish two apps with the free one as this :
MyApp
and the paid one as this:
MyApp(Paid).
And this is how to prepare them:
Get your app working, and add ads and then sign it and generate the apk. Publish it. MyApp.apk
Then go back, and remeove the ads, change the package name, add the Paid to the name, and then sign the apk. MyApp(Paid).apk
Then Publish it.
I currently have an Android app which is distributed as two applications an Ad supported version and an ad-free version. The Ad-Supported version has over 10,000 users and the Ad-Free version has a couple of hundred. Currently both projects are completely independent making updates a fairly tedious task.
Ideally I would like to just updated one project and build be able to build both versions.
After looking online it seems I have two options:
Make a library containing most of the class files and then just extend this for the two versions (changing only the files that are different). As the project is fairly big this may be a large task and may cause some serious headaches.
Just release one version and use in-app purchases to remove the ads. This seems the easiest route but how do I allow my existing ad-free users to remove the ads via in-app purchase without paying?
Hopefully someone has been in a similar predicament before and can point me in the right direction.
Where I used to work we had the 2nd option. It helped us a lot since you just need to maintain 1 code/app/apk. In your case, I suggest you to do the same thing.
In order to migrate all your users to a single App, you can give a random code (generated with the email they are using and an algorithm to create it) via your "Ad-Free version" app. Then, in your All-in-one app you can ask for that code or activate the "In-App-workflow" in order to remove all Ads.
Edit:
Check this link:
How to get the Android device's primary e-mail address
I am always recommend SO user to used android inapp purchase.
Benefits:
1) Easily track manage your playstore user.
2) If updation require then update code on one place.
3) Secure payment with google policy.
4) many more feature.
#bencallis as per your question i recommend to you option 2 is better.
if you require any inapp information then put comment.
You're in a similar boat with me, though I've taken one step already.
I made an app for a small group of people that are close to me, free and ad-free, and released it. I then created another app for a wider group of people, free but with ads. The two applications were almost the same, except a few things that had to be app-specific (like strings, resources, and a few variables). After getting frustrated with updating both of them, I decided to go with the library approach. It might give you headaches in the beginning, but it will truly cut down on your updating. You'll only have to update the library file, then just compile and check the actual application.
Because of how you describe your situation, I think you'll have an easier time than me. Turn one of your applications (probably the ad-free one) into a library, then in the ad-supported version simply overwrite the layouts that show the ads.
I can't suggest your second option, only because, as far as I know, there is no way to do what you want.
I know it is technically possible to put the same application into the app store with 2 almost identical APKs (different package names and titles), although probably a bit dodgy - I imagine this would not be allowed by Google, but I don't see anything in their Ts & Cs that prohibit this
https://play.google.com/about/developer-distribution-agreement.html
E.g. "My cool app free" And "The awesomest app trial"
Question: Is this allowed?
Reason: A colleague and I were debating the effect of titles and descriptions of downloads (based on different indexes/user searches) and wondering if people ever post a game/app with 2 different ones to see which is more successful
You can if the package name of the app is different, as you said. This is done quite often for apps with trial and paid version. Regarding your question, we have right now around 6 apps in Google Play which are different branded versions of the same app. This means, they have their own package name, splash screen, and some database data, but the app is really the same. So far we didn't get any trouble with Google, so I would say it's possible.
Just for reference, in case you are interested in doing something similar, the best option in terms of maintainability of your app, consists in using an Android library project.
Basically you have one main big project with the "Android Library" option checked in Eclipse. You have all the main code there.
On the other hand, you create two additional projects linked to your library. They will just need their manifest.xml and some activity to call the main activity of the library. Their package names must be different if you want to publish both apps in Google Play.
Additionally, you can override some resources for every project. For instance, you could have a boolean in /res/values indicating whether the project is a trial or paid version, with different values for them. Then, in the library you could check this boolean to show advertisements if it's a trial version.
Another useful thing you can do is using a custom splash screen for every app, by having different image resources in every project with the same name.
As far as I know, it is allowed and certainly has been done in the past (malware masquerading as popular games). Provided the app you're publishing is your own work (and really only the name is different), then I can't see anyone reporting it either.
It is prohibited according to Play Console Developer Program Policy (effective October 21, 2020).
We don't allow apps that merely provide the same experience as other apps already on Google Play. Apps should provide value to users through the creation of unique content or services.
Here are some examples of common violations:
Copying content from other apps without adding any original content or value.
Creating multiple apps with highly similar functionality, content, and user experience. If these apps are each small in content volume, developers should consider creating a single app that aggregates all the content.
I want to upload the same application twice to the Android Market. One version will have AdMob messages and the other version of the same app will cost a pair of bucks.
Should I make two applications with differents packages names in order to upload them or is there any trick to do it with the same project.
Thanks in advance.
Every application at Android Market must have unique package name, so you have to place your apps into different packages (one be a subpackage of another though, i.e. com.app and com.app.ads). You can share common code in a library project.
You will need two different package names. You might also consider to exclude certain parts of your code in your free version, because Android Market is known for not being the most secure distribution channel. But if the only difference is the additional ads in your free version, it is not worth the effort.
There is another possibility, which unfortunately, I don't know how to do, but I'd like to find out. You can put all the functionality into one app and then create a second app which acts as a "key". Users download your first app for free, but it has limited functionality unless the "key" app is also present. You would charge users to download the "key" app.
This solution has the advantage of not having to maintain two code bases for every app, which is what I do and it drives me nuts.
I've developed an android-application that I'dd like to put up on the marketplace. However, I want to split it into two separate applications, one free (with ads), and one paid (logically without ads). How would I go about doing that? I'm not wondering about adding ads (I've alreaddy managed that), but how to take one existing android-application (eclipse-project) and split it into two without having to create a new project and just copy-paste every file one by one (or in batch for that matter). Is that possible?
Btw, I use GIT for SCM, so I've made two separate branches, one master and one free, but I need to set some cind of config-value that makes shure that the market separates them as two different applications.
Also, when a user 'upgrades', is it possible to copy the db from the free app to the paid one?
You could use the Maven Android Plugin to build multiple versions of the same application. You could then specify a different AndroidManifest for each version (in order to specify a different Application Package Name for each version).
Your free and paid version of your app would be different profiles in Maven.
For your second question, don't you use the device's database? If so, you can access it at '/data/data/free_app/databases/' and copy it over to /data/data/paid_app/databases/ .
Or even use the same package name for the apps, and make both use the same database. You'll have to make the free one uninstall itself when the otehr is bought so the data doesn't get weird.
See here in case you use an app database.
you could do in app payments to make the upgrade to paid version, it'd be neat because you'd have everything on just one project