I have rather stupidly published a game on the android market with a package name of mick.game.tangletwister, whereas I should have called it com.rai.tangletwister (where rai is the name of my company)... it all seems to work fine - but could it cause some trouble in the future - should I change it? And if I do change it, will it cause problems for existing users that grab the updated version?
It will be fine if you keep the existing package name. Nothing wrong with that. The TLD.company.appname format is just a convention. As long as you don't enter some special characters in your packagename (which you did not), it will work anyway.
But if you try to change it you will run into trouble. See Things That Cannot Change.
If you change the package, update notification will not work any more. Moreover, when a user with the old package name installs the updated game, he/she will have both installed, because the update will replace the old version only if package/class are the same.
Depending on how many installs you have, you can, of course, remove the existing app from the Market - this should force-remove it from devices where it's installed. Then you create another app (same metadata, naturally) and use a correct package name.
1) Change the package name
2) Create a new app in the android market with that new package name
3) Update the old app, and add a pop-up saying that users should install a new version. Possible with a link to the new app
4) After some months, you should remove the old app.
Like user287351 said, it is possible to keep using the current package name, but i would prefer to have it listed under the correct package name
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I want ti install same app twice without replacing the each Other.
something like :I Want play a game from the start without losing previous game saved data.so, Is there a way i can install same apk twice without replacing the previous one. is it possible??
Will changing the apk package name & changing default installed Directory of app work?,but i think it doesn't work.
Actually you can I do that before BY:
You must have a different package name (make sure the package name in the AndroidManifest.xml file is different), there is no other way. I had two different versions of the same product (free & paid) and used: com.package.paid & com.package.free.
This means that nothing is shared between the two apps (DB included).
You can also use ANT scripts to build both apps from the same code base, I just changed it manually every time I needed to build a version. Hope this help :)
You can't do that, android only allow one version of an app exists. Do an upgrade or downgrade installation, or find another device to install the same app.
I've created an android app and installed it on my device.
Now I have changed the name and the icon for this app.
Is it possible to install this next to the "previous" app ?
When I try this it overwrites the previous one.
(I would prefer not to change the package name(s) since want to do this more then once).
No it is not possible the way you want. Name of application is irrelevant (it is just for humans). Package name (package attribute of <manifest> is what matters, so you need to name packages of your both builds differently to make this happen. There's no other way.
You will have to change the package name.
I have an app on Google Play whose java package name has the last part in mixed-case.. I was looking to remove an Android Lint warning (see this question) and Jens made me notice that Java naming conventions say that you should use only lowercase letters for java package names, and maybe this is what causes the warning.. My app works correctly, but I'd like to change the package name to lowercase, to comply with java naming conventions.. If I change the name of the package to only-lowercase, will I break the correct behavior of Google Play? I.e., if I release a new version of the app with the new package name Android will not recognize it as the same app installed on devices and it will appear as a completely different app? Do you suggest me simply to ignore this mistake and remember to comply with naming conventions in my next project or could I have problems (worse than simple Lint warnings) with the mixed-case package name?
Once you publish your application under its manifest package name,
this is the unique identity of the application forever more. Switching
to a different name results in an entirely new application, one that
can’t be installed as an update to the existing application.
Its not possible to change it . Please read http://android-developers.blogspot.in/2011/06/things-that-cannot-change.html
I wrote two completely different applications for Android, and although learning Android was a bigger pain in the butt than I would have liked, they both work nicely. Unless I try to install them both at the same time.
Android thinks they are the same app! I have no idea why. Both are signed. Android wants me to uninstall app A before I can install app B. It's not like they have the same name or anything. They do use the same package name, but the activity names are different. Does the package name have to be different?
Short answer, yes. The packages are supposed to be specific to your program / 'company' so keep them that way.
The have to have different package names. No two apps in the android marketplace can have the same package name. Just change the package name and you should be good. You can guarentee unique package nams for your app simply with using com.developername.appname naming convention.
Android identifies different applications by their different package names. If an application has the same package name as another in the market (or on the device), it will be unable to tell which one is the correct package to modify / delete / start, and thusly requires all applications to have different package names.
The packages must have different names and they must be signed with two different keys.
Whenever I try to install the 2nd version, it says that it is going to replace all data from the previous version. I did the following things to avoid such situations:
app names are different so .apk file name is also different
package names are different
My app has a database. Do I need to have different database name for these two version ?
So, I would like to know, what I am doing wrong and what more should be done? I am using eclipse simulator at the moment.
You must have a different package name, there is no other way.
I had 2 different versions of the same product (free & paid) and used: com.package.paid & com.package.free.
This means that nothing is shared between the 2 apps (DB included).
You can also use ANT scripts to build both apps from the same code base, I just changed it manually every time I needed to build a version.
Make sure that you have changed the package= in the AndroidManifest.xml