In one of our projects where we are implementing an application using Android/HTML5/JavaScript there is a requirement for having an Android Auto update kinda feature which is as described below:
Update Native version: The Native version of our application should be easy to update. New versions should be possible to “push”, or at least notify, the user of. Does this require that we publish it to the Android Market?
As of now Notification of the new version can be send to the device but we need an approach to automatically download the new version and install ie., either update the existing version or overwrite it. Hosting the new version in Android market is the last option according to the client
If someone/somebody has earlier come across or implemented such a feature, could you kindly reply back.
If you are using the Android market , the best solution is to just notify the user that an update is available. Depending on the update or Application you may decide not to allow the user the access the app if an update is available.
You will always need to push a new APK to the market , the user may setup the auto update feature but I believe there is no way for an app to force the setting.
Any method which will allow the app to auto update would either need more privileges from users or a routed device , which I guess is not a big enough percentage of users to try the feature.
The android market allow to auto-update applications. Is you want to do it without using the android market, your users will have to enable apk install from unknown sources and they will have to confirm each installation (unless their phones are rooted I think)
There is a nice service called http://push-link.com
This hosts you APK and manage updates. You can choose how the user is going to be notified and see the progress installation of all version.
Cheers...
Related
We are going to do a major update to an mobile app (both iOS and Android). When we do this update, we need to prevent the existing user using the older version anymore (in case if the new version is not auto updated) as some features might not work with the server update.
Is there any options in iOS and Andorid developer centers (for that app info) to mark that older version as cannot be used any more or to atleaset notify the users that they have to install the latest version when they try to use that app(incase they have switched off auto updates)
I have seen there are options to do it from the code by comparing it with the existing version and to notify the user. But since we have not implemented any such mechanism in our apps which is currently in the App stores, I don't think we can do the code based option for this version. That's why we are looking for other options like doing it though App store confugration etc..
Unfortunately, there is no solid solution for this issue.
One workaround if your app make any API calls, you can modify the response to let user know whey need to update the app. Or else, perhaps you can send a push notification to let existing user know they need to update the app.
Futhermore, you might need to implement force update mechanism, which is basically check user's current version with your latest app version, so you will know which version they are currently using. There are a few ways to do this:
Server side: You need to send app version to server and if it is not latest version, stop user and force user to go to AppStore/Playstore to update.
If you are using Firebase, you can take a look at Firebase Remote Config. I have not used it but I believe it would work.
I have developed a Mobile App for both Android and iOS. Now every week we have 2 updates to be released. Most of the times Android and iOS users stops auto updates for the apps. But if there are critical updates or bug fixes or new features then we must ask user to update the app for better usability. For this I have found Android has In App Updates API. It says and I quote
Keeping your app up-to-date on your users’ devices enables them to try new features, as well as benefit from performance improvements and bug fixes. Although some users enable background updates when their device is connected to an unmetered connection, other users may need to be reminded to update. In-app updates is a Play Core library feature that introduces a new request flow to prompt active users to update your app.
However I am not able to find same kind of or similar like feature for iOS. I am not sure if Push Notification can do the same or not. Please advise.
No, App can not be updated or downloaded without the user's settings for Auto Updates.
But you can try an alternative way.
Like when the app opens or comes to the foreground, call an API/web service to check is there any critical update released based on the current version of the app? Based on YES/NO response, show an alert to users that new update is available and on OK click, take them to the Apple stores.
No, iOS does not have the auto update feature that Android has. Push notification would not work well for this, as 1) the user may disallow push notifications, and 2) the Push would not know what version the user is currently using.
If your app calls a backend web API or web service, then it is pretty simple for the app to call a method, say, getVersion() in the web service. The web service reads the current version as set in a config file and returns it to the app. It could also return a flag that says Mandatory = either Y or N.
In your app, you call the getVersion() method every time on start up. If the app's version number is less than the version returned in getVersion(), then you check to see if the mandatory flag is set to 'Y'. If so, you show a dialog that says a mandatory update is required before you can use the app, would you like to install this now? If yes, you navigate them to the page in the iTunes app store, and exit the app. If no, you exit the app. They will get the same message every time they try to run the app until they update it.
If the mandatory flag is set to 'N', you show a dialog saying that an updated version is available, would you like to install it now? If yes, then navigate them to the page in the iTunes app store, and exit the app. If no, you allow the app to open and continue. However, the user will again be prompted every time the app opens until they update.
You can make the getVersion() method work for both iOS and Android, if you pass the platform to the method getVersion(String platform), and then read the config file for android_version or ios_version (as the version numbers may differ between platforms) depending on what was passed in the platform parameter.
I am currently investigating ways of remotely updating an Android app installed on a number of devices. The app in question is to be used on phones which we will provide to a number of demonstrators as part of product presentations. For this reason we don't want to publish the app on Google Play to be available for the public at large.
I've read that you can restrict access to the device on Google Play, but only according to criteria such as location, device type, android version, etc. Another way is to set up a version for beta testing, for which you can select testers, however this is only available to those who are part of a Google group or a Google+ community (according to here).
I've come across another post which details how to install an apk programmatically, however it appears to install the apk automatically, ie it doesn't appear to check whether or not the update is actually a new version.
One idea I have in mind is to upload new version on a repository and broadcast to devices which have the app installed, of which we have stored device ids. Is this possible?
What we do is sync periodically to a remote server during data entry on the app. During this sync, we check to see whether the device has the latest version of the software. If it doesn't, the new apk is downloaded and the user is prompted to install the software.
This is accomplished using a separate installer app we created. We have a service that keeps the app alive in the background, so it looks like the user never actually leaves the app during the install.
Would be happy to post code on the installer.
You can see the self installer here: https://github.com/techartist/SelfInstall-Jelly-Bean/
You should try Beta by Crashlytics, it's email-based.
You should try beta or alfa testing in gplay.
Also you can hardcode the date of ending and not to open application after this date.
Some of the applications I have installed on my phone update automatically, I don't even have to click anything. This is the behavior I expect from the application I'm developing myself. Do I have to configure something or will android market take care of this?
This is not a behaviour you can set on the application itself. Each user chooses how the applications he downloads are updated. This is a market setting.
In the latest versions of the market, the default is now set to auto-update, but the user is free to untick the box and decide for manual updates, per application. If you open settings, you can also decide whether it's done on Wi-Fi only or on mobile data as well.
This will be done on all updates except the ones where a permission change occurred. For them, the market will still require a manual update.
Auto update is possible. But you should click app to start it at least.
In the start process, you can send the current version status to server through web service, server will identify the version if there is new version. if yes, a new version apk file will be downloaded, and the most important is how to install a apk file sliently.
Generally, you can run the
pm install -r xxx.apk
the apk will be automatically installed, and your app will be updated.
I'm almost positive you can't force users to update their installed apps, but I think it is the default behaviour of the Android Market.
I have an app written in Adobe Air (actionscript3) then packaged as an APK for the moto xoom (android os, using flashdevlop).
We are looking to host both the install and update. There are no issues with selecting unknown sources. And installing from web works but i cant seem to find anyway to set it up to find updates thru my server or the correct way to push those updates. Thoughts or links, google has failed me?
UPDATE
I forgot to make clear i need it to work thru the built in update checking so it will auto update if the device is set to do this. By default either the app or device is checking for updates somewhere. I want to change where it checks for that update and what format/syntax its expecting.
The built-in update check is the Android Market app, pinging the Android Market server to check for updates. Since you're not distributing your app through Market, there's no way for you to take advantage of its update mechanism- You'll have to write your own (Amazon's market app, by way of example, does this).
Essentially you'll have to set up some sort of alert mechanism (check for updates on app startup, maybe), download the APK, and fire an intent to have the user explicitly state they want to install the app. Auto updating (downloading and installing the APK without the user doing anything at all) isn't possible outside of Android Market, for security reasons.
For more information on how to fire the "install" activity, check out this thread.
It sounds like a good case for cloud to device messaging....to notify the user of the update
is available...
http://code.google.com/android/c2dm/
I think they will still have to download/install it.....You can help them by making the download/install feature of the app it self.....
okey... i think you have a few web services right... create a update webservice that takes in the user version and sends it to you.. you can cross reference it and if the user needs to download a new version they get directed to a browser ... where you can poit to where you host the files... you can put in a menu item in the app to say allow the user to check for any upgrades... version number of the app can be got easily... check google or get back to me if you still are nunable to find any...