I have uploaded an android app over Android Market. It is free and anyone can download it from the Market.It is downloaded over 100,000 times. And now i want to upload an updated version of that app. This time i want to charge $0.99 for each download. But i have a fear of jail-breaking. There are many websites offer paid apps of Android Market in free.
So, the question is how to stop this jail-breaking of android apps?
Thank you very much in advance.
And now i want to upload an updated version of that app. This time i want to charge $0.99 for each download.
You can't do that. You can offer a new app for $0.99, but you cannot make a free app be no longer free.
So, the question is how to stop this jail-breaking of android apps?
Use the LVL and hope for a fair amount of luck. Any license scheme can be cracked, but you may make it difficult enough that nobody will bother trying it for your app.
Or, choose a business model where you do not have to charge for the app.
No, there really isn't. Maybe have a license key like Launcher Pro, but even then I'm sure somebody will be able to bypass that.
Unfortunately, Google's LVL is simple to crack.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/android_drm_cracked_pirating_apps_is_easy.php
Related
So, is there a realiable way to update enterprise/intern apps remotelly?
I work in a company that spreads across my state, including some areas that the access is dificult, so I can't send someone to locally update the app everytime there's a new release.
I'm working with Android/Java at the moment, and we also use Azure DevOps to store the repositories.
I tryied App Center from Microsoft but didn't understood if that could help me update my app or not.
Also, we don't want to publish the application to the PlayStore and make it public. Unless, of course, if that's the only way.
Thank you for your time reading this, I will keep searching something related to this and also share here any solution that I can find.
There's different ways to do so I'll say some but there's definitely more.
You can use Push-link, read about it it does more or less what you are looking for.
Perhaps could work uploading the .apk to Google Play and just publish it for beta testers, here's an old Google Play Private App Guide pdf and perhaps it doesn't work anymore but give it a try.
Also what you tried with App Center perhaps what you are looking for is Distribution In-App Updates
Note: This is not recommended to avoid by passing Google Play to distribute an app
I am looking for a way that I can develop an app cheaply for a very specific use.
Specifically, I would like to create an game that can be played online between different phones.
I have some coding and development experience, and I would like to make the app iOS compatible (initially... open to Android integration later on).
Is anyone aware of a way to make an app without paying $99+ a year to be deployed on the app store? I simply need to make it available to approximately 15 people, and am uninterested in making any money or widely distributing the app.
Many of the target audience are in low-income areas of the world and have very limited access to computers, so a mobile application is likely my only option.
Thanks in advance for any help!
I have done research into Apple developer accounts, but it doesn't seem to fit my needs. I have also looked into making an Ad-Hoc account app, but can't find a lot of info on the feasibility of this.
One thing to consider is what are the game performance requirements?
If it is a simple game, using a Javascript game engine may be a better option as it can be hosted on a server (and viewed in a browser) to start with, and later bundled in a progressive web app with PWA Builder.
I'm not an expert but I think this question should be moved to a different Stack Exchange website.
Anyway, if you want to distribute your app to iOS real devices through the App Store, you will have to pay the $99 yearly membership.
There is also a free Apple Developer Program. I never tried it and I think you need physical access to the devices on which you want to load the app. But I could be wrong and maybe you'll have access to TestFlight. If you do have access to TestFlight the only disadvantage is that you'll have to re-publish your app from time to time when the testing period for one version is over. Try it!
iOS device and low-income don't really fit together ;-).
On Android, it is much more affordable even with the use of the Play store. If it hasn't change much it is a one time $25 fee and that's it. You can do Alpha/Beta and Production releases.
Regarding your requirements it is the best platform because the devices are generally cheaper.
To developp on Android, it's free, you just pay if you want to publish the app on store.
For ios, you can't do anything without creating a developper account, so pay $99.
You're always able to use a cross-platform langage (react native, flutter for ex.) but as soon as you want to deploy on real apple device, you'll need to pay.
I am going to have a alpha release of my app, which is not yet on the market. I want to have the app APK link sent out to friends via email so they can download it from my site CDN.
One question here: if I want to give them updates, what will be a good way? Can I download the new APK within the app, and somehow install the APK to replace the old one without anything to do with the market? So my friends can have the app upgraded while it is still in alpha release?
When I did it, I used Zubhium -- they were a web service with a small API that you could install into your app, giving you a mini "app store"-style backend and handling distribution for you. It would host and distribute your APK, connect up to their server when the app launched, check for updates, invalidate old versions, gather crash logs for you, etc. It was very good.
Zubhium are now https://www.vessel.io -- I presume they still have the above features as part of their now-much-bigger service, but when I checked you had to give them a credit card number even to sign up for the free plan, so I've not played with it.
A friend of mine uses http://testflightapp.com for iOS, and it looks like they have an Android version now, so that's certainly worth checking out. A quick search also shows up http://applover.me. #Janusz recommends http://hockeyapp.net/features in his comment.
As #Nanne points out in his answer, the Play Store itself now lets you distribute to limited alpha- and beta-test groups. That looks like it has fairly minimal features compared to the third-party services (no A/B testing, etc.), but will be familiar and free. And it doesn't need an extra SDK rolled into your app.
So, my general answer is that there's more than one professional beta-testing API/service that you could use, that they're generally very useful, quite easy to roll into your app, solve all the problems you're anticipating and more, and often have a free plan to get started. I'd recommend picking one of them rather than trying to roll your own solution.
If you want this only to be able to release your app in Alpha, and maybe later in beta, take a look at the android market again.
Check out this link: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213?hl=en
It boils down to the fact that you can have an Alpha-test, and a beta test, each with selected users. You can upload your app as normal, so you'll have updates via the market, but not everyone can download your app.
For the beta at least, you can select a community that is the source of your users, so all that are in that community could be testers.
This is the best method for testing I believe.
I know this topic has been discussed many times here.
It's the first time i'm uploading an app to Google Play. The app is free. I read google's licensing support webpages but i'm really confused. From my understanding, licensing should be used for paid application in order to prevent copying the app from one device to another.
My app will be free. Do i need to implement licensing? I guess it will only help me to prevent app copying from one device to anoter ( which probably won't be the case beceuase it's free) but still, i may track the right number of downloads if i use it. Would this help me in a different way?
I read that when you upload the app there should be some checkbox to "Copy protect" your app. Is it still there and usable?
In the future i'm planning to add some paid modules to the app. Is it possbile to add licensing in an upcoming release version?
Many thanks,
Dan
Do i need to implement licensing?
No. Your app will work just fine without it. It's only there to prevent pirating your app and since it's free, that's not going to be a major problem.
Is "Copy protect" still there and usable?
As of 2012-12-13: Yes, it's a simple switch in the old layout.
Is it possbile to add licensing in an upcoming release version?
Yes, but bear in mind that itmeans users will see a new "right" that is required by your app and many users do not like that. So if you're planning on implementing it, I'd put the uses-permission in the Manifest now.
However, if you are using in-app payments, you might not need to implement app licensing at all, since the paid content will be verified by googles in-app system, which uses other APIs.
Oh, and make sure you properly obfuscate your code before your first release.
I am currently developing an application where I want to be able to have an option to allow the user to donate money for the app. Is there a particular way about doing this for android. I have tried looking at google but it mainly shows about paypal donation buttons for websites
I think it should be possible.
There's a similar discussion on Google Groups which basically says that donations are allowed as long as you don't offer additional functionality for that money.
Meaning no functionality is enabled after the donation is made.
Like #alocaly said, you're unable to recieve donations through a system different from android market payment or ads inside the application.
However, it is still possible to have your application on the Internet by free and with a donation button. The difference is that you cannot post it on the Android Market, so you'll have to do some extra work:
Upload to a webserver, so it can be downloaded to your phone.
Create a website (or post your application to another "illegal" market), so people can find your application.
Use some sort of advertising to let people know your application (Twitter retweets, community ads, GoogleAds, SEO, whatever)
Manage some kind of update system. Since you don't rely anymore on the Android Market, you don't have an automatic updating method (Android Market updates applications when you post a new version of it), so you should have a small class that checks a website looking for a new version (it's not that hard) and downloads a new version when there's one available.
Make work the Paypal button like #Tim said
However, you are able to do something that I've see out there: create a free version of your application and post it on the Android Market, and post another version of the same application called "Same program name (Donation)", costing some money. When someone wants to donate you, they'll only have to buy this version.
I hope it helps
I don't know what importance it has, but I think that the chart / terms of services we sign as android developers don't allow the usage of this kind of monetization.
As this is a subject that is changing a lot in Android world, with the soon to come API to pay in apps, I'm not sure it still has any importance, but you should still be aware of that.
Maybe you should take a look at this post, which explains how to integrate Paypal payments into an Android App witout leaving the App itself: How to integrate paypal donate in android app?