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I'm developing an Android app and publishing it in Google Market. The problem is that the difference between v1.x and v2.x is huge, and like most products I wouldn't like to automatically provide Major upgrade for free for user of v1.
Is there any way to "separate" the payment for v1 and v2, and provide "upgrade license" for users of v1?
I must say admins on this forum are idiots, closed for a reason: "Questions on Stack Overflow are expected to generally relate to programming or software development in some way". How is it not related to software development? :)
Upgrades nope; kind of irritating that the market has no option for coupon codes or developer discounts etc. but that's the way it currently is.
Kind of a hack, but you could leave the name the same and add Pro or Plus and change your package name so for instance
com.myapplication.v1
becomes
com.myapplication.v2
Then to promote it you can use admobs inhouse promotion facility (assuming you have put admob v1) it's not perfect but it would work, then just turn on the add when you are ready with a new version.
An alternative is to structure the newer application so that the new features are in app payments, that would probably be the most user friendly approach, let them use them for N days then shut them down and offer the users the ability to pay for the newer features
I have also not looked at their licensing service much, it might be possible to do something with that I suppose but I suspect not.
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I don't know if it's a stupid question but there are lots of free public APIs in this github repository: https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis
Is it safe to make apps with such free APIs and publish them in play store, app store? What I mean is that maybe the person who created the API will make a mistake and send an image for adults against the rules. Or can they complain for copyright reasons? I mean, I don't question the reliability of APIs of huge companies like Riot games. I'm mostly wondering if it's okay to use APIs from indie developers?
I've heard that many people play console and apple developer accounts have been closed. I was wondering if using the public API can cause our developer account to be terminated due to a mistake or complaint. Or should we not use free public APIs just in case?
No it is not safe to do so. You're trusting that some random code written by some random person works as expected, is secure, is well written, and isn't malicious. Would you trust your safety and security on that? If I handed you a file and told you "trust me, it isn't a keylogger, run it on your computer" would you do that?
Heck, look at major scandals of the past few years like leftpad (when a developer deleted a very commonly used library from github, and caused everyone who used it to stop compiling). Or there was an instance where someone inserted a Christmas time easter egg a few years back and websites started snowing. You can't just trust them.
I'm not saying that you can't use any github library. But be smart about it. You should only consider it under 3 conditions:
It's from a source you trust. Google probably isn't going to purposefully put a trojan in their code. Similar for other large orgs.
It's a well known, highly used library. Of course even this isn't perfect. People have managed to slip exploits into open source before.
You've security audited the exact version of the library you plan to use.
If it passes one of these 3, it's probably ok. But if it hasn't, you shouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
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I have a free app in Google store with ads.
I have received requests from users for a paid, ad-free version.
When I first uploaded the app to Google Play Store, it stated that if the app was free now it could never be changed.
My question is: Is it possible to have a paid and unpaid version of the same app on Google Play Store?
Change the package name and name of your app in AndroidManifest. Then it will be treated as another app.
You can offer some in-app purchases, like activation key to unlock additional features or access additional content. You do not need to replace all classes to have two versions, it may be enough to flip some boolean inside depending on how do you currently want it to be.
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In this video from Google I/O 2011, Google says you can use the Android Market for public and private Betas, how do you achieve a private Beta using the Market? Is there a way to make an App private? Because I cant find it.
http://youtu.be/twmuBbC_oB8?t=11m28s
you can make it private with a password lock on startup for example, or with an authentication system. (like google+ launch)
though be carefull with that because some users might not understand and downrate the app, so you need to state it in the description.
Reto does not say that there's a feature on Android Market to publish beta builds. It explains what techniques you can use to achieve that.
If you want a wide spread beta... you can use Android market to do that... you can use an access code or obscure the name ... it's important for users to understand that it's beta version ... so that people know they should't expect a finished product.
Also, he advice not to upload a faked package name (some developers would do that to make sure that users don't down rate the beta app). He advices to at least upload the package with the original name (without publishing) in order to reserve it.
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Certainly the Google's LVL is the standard for license verification when selling through the official Market, but with the influx of tablets that don't have access to the Market, I'm beginning to look at making my app available through other distribution channels.
How should one attempt license verification when selling through distribution channels other than the Market?
In that case you need to implement your own DRM mechanism. Trust me its no use using anything other than Android Market for distribution. Not many have it and for paid apps, Marketplace takes a lot of headache off you. I dont think there is any mature Android Distribution Channel other than the Marketplace
After some more research, what I've found is that there really is no present alternative. However, I did receive an e-mail response from AppsLib indicating that they are a few weeks away from releasing their own implementation of LVL for the AppsLib Marketplace. They claim that "when it is released you will only need to add a few lines of code to your apps for it to be compatible with both Google and Appslib."
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How do you improve the position of an app in Android Market search results? The apps don't seem to be sorted on downloads.
Edit: The scope of this question is limited to working with the Android Market search engine, of which there's little or no information. I changed the title to make it clearer.
:-)
Make an app everyone wants, that gets high user ratings and lots of downloads
Update your app frequently, since it shows up at the top in the "Just in"-tab on every update
Use your Social Media Network (Create Facebook groups, start promoting smart on Twitter). Set up a user wiki where everyone can add content, discuss your app and get a real buzz around it.
Buy Google listings
Create a Blog discussing the app and its outstanding performance
EDIT: Almost forgot: Your app should be free, with a possibility to go pro (= paid).
I would add to the answers:
make your app in a way that can be extended with plugins by 3rd party coders, that means they create and submit their apps to the Market as extensions to your app, and that will raise the results