CODEWITHSUNDEEP
android
Rage
Rage

Reputation: 191

Guide for versioning an android application

I am trying to release an update of an existing Android application.

What is the correct way of versioning an Android application?

Here Developer guide I found that format may be <major>.<minor>.<point>.

Can someone please explain me what each of major, minor and point mean?

Upvotes: 15

Views: 10449

Answers (4)

Maxi Rosson
Maxi Rosson

Reputation: 109

Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, increment the:

  • MAJOR version when you make incompatible API changes,
  • MINOR version when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner, and
  • PATCH version when you make backwards-compatible bug fixes.

I wrote a post about versioning android apps: https://blog.dipien.com/versioning-android-apps-d6ec171cfd82

Upvotes: 3

ashatte
ashatte

Reputation: 5538

androidVersionCode is an integer that you increase with each update. So the first version could be 1, the next update could be 2, etc.

androidVersionName is just a string value that you decide - it's displayed on Google Play.

The documentation refers to <major>.<minor>.<point> as a suggested format for the versionName, e.g. version 1.1.1 or 2.0.4. It's up to you, but there's a good explanation here.

Upvotes: 16

Henry
Henry

Reputation: 43738

The version code is an integer and must be strictly increasing with each new version.

The version name is totally up to you. A scheme that is often used is x.y where x is incremented for really big changes (maybe even introducing incompatibilities with previous versions), while y is incremented for minor changes.

Upvotes: 1

Szymon
Szymon

Reputation: 43023

As long as you update android:versionCode each time, it doesn't really matter what you put into android:versionName. It can be three different numbers or any other string, e.g. "1.0.0", "a", or "best release ever".

This is a general discussion of Software Versioning from Wikipedia.

Upvotes: 2

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