Android Application Beta Upload to google play

Question

If this question I'm about to ask was already asked, please just direct me to the link as I didn't find it. For the beta testing in google play, do you have to first un-publish a beta APK before the new one will take its place? Also can you upload the same version code or do you have to create a new version code with each APK upload in Beta?

The reason I ask is I was about to Beta test a new version of an application. I upgraded the application on my test phone and it crashed. I found out there was a line of code I forgot to take out for testing purposes which caused the upgrade to break. Which is funny because the testing code was testing, indirectly, the upgrade code. Anyway, so I didn't want to upload a whole new code version just overwrite the pre-existing APK upload. I was hoping this was possible due to it only being in Beta status. Also, I guess this means having to potentially wait another 24 hours for his new Beta APK upload to take effect. That was another thing I was hoping to bypass was uploading the same version in Beta would wipe out the pre-existing Beta version code so the changes would be immediately upgradable. Wishful thinking I'm assuming.

Thank You in advance.

Answer 1

When your app is ready to production, you don´t have to unpublish, just "promote to production", you don´t have to change the versionCode.

If your Beta application has bugs, made the changes and you have to upload another .apk and yes, you have to change to the newer versionCode.

If your app was published, you can´t overwrite the pre-existing APK.

Answer 2

No, you do not have to un-publish your application to upload a new Beta version. However, you must increment the version code in order to release a new Beta version. The version code must be incremented, so devices that installed your application can track whether an update is available, by comparing the installed version code to the Google Play version code.

Every time you release a new version or update your application info, it could take a few hours for these changes to propagate. In my experience, it only takes about 5 hours until people start receiving the update notification. If you are really bothered by the time it takes for new versions to be available, you could use a different app distribution service, for example HockeyApp, TestFlight, etc...