CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androiddeploymentgoogle-play
Matt Wilson
Matt Wilson

Reputation: 8309

Deploy app through Google Play Store in a private channel without Google Apps?

I'm building an Android app which for various reasons cannot be listed publicly on the Google Play store.

I have found information about the Google Play Private Channel but if I understand it correctly, this can only be used when all your users are within a Google Apps domain (which mine are not).

Are there any similar methods that I could use to deploy my app (and get the benefit of easy installation for users, an updating mechanism etc.), or is my only option to publish an APK file manually?

From what I can tell, manually publishing APK files is the only choice, but this seems strange to me since my situation must be common for "private" business applications.

In particular, I am concerned that it would look unprofessional to have to guide users through the process of turning on the "Allow installation of apps from unknown sources" setting.

Any advice welcome, thanks!

Upvotes: 19

Views: 12543

Answers (2)

Sunday
Sunday

Reputation: 972

I would just deploy your app using Google Play "Beta testing and staged rollout":

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213?hl=en

Your users have to join a Google Group or Google + community that you create so you can limit you audience and make the app non-public on Google Play but still allows your non-public users to update the app via Google Play instead of manual APK installation.

The only downside is that the members of the Google Group or Google + community will only be as private as their Google account provides. So, app users are known to each other but your app will not be public on Google Play.

Upvotes: 20

RuAware
RuAware

Reputation: 969

Can you not use BETA or ALPHA pushes

Upvotes: 2

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