Promoting Android app from Beta to Production

Question

I have been testing my APK for a while in beta with 92 users (who had to join a Google community to opt-in the test). After ensuring all is well with the app's logic, etc., I uploaded a "new" APK to production for public download on the play store.

My question is will those 92 users need to delete the current Beta APK and download again from the play store? or do they automatically get new version updates from the play store?

I would like to disable beta testing at this point; however I am not sure if this means losing the current testers as well.

Much appreciated for the help.

Answer 1

Uploading a production version with a higher version code than your beta channel should just work.

From the docs:

If a production APK is uploaded with a higher version code than an alpha or beta APK, the alpha and/or beta version will automatically be deactivated.