CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidgoogle-playsoftware-distribution
bradyGilley
bradyGilley

Reputation: 110

Is there a way to set the max version of my android app that a group of users are allowed to download?

I have an android app that is a counterpart to our software product that we sell to customers.

When we sell our product to a company, I need an easy way to give those users access to the app, including updates, product description etc.

The reason that a service like Google Play will not work is, that different customers require different versions of the app depending on their version of the main software.

Some customers are unable/unwilling to stay up to date, and we need to be able to give out different versions of the app depending on their version of the software.

Is there a way to set the max version of the app that a group of users are allowed to download?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 115

Answers (1)

Nick Fortescue
Nick Fortescue

Reputation: 13826

This is a really good and difficult question. As someone who has worked on app targeting for many years on Google Play I've been racking my brains for the best way to do this.

The trouble is the completely different business models. Android works on the principle "buy the app once, get upgrades forever, usually automatically". Your counterpart computer software clearly works on a slightly different principle.

I can't think of anything that works well. Sorry about that. Some possbilities which are all broken in some way:

  • Have a different package name for each version of your app. eg com.myapp.v1, com.myapp.v2 etc. You could have the counterpart software provide the package name in a link to be helpful.This is bad because it punishes users who do upgrade, they have to manually install the new version each time. It also means reviews and ratings wouldn't all be associated with the app. It's a pretty terrible idea.

  • Make the android app versions always be backwards compatible with all versions of the counterpart software. We kind of do the opposite with the Google Play servers. Because we can't guarantee users upgrade Google Play on their phones, the server has to be compatible with almost every version of Google Play (and Android Market) ever shipped. It's a lot of work, but keeps users happy. You could make sure your app always works with old counterpart versions. You could always have a "sorry, you are getting a degraded experience because you haven't upgraded.

Sorry I can't help more.

Upvotes: 1

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