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Saarang Tiwari
Saarang Tiwari

Reputation: 333

Can a new Android app replace existing app in the play store?

I have an android app developed in native Android, which is released in the Play store. I am wondering if I should rebuild the app in Flutter as I want both Android and iOS apps. However, I am not sure if the new android app developed using Flutter will be able to replace the current app. I want to use the same package name and release key. Also, most importantly preserve my users.

Thank you!

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3264

Answers (5)

AlsaidiSoft
AlsaidiSoft

Reputation: 1

No, you cannot replace new app with existing app, there is something called app sign key, this is like secure key to protect your app in the market from stolen and you cannot update your app if you lost that sign key.

Upvotes: 0

surhidamatya
surhidamatya

Reputation: 2609

Yes, you can replace already existing app with Flutter app but you need to take care of few points to be able to do this. Please take care of following things:

  1. The package name must be identical with the old application. Please take a look into Manifest file of old app and replace the package name in new application AndroidManifest.xml file with the package name from old application.

  2. Now take care of the versionCode and versionName, this info can be retrieved from AndroidManifest file of old application and upgrade it in Flutter's pubspec.yaml file with version attribute as it is must to keep it greater than previously released application. This attribute has the form of 0.1.1+3 where 0.1.1 corresponds to versionName and 3 (the number after + sign) to versionCode.

  3. Here's the crucial part, the keystore file used to sign New Flutter's version must be the same used to sign the Android's native release.

If you follow all these steps then you can update the new version of the application irrespective of the programming framework you are using i.e Kotlin, Flutter, React Native or any other technology.

Upvotes: 2

Jimesh Solanki
Jimesh Solanki

Reputation: 41

Yes, You can do that. You just need to take care of Package name, Version name and Version code of you application (if applicable).

Upvotes: 1

Seop Yoon
Seop Yoon

Reputation: 2529

Yes, it is possible if you sign the new flutter app with the same release key and with the same package id.

Upvotes: 6

hallis
hallis

Reputation: 61

That should indeed be possible. Afaik a play store "update" is just a new apk. I have had plenty of apps that have done this, so it is definitely possible, you'll just want to make sure package names and other important config objects are the same.

Upvotes: 1

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