CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidgoogle-play
Tommi Gustafsson
Tommi Gustafsson

Reputation: 141

How to inform the users of an Android app that a new version is available in the Google Play Store through Notification

I lately saw an app notifying me (through Android notification) that a new version of the app is available in the Google Play Store and then I had to go there and update it manually by clicking the Update button. This happened even though I had Auto-update enabled for that specific app and auto-updates were enabled for the Google Play Store as a whole.

I would like to duplicate this behaviour for our own app. We have an app that should be updated manually rather automatically. The app should notify the user that a new update is available but then force the user to click the Update button in the Google Play Store when he or she is ready for the update.

How to enable this behaviour in the Google Play Store? I could not find so much about this thing in the Google Play Developer Console. How can I set it up?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 5900

Answers (2)

Jake Lee
Jake Lee

Reputation: 7979

This functionality is now available without in-app code changes, using Google Play Console's "Prompt users to update" functionality.

The instructions are included below, but the original documentation contains additional advice.

Prompt users to update

Here are some important things to note before you begin to prompt users to update in Play Console:

  • There must be a new version for users to move to in all tracks containing the app version you want users to update from.
  • You can cancel this recovery action at any time. Canceling an update will only affect users who have not yet updated.
  • You can expand your targeting criteria at any time.

Prerequisites:

To prompt users running an outdated or broken version of your app to update to the latest available compatible version.

  • Your app must be enrolled in Play App Signing.
  • Your app must be published using the Android App Bundle. To prompt users to update:
  1. Open Play Console and go to the App bundle explorer page (Release > App bundle explorer).
    • Note: You can also start recovery from the Release overview page (Release > Releases overview). Under "Latest releases," click the right arrow next to the release you want users to update from. This opens the Release details page.
  2. On the top-right of the page, click Recovery tools and select Prompt users to update in the dropdown.
  3. Under "Choose a bundle," choose the app bundle(s) that you want to prompt users to update from.
    • Note: Some tracks with app bundles might not have newer releases available. If applicable, these tracks are listed under "Unavailable." You can click on an app bundle listed here to view which tracks it's unavailable on.
  4. After you've chosen your app bundle(s), click Next.
  5. Optional: You can click Show instructions to expand the on-screen steps to test your prompt.
  6. Choose your targeting criteria. You can target:
    • all users on the selected app version;
    • by country/region; or
    • by Android version.
  • Note the following:
    • If you select Android version, you must also select which Android versions you want to include (you can also select all Android versions).
    • If you select country/region, you must also select which countries/regions you want to include (you can also select all countries/regions). You can view the number of users that will be prompted to update based on your chosen targeting criteria.
  1. Click Initiate prompt to begin prompting users to update.

Upvotes: 2

user14678216
user14678216

Reputation: 3383

To achieve this you can use the In App Update API.

You can find out how to implement it here in Google's documentation: https://developer.android.com/guide/playcore/in-app-updates

Upvotes: 3

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