CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidandroid-manifest
John
John

Reputation: 898

Ad and Adfree android app on market but overwrite on phone

I whant to post two applications on the android market:

  1. free version
  2. Paid version

When a user installed the free version, than installes the Paid version, it has to overwrite the free version. How can I make sure this happens?

My homework: Due to the “unique App package name across Market” rule i can not have the same package name. Source: http://blog.javia.org/android-package-name/

Upvotes: 1

Views: 190

Answers (2)

wattostudios
wattostudios

Reputation: 8764

I don't believe that you can do this on the Android market.

There are a few things alternatives that might be useful...

  1. Just have 2 separate apps - one that is free, and the other that is paid
  2. Create an in-app purchase, or provide some kind of payment in the free app. When the user makes the purchase, your app downloads a file to your phone that is recognised by your app as a purchase verifier (such as a registration key file), or you modify/create a file on your phone to indicate that the purchase has been made
  3. You create a free app, and a separate 'purchase' app that unlocks the paid functions of your free app. For example, the free app might look to see if your 'purchase' app is installed on the phone, and if so then it allows the paid functionality.

You could also do some other things such as making your app send a message to your web server asking whether you're paid or not, however this probably wouldn't be good for the majority of users as it uses their data, is slower because of internet traffic, and requires extra permissions. However, in some circumstances, this might be a valid solution, such as if you're developing an app where its primary/only use will be in a WiFi area.

Upvotes: 1

Andrew Aylett
Andrew Aylett

Reputation: 40700

You can't do this, sorry.

There are a couple of different ways people achieve similar effects, though: either by using in-app purchasing to remove the adverts, or by creating an "unlocking" app that installs next to the free one, triggering removing the adverts -- Juice Defender is an example of this type, and it has two unlocking apps, with different levels of extra functionality.

Upvotes: 2

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