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I am creating an app in Android and iOS which has a requirement to alert the user whenever new app versions are available for the respective platforms.

  1. Should i create a web-service to provide the app versions based on the platforms?
  2. What data do i need in the web service to keep it generic? Android uses version code where as iOS uses major and minor version updates.
  3. The app is login based. Should i check for the updates after the user logs in or before?
orak
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  • Why do you need to do that? Android itself will notify them of new versions, and if they selected it will do automatic updates. – Gabe Sechan Feb 06 '13 at 06:08
  • Android doesn't needs an external web-service to for this. When an application is open it automatically checks for update. When a new version is updated in the market it will be alerted to users. Dont know about iOs – SKT Feb 06 '13 at 06:10
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    Business requirement. Can't do anything about it... :( – orak Feb 06 '13 at 06:10
  • The app may be self hosted... – orak Feb 06 '13 at 06:17

4 Answers4

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For android when a new version is released for the application in the market user will get alerted for the availability of new version. User will be alerted. Same as the case for iOS. No need of creating web-service

SKT
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  • Google-play doesn't push new update to users .. at least this what happened to me after uploading the new APK for my app !! – McLan Jun 05 '14 at 12:28
  • If the internet connectivity is ON and if the new APK is compatible with your current device OS version then Google play does the push. I am not sure what happened in your case. – SKT Jun 05 '14 at 12:48
  • btw, the "update" button appears on Google-Play, but Google-Play doesn't inform the user. The user has to check Google-Play manually to see if there is a new update or not .. what could be the problem ? – McLan Jun 05 '14 at 13:45
  • Well I'm not sure about the rest of the comment I'm going to say. But what I think is Google play checks for change/update at some regular intervals. So push won't come just at the moment you update. May be it comes after some time. – SKT Jun 05 '14 at 14:00
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Should i create a web-service to provide the app versions based on the platforms?

=> As such Android provides notification whenever new version is available, but as you mentioned its your business requirement, so i assume you want to implement/include some new features in new versions only.

so check version and implement such, you must have to have web service for the same.

What data do i need in the web service to keep it generic? Android uses version code where as iOS uses major and minor version updates.

=> You can fetch version number from the current app. Check: Get application version programmatically in android

The app is login based. Should i check for the updates after the user logs in or before?

=> There are 2 cases:

  1. You can call web service and check whenever app is launched. (May be in splash screen or something else)

  2. If you do include this functionality (version checking) inside Login, then you must have to check everything whether the user is already logged in or not. So i think this is not a good case.

Community
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Paresh Mayani
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If you are updating the application's version in the iTunes or Google play , The users get notified automatically by the providers. Or if you have changes within in the application such as a new feature is included you can notify the user using push notifications. Hope this help you.

vishnu
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For iOS, user gets notification from Apple itself when new versions of installed apps are available. These notifications appears at "App Store" app.

Rahul Gupta
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