2

I submit a lot of my Android apps to Google Play, and I've noticed that my free apps are "automagically" re-hosted on other "app-sites", they even copy the description word for word. Their entire business model seems to be: Step 1: Rip off "free" apps and provide links these apps. Step 2: Plaster ads all over these links. Step 3: Profit!

I'd really like to know if my apps are popular or not, and most of the stats on these other "app-sites" seem too dubious to be valid. Should I just put in a blurb at the start of my app that asks the user to register where they acquired my app? Is there a way to programmatically determine the point of origin for an apk?

Tarod
  • 6,732
  • 5
  • 44
  • 50
giannileuani
  • 442
  • 4
  • 9
  • For measuring popularity you could also integrate an analytics package like [Flurry](http://www.flurry.com/) or [Google Analytics](http://www.google.com/analytics/) – Ken Wolf Jul 22 '13 at 13:28
  • There should be a way to determine whether that apk was installed via Android Play store or not. But I'm pretty sure you can't determine where exactly an apk comes from when installed through other means. It's just downloaded and installed in a second step that does not know about the download origin. – zapl Jul 22 '13 at 13:33

1 Answers1

2

As mentioned here you can use 

PackageManager.getInstallerPackageName()

to retrieve this information. If you want to stop piracy, you might consider making your app link to the play store if it was not installed from there. Could you report, if this approach works? The related question did not have too many answers.

Community
  • 1
  • 1
Father Stack
  • 524
  • 3
  • 10