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I am currently investigating ways of remotely updating an Android app installed on a number of devices. The app in question is to be used on phones which we will provide to a number of demonstrators as part of product presentations. For this reason we don't want to publish the app on Google Play to be available for the public at large.

I've read that you can restrict access to the device on Google Play, but only according to criteria such as location, device type, android version, etc. Another way is to set up a version for beta testing, for which you can select testers, however this is only available to those who are part of a Google group or a Google+ community (according to here).

I've come across another post which details how to install an apk programmatically, however it appears to install the apk automatically, ie it doesn't appear to check whether or not the update is actually a new version.

One idea I have in mind is to upload new version on a repository and broadcast to devices which have the app installed, of which we have stored device ids. Is this possible?

Community
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user4433884
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  • Why don't you create a Google group for your demonstrators? – Kukanani Jan 08 '15 at 17:39
  • If we were to use Google Play we would have to do that, however we would rather a more seamless method of providing the update, also having them registered as beta-testers may give the impression that the app is incomplete and buggy. – user4433884 Jan 08 '15 at 17:48

3 Answers3

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You should try Beta by Crashlytics, it's email-based.

bonnyz
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What we do is sync periodically to a remote server during data entry on the app. During this sync, we check to see whether the device has the latest version of the software. If it doesn't, the new apk is downloaded and the user is prompted to install the software.

This is accomplished using a separate installer app we created. We have a service that keeps the app alive in the background, so it looks like the user never actually leaves the app during the install.

Would be happy to post code on the installer.

You can see the self installer here: https://github.com/techartist/SelfInstall-Jelly-Bean/

Kristy Welsh
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  • Yes that would be great, although we would probably rather go with vice versa this sounds like a good idea (and probably what we need to do anyway). – user4433884 Jan 08 '15 at 18:09
  • Curious if this still works with current Android versions due to all the security restrictions now. Git repo hasn't been updated in quite a few years, but it sounds like a great idea. – topher217 Dec 02 '21 at 07:13
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You should try beta or alfa testing in gplay. Also you can hardcode the date of ending and not to open application after this date.

QArea
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