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I'm currently working on the Android version of an iPhone app.

It's my first time using Android Studio, the Google Play Console, battling Gradle, etc and because of this inexperience I accidentally published the app for a brief period (less than an hour) and have since unpublished it. It was not downloaded by anyone in that period.

I understand from these questions (1, 2, 3, 4) that it is not possible to delete an app that has been published.

I also checked Google Play Console's help pages, but there was no indication either way on whether hiding an app was possible.

However, since it can't be deleted, is there a way (official or otherwise) to just hide it from the Google Play Console list?

Monomeeth
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  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34846872/how-to-unpublish-an-app-in-google-play-developer-console – Héctor May 07 '18 at 08:41
  • i think there is option called unpublish is play console – Masoom Badi May 07 '18 at 09:06
  • Thanks @Héctor for the reference, however I've already *unpublished* the app. What I would like to achieve, if possible, is to *hide* it altogether from my list of applications within the Google Play Console. The reason I'd like to do this is that when I do eventually publish the app it will have a different Application ID but still have the same name, and I'd like to avoid any confusion moving forward. – Monomeeth May 07 '18 at 11:03
  • Thanks @Sam I've already done that. What I would like to achieve, if possible, is to hide it altogether from my list of applications within the Google Play Console. – Monomeeth May 07 '18 at 11:03
  • Oh I understand now. It makes sense but I don't know if that's possible... – Héctor May 07 '18 at 11:05

2 Answers2

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You can put your app in a close test, only e-mail that you give access will be able to download.

Today you have 4 types of App Releases in Google Play:

  • Production: when you real release the app for everybody;
  • Beta: App is not ready, open test;
  • Alpha: App is not ready, close test;
  • Internal Test: App is not ready, "close test";

In your case you can use Alpha or Internal Test. Internal Test should be use for company test, it is launch very fast and work for marketing people download, you boss or some testers. Alpha it should be more like you have a group of "trust" users that will like to test your app.

In both cases you need to create a list of gmail accounts, so it is not open for public yet.

You can read more here

Canato
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  • Thanks for your answer. I've had a look at the link and it's not quite clear to me how this will achieve what I want. Just to clarify, what I would like to achieve, if possible, is to hide it altogether from my list of applications within the Google Play Console so that it's not visible to me. Would doing this achieve that outcome? – Monomeeth May 07 '18 at 11:06
  • If you put as close test (Alpha or Internal Test) it will be "hide" from all users that are not in the list, but I'm sure if will be hide for the owner. I don't think so. – Canato May 07 '18 at 11:25
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This is not currently possible. However, if you are really bothered, there is one way you could do it. Google offers the ability to do "App transfers" (instructions).

This is typically used when one company sells an app to another. But you could create a new developer account and transfer the app to that account, which would get it out of your list. But it probably isn't worth it.

Nick Fortescue
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  • Haha, I love the *outside of the square* thinking! :) You're right, it's probably not worth it. Do you happen to know what will happen if I upload the final APK (with a different Application ID) to the existing *unpublished* app? Since the existing app was only published for less than an hour and no-one downloaded/installed it, would the new APK update the Application ID for it? Or is it going to be stuck with the old (and wrong) Application ID? – Monomeeth May 08 '18 at 04:04
  • Applications with different application ids (package names) are treated entirely independently. As far as Play is concerned, if you change the package name it is an entirely new app, and has no effect on the previous one. – Nick Fortescue May 09 '18 at 20:05
  • Yep, so I've discovered. :) I've also discovered a decent use case for having the ability to hide an app. I published the live version yesterday morning (with the new package ID) and then last night went into AdMob to link the app to the one I had created in AdMob. The app appeared in the search results and I linked it. But, to my horror, I later discovered that the app I had linked to was the *unpublished* one that I wanted to hide. I just assumed this would not appear in the search results within AdMob, but it did and I linked the wrong app. Had to redo AdMob and publish an update to fix it. – Monomeeth May 10 '18 at 00:01
  • It might be worth you changing the title to "Absolutely abandoned old app" or something like that. – Nick Fortescue May 10 '18 at 00:49