Force update of an Android app when a new version is available

Question

I have an app in Google Play Store  When an update version is available  the older version will become unusable     that is  if users do not update the app  they do not enter in the app  How can I force users to update the app when a new version becomes available

User · Answer

What should definitely be mentioned here is the soon-to-be released In-app Updates API.

You'll have two options with this API; the first is a full-screen experience for critical updates when you expect the user to wait for the update to be applied immediately. The second option is a flexible update, which means the user can keep using the app while the update is downloaded. You can completely customize the update flow so it feels like part of your app.

User · Answer

Well  there could be many solutions to this problem like scraping the version code from App Page  Google Play App page   etc   But I am going to show you the ultimate solution that won t cost a penny and will work like magic     Just save the latest Version code of your app on Firebase Remote Config panel Fetch that version code value whenever the app is opened     Compare it with the current version code of the app  which you can get by the following code  private int getCurrentVersionCode     try       return getPackageManager   getPackageInfo getPackageName    0  versionCode    catch  NameNotFoundException e        e printStackTrace      return -1        If the fetched version code is greater than the current version  show an AlertDialog asking to update the app  Otherwise  the app is already updated   So  whenever you roll out the new version  you need to put that new version code in Firebase Remote config panel  You can read the whole tutorial on how to force users to update the app using Firebase Remote Config

User · Answer

Officially google provide an Android API for this      The API is currently being tested with a handful of partners  and will become available to all developers soon    Update API is available now - https   developer android com guide app-bundle in-app-updates

User · Answer

It is good idea to use remote config for app version and always check in launch activity is current app version is same as remote version or not if not force for update from app store    Simple logic happy coding    https   firebase google com docs remote-config android

User · Answer

For forcing the app user to update if an update is available in the market  you should first check the app version on the market and compare it with the version of the app on the device  If they are different  it may be an update available  In this post I wrote down the code for getting the current version of market and current version on the device and compare them together  I also showed how to show the update dialog and redirect the user to the update page  Please visit this link  https   stackoverflow com a 33925032 5475941 Just make sure that in the dialog you only show the user update button and don t show him the cancel button  In this case he will be forced to update  before he can use the app

User · Answer

Google introduced In-app updates lib   https   developer android com guide app-bundle in-app-updates  it works on Lollipop  and gives you the ability to ask the user for an update with a nice dialog  FLEXIBLE  or with mandatory full-screen message  IMMEDIATE    You need to implement the latter   Here is how it will look like    I covered all the code in this answer  https   stackoverflow com a 56808529 5502121

User · Answer

Solution from Google team  Starting from Android 5 0 that s easily achievable through the new Google Play In App updates mechanism  The requirements are to have Play Core library of version 1 5 0  and use App Bundles idstribution instead of apks   The library provides you 2 different ways to notify the users about the update    Flexible  when users can continue using the app while it is being updated in the background  Immediate - blocking screen that doesn t allow a user to enter the app until they update it    There are next steps to implement it    Check for update availability Start an update Get a callback for update status Handle the update   All of these steps implementations are described in details on the official site  https   developer android com guide app-bundle in-app-updates

User · Answer

try this  First you need to make a request call to the playstore link  fetch current version from there and then compare it with your current version   String currentVersion  latestVersion  Dialog dialog  private void getCurrentVersion     PackageManager pm   this getPackageManager            PackageInfo pInfo   null           try               pInfo    pm getPackageInfo this getPackageName   0              catch  PackageManager NameNotFoundException e1                   TODO Auto-generated catch block             e1 printStackTrace                      currentVersion   pInfo versionName      new GetLatestVersion   execute        private class GetLatestVersion extends AsyncTask lt String  String  JSONObject gt             private ProgressDialog progressDialog            Override         protected void onPreExecute                 super onPreExecute                        Override         protected JSONObject doInBackground String    params                try     It retrieves the latest version by scraping the content of current version from play store at runtime                 Document doc   Jsoup connect urlOfAppFromPlayStore  get                    latestVersion   doc getElementsByClass  htlgb   get 6  text                  catch  Exception e                   e printStackTrace                                return new JSONObject                        Override         protected void onPostExecute JSONObject jsonObject                if latestVersion  null                    if   currentVersion equalsIgnoreCase latestVersion                       if  isFinishing       This would help to prevent Error   BinderProxy 45d459c0 is not valid  is your activity running  error                     showUpdateDialog                                                                      else                 background start                super onPostExecute jsonObject                    private void showUpdateDialog            final AlertDialog Builder builder   new AlertDialog Builder this           builder setTitle  A New Update is Available            builder setPositiveButton  Update   new DialogInterface OnClickListener                  Override             public void onClick DialogInterface dialog  int which                    startActivity new Intent Intent ACTION VIEW  Uri parse                           market   details id yourAppPackageName                      dialog dismiss                                       builder setNegativeButton  Cancel   new DialogInterface OnClickListener                  Override             public void onClick DialogInterface dialog  int which                    background start                                       builder setCancelable false           dialog   builder show

User · Answer

I used a simple approach to make this work   Create Firebase database Add your latest version If the version is different than the installed version  show the popup of installing the update  It works perfectly for me

User · Answer

It is better to define our own process to for upgrade    Create a web service which gives latest version for app  ios android  from our server  Or Any web service that you used in app  e g Login  will return latest app version from server  Once app will get version from  1 or 2  App will cross check it with local cuurent appversion  if there is difference then we can show alert as follows    Android  amp  iOS    If latest app version available then it will show alert as    Latest version available with more features  To upgrade click on upgrade button     Alert with    Upgarde    and    No  Thanks    button   Then app will redirect to playstore Appstore and it will open latest version    --- we can do upgrade compulsory or optionally    Before Upgrade process please make sure that you handled proper db migration process if there is any db schema change

User · Answer

var activeVersion    quot 3 9 2 quot   var currentVersion    quot 3 9 1 quot   var activeVersionArr   activeVersion split  quot   quot    var currentVersionArr   currentVersion split  quot   quot    var compareArray  JSON stringify activeVersionArr   JSON stringify currentVersionArr   if compareArray   return false    if  compareArray   for var i 0 i lt activeVersionArr length i     if activeVersionArr i    currentVersionArr i    if activeVersionArr i   gt  currentVersionArr i    return true   else  return false

User · Answer

You shouldn t stop supporting an older version as soon as a new version comes out  This will result in a terrible user experience  I don t know of any software vendor in existence that does this  for good reason    What happens if the user can t update or doesn t want to at that time  They simply can t use your app  which is bad    Google don t provide any option for version tracking like that so you would have to roll your own  A simple web service to return the current live version that your app can check would be sufficient  You can then update the version and the app will know it is outdated  I would only recommend using this to let your users know there is an update more quickly than depending on Google Play  It should not really be used to prevent the app from working  just to prompt the user to update

User · Answer

you can do this by doing a match between a version number that is kept on app in a variable and similarly the current app version is kept on server side and each time user opens the app the first request should be send to check that if it founds matching do nothing simply let the user use your app otherwise fire an intent to the google playstore or open a webview window to your app window open  https   play google com store apps details id package name     system    location yes     and there they will automatically have the button asking for update that s what google playstore does for you if you dont have automatic updates on

User · Answer

Scott and Michael s answers are correct   Host a service that provides a min version number you support and compare that to the installed version   You should hopefully never need to use this  but it s a life saver if some version is out there you absolutely must kill due to some serious flaw    I just wanted to add the code for what to do next  Here is how you then launch the Google Play Intent and take them to your new version in the store after prompting the user that they must upgrade   public class UpgradeActivity extends Activity       public void onCreate Bundle savedInstanceState            super onCreate savedInstanceState           setContentView R layout activity upgrade           final String appName    com appname           Button button    Button  findViewById R id button           button setOnClickListener new View OnClickListener                  Override             public void onClick View view                         startActivity new Intent Intent ACTION VIEW  Uri parse  market   details id   appName                                          You should re-consider your design if you have to force upgrades on each release

User · Answer

Google released In-App Updates for the Play Core library   I implemented a lightweight library to easily implement in-app updates  You can find to the following link an example about how to force the user to perform the update   https   github com dnKaratzas android-inapp-update forced-updates

User · Answer

I agree with Scott Helme s point in another answer here  But in some extreme situations  security issues  API breaking changes     where you absolutely need the users to update to continue using the app  you could provide a simple versioning API  The API would look like this    versionCheck API    Request parameters    int appVersion   Response   boolean forceUpgrade boolean recommendUpgrade   When your app starts  you could call this API that pass in the current app version  and check the response of the versioning API call    If forceUpgrade is true  show a popup dialog with options to either let user quit the app  or go to Google Play Store to upgrade the app    Else if recommendUpgrade is true  show the pop-up dialog with options to update or to continue using the app    Even with this forced upgrade ability in place  you should continue to support older versions  unless absolutely needed

User · Answer

You can use the Play Core Library In-app updates to tackle this  You can check for update availability and install them if available seamlessly   In-app updates are not compatible with apps that use APK expansion files   obb files   You can either go for flexible downloads or immediate updates which Google Play takes care of downloading and installing the update for you   dependencies       implementation  com google android play core 1 5 0              Refer this answer https   stackoverflow com a 58212818 7579041

User · Answer

I highly recommend checking out Firebase s Remote Config functionality for this   I implemented it using a parameter - app version enabled - with a condition  Disabled Android Versions  that looks like this   applies if App ID    com example myapp and App version regular expression   5 6 1 5 4 2     Default for the parameter is  true   but Disabled Android Versions has a value of false  In my regex for Disabled Android Versions  you can add more disabled versions simply with another   version name  inside those parentheses   Then I just check if the configuration says the version is enabled or not -- I have an activity that I launch that forces the user to upgrade  I check in the only two places the app can be launched from externally  my default launcher activity and an intent-handling activity   Since Remote Config works on a cache basis  it won t immediately capture  disabled  versions of the app if the requisite time hasn t passed for the cache to be invalidated  but that is at most 12 hours if you re going by their recommended cache expiration value

User · Answer

check version code of local and play store apk  try           versionChecker VersionChecker   new versionChecker            String versionUpdated   VersionChecker execute   get   toString            Log i  version code is   versionUpdated             PackageInfo packageInfo   null          try               packageInfo   getPackageManager   getPackageInfo getPackageName    0             catch  PackageManager NameNotFoundException e                e printStackTrace                      int version code   packageInfo versionCode          String version name   packageInfo versionName          Log i  updated version code   String valueOf version code           version name           if  version name    versionUpdated                String packageName   getApplicationContext   getPackageName                  UpdateMeeDialog updateMeeDialog   new UpdateMeeDialog                updateMeeDialog showDialogAddRoute MainActivity this  packageName               Toast makeText getApplicationContext     please updated   Toast LENGTH LONG  show                    catch  Exception e            e getStackTrace            implement class for version check  class versionChecker extends AsyncTask lt String  String  String gt    String newVersion    Override protected String doInBackground String    params         try           newVersion   Jsoup connect  https   play google com store apps details id  YOR PACKAGE NAME  amp hl en                    timeout 30000                   userAgent  Mozilla 5 0  Windows  U  WindowsNT 5 1  en-US  rv1 8 1 6  Gecko 20070725 Firefox 2 0 0 6                    referrer  http   www google com                    get                    select  div itemprop softwareVersion                     first                    ownText          catch  IOException e            e printStackTrace               return newVersion        dialob box for update   public class UpdateMeeDialog    ActivityManager am  TextView rootName  Context context  Dialog dialog  String key1 schoolId  public void showDialogAddRoute Activity activity  final String packageName       context activity      dialog   new Dialog context        dialog requestWindowFeature Window FEATURE NO TITLE       dialog setCancelable false       dialog setContentView R layout dialog update       am    ActivityManager activity getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE        Button cancelDialogue  Button dialog findViewById R id buttonUpdate       Log i  package name  packageName       cancelDialogue setOnClickListener new View OnClickListener              Override         public void onClick View v                Intent intent new Intent Intent ACTION VIEW                       intent setData Uri parse  https   play google com store apps details      id   packageName   amp hl en                 context startActivity intent                         dialog show          dialog layout   lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt RelativeLayout xmlns android  http   schemas android com apk res android  android orientation  vertical  android layout width  match parent  android layout height  match parent  android background   d4e9f2  gt     lt TextView     android layout width  match parent      android layout height  40dp       android text  Please Update First          android textSize  20dp      android textColor   46a5df      android textAlignment  center      android layout marginTop  50dp      android id    id textMessage        gt   lt LinearLayout     android layout width  match parent      android orientation  horizontal      android weightSum  1      android layout marginTop  50dp      android layout below    id textMessage      android layout height  50dp  gt        lt Button         android id    id buttonUpdate          android layout width  wrap content          android layout height  wrap content          android layout weight  1          android text  Update          android background   67C6F1          android textAlignment  center    gt   lt  LinearLayout gt

User · Answer

You can notify your users that there is a new version of the current app available to update  Also  if this condition is true  you can block login in the app   Please see if this provides you the solution

[android] Force update of an Android app when a new version is available

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