I would like to know whether it is technically possible, not whether it is easy or not, to change the actual package name of an Android app that is on Google Play. What I mean by package name is the name that will show up in the URL. Please, can anyone tell me why this is / is not possible? Thanks!
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Nope, you cannot just change it, you would have to upload a new package as a new app. Have a look at the Google's app Talk, its name was changed to Hangouts, but the package name is still com.google.android.talk. Because it is not doable :) Cheers.
As far as I can tell what you could do is "retire" your previous app and redirect all users to your new app. This procedure is not supported by Google (tsk... tsk...), but it could be implemented in four steps:
Change the current application to show a message to the users about the upgrade and redirect them to the new app listing. Probably a full screen message would do with some friendly text. This message could be triggered remotely ideally, but a cut-off date can be used too. (But then that will be a hard deadline for you, so be careful... ;))
Release the modified old app as an upgrade, maybe with some feature upgrades/bug fixes too, to "sweeten the deal" to the users. Still there is no guarantee that all users will upgrade, but probably the majority will do.
Prepare your new app with the updated package name and upload it to the store, then trigger the message in the old app (or just wait until it expires, if that was your choice).
Unpublish the old app in Play Store to avoid any new installs. Unpublishing an app doesn't mean the users who already installed it won't have access to it anymore, but at least the potential new users won't find it on the market.
Not ideal and can be annoying to the users, sometimes even impossible to implement due to the status/possibilities of the app. But since Google left us no choice this is the only way to migrate the users of the old apps to a "new" one (even if it is not really new). Not to mention that if you don't have access to the sources and code signing details for the old app then all you could do is hoping that he users will notice the new app...
If anybody figured out a better way by all means: please do tell.
If you are referring to com.example.app, no I understand you can't it would be considered a new app
Complete guide : https://developer.android.com/studio/build/application-id.html
As per Android official Blogs : https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2011/06/things-that-cannot-change.html
We can say that:
If the manifest package name has changed, the new application will be installed alongside the old application, so they both co-exist on the user’s device at the same time.
If the signing certificate changes, trying to install the new application on to the device will fail until the old version is uninstalled.
As per Google App Update check list : https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/113476?hl=en
Update your apps
Prepare your APK
When you're ready to make changes to your APK, make sure to update your app’s version code as well so that existing users will receive your update.
Use the following checklist to make sure your new APK is ready to update your existing users:
To verify that your APK is using the same certification as the previous version, you can run the following command on both APKs and compare the results:
$ jarsigner -verify -verbose -certs my_application.apk
If the results are identical, you’re using the same key and are ready to continue. If the results are different, you will need to re-sign the APK with the correct key.
Learn more about signing your applications
Upload your APK Once your APK is ready, you can create a new release.
No, you cannot change package name unless you're okay with publishing it as a new app in Play Store:
Once you publish your application under its manifest package name, this is the unique identity of the application forever more. Switching to a different name results in an entirely new application, one that can’t be installed as an update to the existing application. Android manual confirms it as well here:
Caution: Once you publish your application, you cannot change the package name. The package name defines your application's identity, so if you change it, then it is considered to be a different application and users of the previous version cannot update to the new version. If you're okay with publishing new version of your app as a completely new entity, you can do it of course - just remove old app from Play Store (if you want) and publish new one, with different package name.
Never, you can't do it since package name is the unique name Identifier for your app.....
Source: Stackoverflow.com