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I have an Android app published on Google Play. The issue is that only 5% of its users have updated it to the latest version. I'm guessing they are either not using the app and/or have turned auto updates off.

Is there a way to communicate to them using, let's say, notifications that a new version is out and they need to update the app?

I have implemented the In-app-update API into the newest version but the thing is that the users will first have to update to this version, before they get in-app pop ups about app update.

Any help would be a great help!

Thanks

Phantômaxx
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Shahood ul Hassan
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2 Answers2

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Unfortunately I think you're out of luck. Unless another avenue was implemented in the older version of the app to allow for some sort of notification, there is no way to contact users who have not updated. The best you can hope for is that the users notice they have a pending update in the Play Store, and decide to update.

Bryan
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The only things that I can think of (based upon the assumption that old app has no code to deal with a newer version):

  • If oldApp supports Push notifications, you may have a chance firing one to let your users know (not super reliable for they may have them disabled)
  • You can try pulling the app from the Google Store (so they can no longer download it), this will cause your users to get the new one if/when they reinstall or try to find it again.
  • If there's a backend service your App talks to, and you can tell which version of the client is calling you (I'd hope this is something you did... as it's pretty basic), then you could start returning 500 errors and let your users "see the app no longer works" and deal with the support tickets and reviews and what not... but at least you can tell them: "download the latest version, I no longer support that".
  • I cannot think of anything else that you can remotely do.
Martin Marconcini
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