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I would like to 'preload' a application on a device, but it needs to retrieve updates from the android market place afterwards.

How would I go about doing something like that?

Please note that it is not possible to manually load the application on the device first.

I was thinking either by creating some sort of launcher app, that will then download the latest version from the android market. Anyone have any good samples here? :).

Or better suggestions of course!

Thanks a lot. This is unfortunately a very urgent question.

Ophidian
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  • Maybe thats a duplicate or it might just help you: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6249458/pre-installing-android-appliction – WarrenFaith Jun 07 '11 at 09:45
  • Yeah, i read that too, but that is not what I need. We can add the app where it would normally be, the problem is how do we retrieve the updates from the android market, if it was never downloaded from there. That is what i really need to know :). – Ophidian Jun 07 '11 at 10:01
  • @Ophidian do you know how to preload a system app without installing it? – david Jul 28 '16 at 10:52

2 Answers2

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From https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/113476?hl=en

Google Play can manage updates to preloaded applications, provided the following conditions are met:

  • The preloaded app needs to be in the system partition
  • The preloaded app needs to be free
  • The preloaded app needs to be signed with the same signature as the app published in Google Play
  • The Package Name of the preloaded and updated app needs to be the same
  • The Version Code of the updated app needs to be greater than that of the preloaded app
Community
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Darren Oster
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I managed to get around this problem by creating my own update checker. It connects to a webservice to know if there's a version out with a higher version than the current. If that is the case, I launch an android market view intent (for the package name) that will redirect to the market version.

The nice part is, if the user doesnt have the market configured yet, he'll have to do that first. Afterwards they then end up to the page where they can install the app.

If they have the same packagename, it will overwrite the existing (preloaded) application with the new version. From that moment on, it will be coupled to the android market.

Ophidian
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