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In this video from Google I/O 2011, Google says you can use the Android Market for public and private Betas, how do you achieve a private Beta using the Market? Is there a way to make an App private? Because I cant find it.

http://youtu.be/twmuBbC_oB8?t=11m28s

mbwasi
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  • Duplicate of [publish beta-version on android-market](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6536125/publish-beta-version-on-android-market) – rds Aug 19 '11 at 13:42
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    This feature has finally been announced at Google I/O 2013 see https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/326455375 – mbwasi May 30 '13 at 06:53
  • Follow p09 of this pdf. https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/androiddevelopers/shareables/distribute/play_dev_guide_secrets_en.pdf – nizam.sp Jul 10 '15 at 18:52

2 Answers2

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Reto does not say that there's a feature on Android Market to publish beta builds. It explains what techniques you can use to achieve that.

If you want a wide spread beta... you can use Android market to do that... you can use an access code or obscure the name ... it's important for users to understand that it's beta version ... so that people know they should't expect a finished product.

Also, he advice not to upload a faked package name (some developers would do that to make sure that users don't down rate the beta app). He advices to at least upload the package with the original name (without publishing) in order to reserve it.

Cristian
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you can make it private with a password lock on startup for example, or with an authentication system. (like google+ launch)

though be carefull with that because some users might not understand and downrate the app, so you need to state it in the description.

plus-
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  • Oh well, I knew I could do that, I thought he meant there is a painless way to do it through the market. – mbwasi Jul 13 '11 at 10:44