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I've built an application and shared the apk (properly signed) to a few beta testers using an URL, not the Market.

Now my app is ready to go to the Market and I would like to know if an "update" notification will be displayed to the beta testers.

Beta version: android:versionCode="4"

Ready to market version: android:versionCode="6"

Gaurav Agarwal
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Cesar Menon
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  • my beta version code is 4 which is already available with few beta testers and i updated version to 5 in beta itself, now will my beta testers receive an app update notification from the play store? – Amrut Bidri Jan 31 '17 at 09:56

1 Answers1

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Yes, Google Play(Android Market) will send the notification to the Beta testers provided following are fulfilled

  1. versionCode of the APK on the market is higher than the versionCode of an installed version
  2. the package name is the same
  3. same certificate has been used to sign the app
Gaurav Agarwal
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mcnicholls
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  • I can't find where it explicitly states that this his how the Market behaves, but [this](http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/versioning.html) is the closest thing I can find. – mcnicholls Feb 03 '12 at 16:19
  • Just found [this](http://developer.android.com/guide/market/publishing/multiple-apks.html#VersionCodes). It's under the multiple APK section, but it clearly states what happens for any given APK. – mcnicholls Feb 03 '12 at 16:27
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    I still not sure if the beta tester (who never downloaded the app from the Market) will be notified. I believe he/she will, but I couldn't find any docs to confirm. Thank you again. – Cesar Menon Feb 03 '12 at 16:28
  • I can't confirm 100% as I haven't tested this exact situation, but I am guessing the Market app scans the locally installed packages and then checks to see if there is an update. If so then it wouldn't matter how it was initially installed. – mcnicholls Feb 03 '12 at 16:39
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    Probably the only way to discover this is by testing. – Cesar Menon Feb 03 '12 at 16:44
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    I did some testing here. With a clean account and device, the application was notified about updates... – Cesar Menon Feb 03 '12 at 17:22
  • Always useful to know. Thanks for reporting that back. – mcnicholls Feb 03 '12 at 17:25
  • UPS!! Sorry... my typo... the application was NOT notified about updates. I've tried something else here: Clean device and account - No notification. Downloaded the app from market, removed the app, then installed the OLD one. The notification was displayed. So, I believe that there is a kind of link between what you download with what you should update... – Cesar Menon Feb 03 '12 at 17:38
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    This all seems very confusing. So if I have installed a beta build, then there is a new update, i will NOT be notified unless i go through a bunch of steps like `Clean device and account, remove the app, install the old one`. I thought the notifications for new updates should work the same for beta builds as it does for production builds. Except in my experience I am still not seeing a notification on a beta build. – Etienne Lawlor Mar 30 '14 at 08:48
  • my beta version code is 4 which is already available with few beta testers and i updated version to 5 in beta itself, now will my beta testers receive an app update notification from the play store? – Amrut Bidri Jan 31 '17 at 09:57
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    For our internal testers, they never get new notifications on new builds pushed, they have to go to the link manually. – Oliver Dixon Apr 21 '20 at 11:24