How to notify users about an Android app update?

Question

I\'ve built an Android app which is now on Play Market. From time to time, I make updates to it, and I\'d like to let users know that a new version is available.

How

Answer 1

You do not need to do anything specific for this. Since you mentioned that you are using Google Play, the update notification is taken care of by Google Play.

You just need to update the APK with a higher versionCode and Google Play should do the rest.

Answer 2

Use this : https://www.push-link.com/

Answer 3

There are two models that are basically used to tackle the issue.

Pull Based
Push Based

Its depends on the architecture or design of particular system that determines whether pull based or push mechanism is used.

For pull based model you just make one http request to concerned server regarding the new version of application. The current application version no can be saved in SQLLite in android application. This can be given to server and new version can be checked against it at the server.

For push mechanism you can use C2DM push notification service.. details of which are given at http://code.google.com/android/c2dm/

Answer 4

This can be using a simple webservice just this is one of the way to acheive.

i.e., when ever the app launch hit that webservice with the current version of the user app and on the server you need to check whether any new version is available or not(Must maintain the newest version of the app) and send the corresponding response to the user. If any newer version is available prompt the user to download the newest version of the application and if no newest version is available then allow the user to continue.

Hope so atleast something must be useful to you.

Answer 5

Some people use Android Cloud-to-Device Messaging (C2DM) to notify their users of updates. I don't think I'd bother, since I think Google Play does a pretty good job of notifying me of updates already, and implementing C2DM adds a whole new dimension to writing an app (because it requires a server component). But maybe you want to offer your users a richer update notification than you get from Google Play.