Is it possible to change the package name of an Android app on Google Play?

Question

I would like to know whether it is technically possible, not whether it is easy or not, to change the actual package name of an Android app that is on Google Play. What I me

Answer 1

Nope, you cannot just change it, you would have to upload a new package as a new app. Have a look at the Google's app Talk, its name was changed to Hangouts, but the package name is still com.google.android.talk. Because it is not doable :) Cheers.

Answer 2

No, you cannot change package name unless you're okay with publishing it as a new app in Play Store:

Once you publish your application under its manifest package name, this is the unique identity of the application forever more. Switching to a different name results in an entirely new application, one that can’t be installed as an update to the existing application. Android manual confirms it as well here:

Caution: Once you publish your application, you cannot change the package name. The package name defines your application's identity, so if you change it, then it is considered to be a different application and users of the previous version cannot update to the new version. If you're okay with publishing new version of your app as a completely new entity, you can do it of course - just remove old app from Play Store (if you want) and publish new one, with different package name.

Answer 3

Never, you can't do it since package name is the unique name Identifier for your app.....

Answer 4

Complete guide : https://developer.android.com/studio/build/application-id.html

As per Android official Blogs : https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2011/06/things-that-cannot-change.html

We can say that:

• If the manifest package name has changed, the new application will be installed alongside the old application, so they both co-exist on the user’s device at the same time.

• If the signing certificate changes, trying to install the new application on to the device will fail until the old version is uninstalled.

As per Google App Update check list : https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/113476?hl=en

Update your apps

Prepare your APK

When you're ready to make changes to your APK, make sure to update your app’s version code as well so that existing users will receive your update.

Use the following checklist to make sure your new APK is ready to update your existing users:

• The package name of the updated APK needs to be the same as the current version.
• The version code needs to be greater than that current version. Learn more about versioning your applications.
• The updated APK needs to be signed with the same signature as the current version.

To verify that your APK is using the same certification as the previous version, you can run the following command on both APKs and compare the results:

$ jarsigner -verify -verbose -certs my_application.apk

If the results are identical, you’re using the same key and are ready to continue. If the results are different, you will need to re-sign the APK with the correct key.

Learn more about signing your applications

Upload your APK Once your APK is ready, you can create a new release.

Answer 5

If you are referring to com.example.app, no I understand you can't it would be considered a new app

Answer 6

From Dianne Hackborn:

Things That Cannot Change:

The most obvious and visible of these is the “manifest package name,” the unique name you give to your application in its AndroidManifest.xml. The name uses a Java-language-style naming convention, with Internet domain ownership helping to avoid name collisions. For example, since Google owns the domain “google.com”, the manifest package names of all of our applications should start with “com.google.” It’s important for developers to follow this convention in order to avoid conflicts with other developers.

Once you publish your application under its manifest package name, this is the unique identity of the application forever more. Switching to a different name results in an entirely new application, one that can’t be installed as an update to the existing application.

More on things you cannot change here

Regarding your question on the URL from Google Play, the package defined there is linked to the app's fully qualified package you have in your AndroidManifest.xml file. More on Google Play's link formats here.