I was thinking of what one would do if one had a large number of Beta users of an app. As that could be a powerful ramp up point for entry into Google Play.
Would that give the app an advantage in that it would have a pre-existing set of people following the app - at a crucial early early period on Google Play ?
If the package name of the app is the same - when a user switches from their beta to getting their next beta upgrade from Google Play - does that register as a new download on Google Play or as a fresh install ?
If it registers as an upgrade - does it then suggest to the developer to either instruct their users to first uninstall the beta before finding the app on Google Play - so it registers as a new install. Or force users to new install by changing the package name of the app on Google Play - which could lead to multiple apps on the user phone.
Anyone had experience of moving with a pre-existing user base onto Google Play - how did the numbers play out - appear as new downloads or as upgrades - so not affect new downloads which remain at zero from the pre-existing set of users ?
So one device/user who was testing the beta (not downloaded from Google Play) - then downloaded newer version using Google Play - and that registered as a new download on Google Developer Console ?
I assume you are not talking of Google Developer Console “beta” - but just APK that you had on a website etc. - which users were using - and then they updated it with app once app became available on Google Play (using same package name).
I was thinking about this too. I’ve got my an app in beta now and will release it soon. But have only a few beta testers. Do you know of any google groups that I could add to the beta test to get a lot of testers? Are there any “We want to beta test apps” groups? I will let you know if it counts as new downloads when I release. But I’ve got to find some beta testers first.
There seem to be some groups - but the problem is that these are so small compared to what one can get on Google Play.
The other alternative is to do the staged or partial rollout which many companies did i.e. release in Canada as a sort of test of what U.S. market will do.
The problem with that is that the “one month honeymoon” counter starts as soon as you publish in one market.
The “beta” program available in Google Play seems to be their solution for that - i.e. you release to closed group of people you invite etc. However even this seems difficult.
An alternative which one could try - is to publish on Samsung app store - and use those users as the testers - would be smaller in number and you wouldn’t harm your “one month honeymoon” which would still be available when you launch on Google Play.
Ok, I shared the beta test with a bunch of android groups on G+, some with over 100k members. But only got about 15 beta test users lol. I published the app today and it started with those beta test downloads counted as installs. I don’t think they were new installs though.
I published an app on Google Play that was previously being tested by some users - not via the Google Play beta - but just giving them the link of APK from website etc.
They were not a lot of users - so it could be misleading - but I think the Google Play install numbers seemed to reflect actual downloads - and not suddenly counting all those who have previous versions of the app.
That is, when I published on Google Play - the version was higher than the version in beta - so that maybe it - i.e. if you publish on Google with SAME version as is already out there in the wild - I wonder what that does ?
However what I am seeing is that the downloads just seem to be as if are new installs - i.e. as if as the old beta users are downloading new version from Google Play - then that is being counted as a new install.
Although I could be wrong - i.e. the downloads on Google Play could be new ones NOT counting the users who were using beta - and I would have no way of knowing.