Can I get lower version code from production from alpha testing channel

Question

I need to first publish my application on the alpha testing channel on the developer's console, and then to production. Suppose I publish an application in alpha with version 1.0.0. After testing, I must post application updates to increase the version code to 1.0.1, 1.0.2, etc.

• After testing is complete, can I download a new apk for production with source code version 1.0.0? I do not want to advertise an apk published on an alpha channel that will have an increased version code, i.e. 1.0.5. Will this cause any problems?

• Do you have any other recommendation on how to handle this?

Thanks,

Magnifier

Answer 1

In Android, application versioning has two things.

• android: versionCode is an integer value representing the version of the application code compared to other versions.
• android: versionName is a string value that represents the version of the application code version, as it should be shown to users.

What is visible to users is the second . Thus, you can have, for example, a version in alpha, where android:versionName is "1.0.0" and android:versionCode is 1 (integer), then do your checks and corrections, and when you are ready to deploy in production, keep android:versionName to "1.0.0" , but android:versionCode increased by 1 from the last value it had in alpha, for example android:versionName="1.0.0" , android:versionCode=5 (production is 5th upgrade from your initial aplha deployment). Of course, you can change "1.0.0" to whatever you want, you can lower it, for example. "0.9.0" , it is android:versionCode , which should always increase by 1 .

You can read more here: Versions of your applications

Answer 2

Version codes must be unique. In accordance with the document system, it is not provided that the new apk should have a higher version code.

Although the device, having installed apk with a higher version code (17 in your case), will not receive either an update notification from the playback store, it will not show in the playback store that the update is available, since apk has a lower version code (10 in your case) . It doesn't matter that v10 boots after v17.