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My company has an app published in the google play store/android marketplace. One of the issues that we're fixing in the next version of the app is adding back xlargeScreen = true (it was somehow set to false in the previous version, so now the app isn't showing up on larger tablets). We're trying to get the alpha/beta testing setup so we can make sure we have all our problems fixed before we push the apk to live.
I've uploaded an apk to alpha and published it. I made a google+ community, added it to the accepted testers and sent out the link for the app. But, when we go out to the link and get set as testers nothing happens. If I go to the google play store, it shows the date for the newest upload to the account but the 'install' button attempts to install the previous live version (which is incompatible with the test device, yay!). Also someone else used their device and all the install did was install the old version to their device.
I've considered the "wait up to 24 hours for the publish to go through" being the problem, but the first alpha was uploaded Friday at lunch and would not work at lunch today, on Monday. I moved the old apk to beta and put a new one in alpha (more bug fixes yay) at lunch today. I checked all the settings and everything looks correct, but I can't see how I'm suppose to actually download the beta or the alpha at this point. And if I'm suppose to download the production version 1) How am I suppose to do that on the device that's incompatible with the production version and 2) how do I choose between the beta and the alpha version?
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An alpha testing group should be small and test the least stable, experimental versions of your Actions (such as within your company or team). Use beta testing with a larger group to test stable versions of your Actions that are near release. Provide a channel for testers to send you feedback.
Alpha testing an app means releasing it to a controlled users groups which are not necessarily associated with the development of the app itself. Google PlayStore provides “Closed testing” tracks where you can run alpha tests for your Android app.
Ok, so it takes about 2 hours to be published for alpha/beta and it will be availible in the google play store in place of the live app if you opt in.
My specific problem was the the new alpha/beta apk was still incompatible with the device. I wish there was some notice on the page to show that you are viewing a test version (or better yet, a way to select alpha/beta/production on the google play page after you opt-in).
Turns out that <uses-permission> will in some cases make a device incompatible if it's missing the feature. Adding <uses-feature android:name="problem feature" android:required="false" /> for the offending permissions fixed my issue.
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