Installing production .apk after installing beta .apk

Question

I develop Android apps that are tested by a different group of people.

We use Google Play Beta scheme.

The same group of testers also do production support. After they are done testing they need to revert their device back to the production app so they can mirror whatever problem is being reported to them by the end users.

Here is what we have tried:

1. Uninstalling beta app
2. Installing app from google play app on phone.

That did not work, it still installed the beta version.

We also tried:

1. Uninstalling beta app
2. removing user from beta tester list.
3. Installing app from google play app on phone.

That also did not work.

I chatted with Google Play support and one person I talked to said this is expected behavior because Google wants the user to always have the best experience by using the latest app. The logic for that statement does not make sense because I could argue that beta versions could have bugs that are detrimental to the user experience.

Because if that flaw in logic I decided to get a second opinion from SO.

How can the beta testers return to the production version of the app?

Preferably without me having to take some action like sending them the .apk or removing them from the beta program.

Answer 1

Funny enough, I was just dealing with this situation less than 5 minutes ago.

I believe there are two things at play here, time delay and user opt into the beta list.

To solve this,

I asked my tester to go to the "beta opt in" screen

(ie. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.your.name/testing)

and click Leave the program

After 10-30 minutes they were able to download production version again from Play Store.

Please let me know if it works!

edit: needed to clarify that they still need to uninstall the app.

Answer 2

As Robert has already mentioned, there is a time lag between when you upload an app version in production and when it is available in Play Store. When you push an app from Beta to production the app version maintained internally by Google Play increases by 1, even if there are no changes. It takes time for this new version to get reflected into the Play Store. Play store does some form of checks to ensure the app is not a malware with every version increase. Also, it checks after certain interval for all apps that have been updated in that duration and tries to update them.