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I have an android app in the Google Play Store. I am working on a new rev and want to change the package name. Is that allowed?
My application does not have a big audience yet. Is there a way to replace it? As in, may I discontinue the existing one, and replace it with a new one?
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Select Refactor. Click on Rename. In the Pop-up dialog, click on Rename Package instead of Rename Directory. Enter the new name and hit Refactor.
The package name is your App's unique identity on Google Play Store. All future versions of the App need to have same package name in order to manage updates. App with a different package name can only be published as a different app with different name on the Play Store.
According to this blog post from Android Developers blog, 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.
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