Will apk installed manually (not from play store) receive notification when update becomes available?

android, apk

Solution

To preinstall your APK, you need to be the device OEM; how it gets done depends on your exact environment. If your apk has no native libraries internally, you can safely just place the apk in the firmware image (in the same location with the standard apk suite). Beyond that, you could (for example, similar to what I've seen in some Motorola devices) create a special directory (such as /preinstall) and have a script perform "pm install ..." for each file in that location for those items not already installed.

Regarding updates, as people have commented: no problem since you're not changing the package name. Just be certain to increase the package version for the store upload. Also, for safety, upload the package (older version, non-functional is ok) to the store in order to reserve that package name on the store -- otherwise someone could place their own on the store before you.

Problem

Original source