How to update Android app silently without user interaction?

Silent or background app updates on Android provide several key benefits for both users and developers:

For users, silent updates mean not having to manually update each app. Updates happen automatically in the background without any user interaction required. This leads to a smoother experience with apps staying up-to-date seamlessly. Users no longer have to deal with being prompted repeatedly to update apps.

For developers, silent updates allow delivering new features and bug fixes faster to users. Rather than wait for users to manually update, the updates can roll out in the background. This means users get access to the latest versions quicker. Silent updates also tend to have higher opt-in rates compared to manual app updates.

Overall, silent updates create a frictionless process for keeping apps updated. Users get a smooth experience without disruptive update prompts while developers can swiftly distribute the latest versions of their apps.

Prerequisites

There are a couple key prerequisites in order to update an Android app silently without user interaction:

First, the device must be running Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) or higher. As noted in the Android 6.0 API Overview, Android 6.0 introduced the ability for apps to request permissions at runtime, which is necessary for silent updates. Older versions of Android required all permissions to be granted at install time.

Second, the app must be published on the Google Play Store. As described in the In-app Updates documentation, in-app updates are only available for apps distributed through Play Store. The Play Store handles the update process in the background.

Meeting these two prerequisites enables developers to update their Android apps without any user interaction.

Enable Automatic Updates

One of the easiest ways to enable silent updates for your Android app is to opt-in to automatic updates in the Google Play Console. As noted in the Google Support article Manage app updates, developers can configure their app listing to allow automatic updates when certain constraints are met, such as having a minimum target API level and sufficient battery/network conditions on the user’s device.

When enabled, Google Play will automatically update apps without any user interaction as new versions become available. This allows developers to push updates silently in the background. Opting into automatic updates is done through the Play Console settings when managing your app. Just check the “Enable auto-updates” option.

One downside to this approach is that users will not see update notifications. However, as highlighted on Stack Overflow (Auto Updates google play – android), the Play Store app will still show users the updated version number and changelog after an automatic update occurs. So it’s a seamless way to deploy silent updates at scale.

Use Flexible or Immediate In-App Updates

One way to update your Android app silently is by using flexible or immediate in-app updates. As described in the Android developer documentation, these allow you to request an update to your app without disrupting the user. With flexible updates, the user can choose when to install the update. With immediate updates, the update will be downloaded and installed immediately.

To implement flexible or immediate updates in your app, follow these steps:

• Create an InAppUpdateManager instance using the Play Core library.
• Call InAppUpdateManager.getAppUpdateInfo() to check if an update is available.
• If an update is available, call InAppUpdateManager.startUpdateFlowForResult() to trigger the update flow.
• The update will be downloaded in the background and the user can choose when to install a flexible update. Immediate updates will install automatically.

With this implementation, you can push silent updates to your app without any user disruption. Just make sure to handle the results properly in your app.

Schedule Updates

You can schedule app updates in advance through the Google Play Console. This allows you to plan the release of updates on your own timeline. To schedule an update:

1. Sign in to your Play Console and go to “Release Management” > “App releases.”

2. Click “Manage” next to the version you want to schedule.

3. Under “Release Type,” select “Scheduled.”

4. Choose a date and time for the update to roll out. You can schedule it days or weeks in advance.

5. Click “Review” and then “Start rollout.”

On the scheduled date, the update will automatically roll out to users. You don’t need to manually publish it. Play Console will handle the release based on the schedule you set.

Scheduling updates in advance can be useful for coordinating releases with your team or giving users advance notice of changes. Just be sure to test the update thoroughly before scheduling it.

For more details, see Google’s guide on managing app updates in Play Console.

Use Android App Bundles

One way to enable silent updates for your Android app is by using Android App Bundles. App Bundles allow you to build your app and all its resources into multiple APKs based on device configuration like screen density, CPU architecture etc. When you upload an App Bundle to the Play Store, it uses Google Play’s Dynamic Delivery to generate and serve optimized APKs for each user device configuration, downloading only the code and resources needed to run your app on that device. This results in smaller downloads and installs for your users.

A key benefit of App Bundles is that you can use Dynamic Delivery to provide silent updates to your app. When you release a new version of your app, the Play Store can update users to the latest version by only downloading the parts that changed. For example, if you updated the resources in your app but didn’t change any code, users could get the update without any code being re-downloaded. This results in faster, smaller, and seamless updates.

To take advantage of this, you need to modularize your app into dynamic feature modules and configure your app to request splits. This allows the Play Store to only download the modules required for a specific device. You can then easily update individual modules without requiring a full app update. See the Android documentation on App Bundles here for more details on how to configure and optimize your app.

Update Notifications

You can customize the update notifications that users see when an update is available. This allows you to tailor the messaging to be more appealing and informative for your users. For example, you can highlight new features or improvements in the update notification. To customize notifications:

In the app module’s build.gradle file, set showNotification to true in defaultConfig to enable notifications. Then customize the strings for the various notification texts using the update_notification_* strings. For example:

android {
  defaultConfig {
    ...  
    showNotification true // enable update notifications

    resValue "string", "update_notification_title", "New App Version Available!"
    resValue "string", "update_notification_text", "Tap to upgrade and enjoy new features!" 
  }
}

You can also customize the update notification icon, color, and channel details if desired. See the Android developer documentation for more details on customizing update notifications.

With customized messaging, you can make update notifications more compelling for users. This improves the chances that they will promptly update to your latest app version.

Seamless Updates

Seamless updates enable Android devices to install system updates in the background without any user downtime or boot interrupion. Android devices with A/B partitions can take advantage of seamless updates to provide a smooth update experience[1].[2]

With seamless updates, the software update gets downloaded and installed in the background while the Android system continues to run normally. This means users won’t experience any downtime, slowdowns, or need to restart their device during an OTA update. The update process happens silently in the background.

Once the update is installed in the inactive partition, the system simply switches to boot into the updated partition on the next reboot. This provides a seamless transition without disrupting the user experience.[3] Seamless updates help provide a smooth, continuous user experience even during major platform updates.

Testing

Before publishing an app update with silent updates enabled, it is important to thoroughly test the silent update flow. This involves testing the update process on a range of devices to ensure the update is truly “silent” and does not require any user interaction.

One method to test silent updates is to uninstall the original version of the app and reinstall it from the Play Store. This will trigger the silent update flow when the updated version is available. Verify that the update downloads and installs seamlessly without any prompts or interruption to the user.

Silent updates can also be tested by uploading internally testable app bundles to the Play Store. This allows accessing the upcoming silent update before public release. Test on various device models to catch any issues.

Additionally, disable auto-updates on test devices and manually trigger updates via the Play Store. Monitor behavior to ensure silent updating occurs as expected.

Thorough testing of the silent update process is crucial to provide a seamless user experience and avoid disruptions from unintended prompts or errors.

Conclusion

Updating Android apps silently without requiring user interaction is possible through a few key methods. The main options covered include enabling automatic updates in the Google Play Store, using in-app updates to deliver updates seamlessly, scheduling updates via the Google Play Console, distributing updates through Android App Bundles, and utilizing seamless updates in Android 8.0+. Each approach has its own benefits and implementation requirements that developers should consider. Key considerations include user experience, development overhead, and flexibility in deploying updates.

Overall, silently updating Android apps provides a more seamless experience for users and developers. Implementing one or more of these techniques will allow you to deliver important updates and new features without disrupting your users. Just be sure to test updates thoroughly before deploying them widely. With the right strategy, you can ship updates quickly and efficiently.