How to push update out to an app after it is launched

Help General
1

I have an app and I built the apk via Android Studio. I installed the apk into my Android phone and it works perfectly. My question is how do I push app updates out to users who already have the apk installed on their phone? I have noticed a couple of times when I do a small UI tweak or something similar that my installed apk shows those tweaks. Does this mean that everytime I change the app in an IDE and save it, it will push the update out automatically?

2

No, not just like this.
Normally when you push a new release to the App Store or Playstore depending on your phone’s settings it will automatically update the app from the store but there is no guarantee.
That’s why you normally check at app startup if the current app is the latest version on the store and if not you show a dialog and ask the user to update.

At least that was the general situation for apps before last year. With a service like https://shorebird.dev/

You have now the option to push updates directly to the devices of your users with some limitations

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3

Thanks @escamoteur . However, I don’t have my app on App Store or Playstore yet. My observation of the app “seemingly” updating itself on the installed apk really shouldn’t have anything to do with those as I installed the app on my phone directly from the apk created on Android Studio.

Thanks for the link to shorebird!

4

Then it’s normally impossible that will update

5

Thanks @escamoteur