Play store does not push new versions on "Internal Testing" to users

Question

I have an app on the "Internal Testing" track with a couple of friends as registered testers. They could all install it, no issues here. But they don't get updates automatically when I publish a new version on this track. The only way to install new updates is to uninstall the app and install it again via the invite link.

First thing I learned about this is that Google will not enable auto updates on Internal Testing if they haven't done at least one review of the app (although the track itself doesn't get reviewed). So you have to submit one version on the "Closed Testing" track in order to get it reviewed. I did this and it got accepted but still no updates on "Internal Testing".

Since I got reviewed on "Closed Testing" I published several new versions on "Internal Testing" but none got pushed to my users. They don't even see the update if they actively search for updates in the Play Store app.

I didn't find much explicit information about what to expect from the "Internal Testing" track wrt. updates, but this post says that it should be deployed automatically if the user has set their device to auto-update apps:

If your users have their device set to auto update apps, it will just update to the newest release when the device recognizes a release is available. (source)

What am I doing wrong here?

If this is not possible with "Internal Testing": what would be the right method to give a limited number of test user access to the app with auto-updates enabled?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: I found one way to update the app: if I long-tap the App icon and tap the (i) icon (this might be Samsung specific), I end up in the Play Store listing which shows an update button. The auto-updates are enabled btw, so it should have been installed automatically.

Tubbs

Having similar issues here. Internal tracks seem to be fragile and/or broken. Not to mention that they don't even tell you that you have to release to alpha and get reviewed before the internal track will even work in the first place. – Denaedenarius

Yeah, Google Play Store is still a mess for developers (although it was way worse some years ago...) – Tubbs

2024 still completely broken ffs – Vedis

Answer 1

What I found is that testers list should be exclusive for different testing tracks. In other words, a tester should not have the same Android device trying to access internal testing track releases and open / closed testing track releases.

Did not find any official documentation from PlayStore on this, but learnt it the hard way. Maybe this post is still helpful for you: https://medium.com/@tukai.anirban/internal-testing-in-google-playstore-47de955062ad

Cephalad

Answer 2

It happened to me. After you successfully upload the updated app, uninstall the older app, and restart your phone. After your phone restarted, download the app again, only that way I received the latest update

Beeeater

I know that it works this way. But this is not the User Experience that keeps my test users at bay. I would need to notify them about the update through the old app and explain the whole process and still most of them would not manage to do the update or even bother to spend that much effort into testing an app. I expected the smooth UX of the regular app updates. – Tubbs

This does not really answer the question. If you have a different question, you can ask it by clicking Ask Question. To get notified when this question gets new answers, you can follow this question. Once you have enough reputation, you can also add a bounty to draw more attention to this question. - From Review – Trierarch