The right way to provide a Premium update to a free Android App

Question

I have been developing a free game (with ads) on the Android Market. Now quite a few people are requesting me to do a paid version without ads. I have no experience in keeping multiple versions of a single app.

I have already factored out the app on Eclipse: a library project and a (free) app project. Now I'm going to add a new project for the paid version.

My main problem has to do with the most efficient and reliable way to import old settings and data from the free version if it happens to be already installed on user's phone.

• Ideally, I want users not to have to export data and settings manually.
• I think hardcoding file paths is not robust.
• I am too lazy and daunted to implement a ContentProvider.

Is there an easy way to query for data and settings from another app of mine, given the package name?

Thank you very much.

Deoxyribose

Do you only need to copy over SharedPreferneces? – Kalikow

I will need to keep both SharedPreferences and an SQLite database. I'm looking into in-app purchase suggested by Barry below – Deoxyribose

Answer 1

You don't need to copy anything or even install another app. Just add an in-app purchase to the free app that disables ads.

Barry

Become

I've been doing more research and the downside to the in-app approach is that you only get one app listing in Android Market. Probably the best approach is to offer BOTH purchase methods, if you can bother. – Become