How to allow users to check for the latest app ver

Question

I want to add a "Check for update" button in apps so that when someone clicks it, it will display a toast message / progress dialog for checking the app's version.

If new version is found the apps will auto download it to the phone and let user to manually install the updated apps.

Or any others method will do as long as it can check for latest version and notify the user to update.

Answer 1

You should first check the app version on the market and compare it with the version of the app on the device. If they are different, it may be an update available. In this post I wrote down the code for getting the current version of market and current version on the device and compare them together. I also showed how to show the update dialog and redirect the user to the update page. Please visit this link: https://stackoverflow.com/a/33925032/5475941

Answer 2

If it is an application on the Market, then on app start-up, fire an Intent to open up the Market app hopefully which will cause it to check for updates.

Otherwise implementing and update checker is fairly easy. Here is my code (roughly) for it:

String response = SendNetworkUpdateAppRequest(); // Your code to do the network request
                                                 // should send the current version
                                                 // to server
if(response.equals("YES")) // Start Intent to download the app user has to manually install it by clicking on the notification
    startActivity(new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("URL TO LATEST APK")));

Of course you should rewrite this to do the request on a background thread but you get the idea.

If you like something a little but more complex but allows your app to automatically apply the update see here.