Handling end-of-life for an app on Google Play

Question

Is there an elegant way to handle end-of-life scenarios for an app on Google Play?

Suppose I have an app ("A"), and this app is being superseded by a suite ("S") that has all the functionality of that old app. In other words, S will absorb A. I think it makes sense, from a business point of view, to:

• Prevent new sales of A, directing all new sales to S.
• Keep supporting A with updates and fixes.

I want to know if it's technically possible. Please disregard SDK requirements and user experience and other OT issues, as I'm not considering with that yet (besides, with this I can always gift old customers in case I want to).

Right now, the only way I see to achieve this is to set the price of A so high that users won't buy it. That way I can keep providing updates without increasing its user base (and thus time spent on support etc.).

Answer 1

One very simple approach would be to simply upgrade your old app to have the new functionality of your suite app, and then rename and re-price the "old" app (which is now your suite) to reflect its new status (e.g., add the word "suite" onto the name). So far as Google Play is concerned, it will still be the same app, only "better." You will keep all the credibility gained from installs of the old app (by essentially upgrading the old app). Your old users will be happy because (as you've described it) they will have all of the old app's functionality, plus some additional functionality.

When I say "upgrade," that doesn't mean that you have to start with the old app's code base; you can just create an entirely new project and APK, so long as you use the same package name and upload it to the old app's location on the Google Play store, and so long as functionally it covers all of the bases expected by your existing user base.

Based on your description, I really can't see the down side of this. It may be that by conceiving of this feature superset as a new product rather than as an update you've created a problem that need not exist.

Answer 2

Currently, Google provides no such functionality. Your best route would be to add functionality to app A that allows it to update using your own private servers, then unpublish the app from the market. It really is quite that Google provides extremely limited functionality in the Dev Console. Instead of taxes, they should've added app coupons and private app listings. Oh Google, "driving sales" as always.