Updating your Android app with another app

Question

Is it legal to update an Android app on the Play store with a totally different app under the same package name?

Is it considered against the policies since I am updating the app USING THE SAME PACKAGE NAME with a totally different app?

Answer 1

Is it legal to update an Android app on the Play store with a totally different app under the same package name?

well, there's no such definition "different app".

as long as you are using the same keystore (as @SplatFace Development said) it considers from Google play point of view the same app by definition.

you can change whatever you'd like.

it's legal for sure, and there's no any security problem with that because the user anyway would have to accept again the new app permissions if they changed at all...

and as I mentioned in the comment -
I almost sure google did it with thier own apps when Google Talk replaced with Hangouts.

Answer 2

I don't see why it wouldn't be legal. If they are both your creations, you should be alright. It's basically changing the source code with a normal update, only a lot of changes, and changing the name if you're going to change the name. If you are going to change the name though, that may be more of a problem. I wouldn't be sure. I never did that.

Answer 3

Two apps cannot have the same package name. Android will treat them as the same app, with all the consequences that implies.