Are these two treated as same package names in android

Question

So I have published an app on google play, but unfortunately I forgot the alias password for the signing certificate though I remember the password with which I signed the certificate.

After searching a lot I have come to a conclusion that I can't retrieve the alias password by any means and now I am publishing a new copy of app on google play.

Also I went through this post by Dianne Hackborn,

things-that-cannot-change.html

and package name is one out of them.

So , now if I publish this new app with the same package name and un-publish the existing app and a user who has installed the existing app with the existing package name now installs this new app I think that would be an error according to the above post.

But according to the package name conventions I have named the package as,

com.mycompanyname.beta

and for this new upload of the app , I want to use the package name,

com.mycompanyname.android so would these packages conflict ?

Answer 1

com.mycompanyname.beta and com.mycompanyname.android are different package names, so no, they won't conflict.

If a user has the first app installed (com.mycompanyname.beta), and then installs the second one (com.mycompanyname.android), they will end up with both apps installed on their device.

Answer 2

The app is identified by the package name. Therefor the package name needs to be unique. Thats why everybody uses some domain names for that to create a unique package (domains are unique, too).

They wont' conflict

com.mycompanyname.beta

com.mycompanyname.android

but for the safe use-case, this will do the work

com.mycompanyname.clientname.android

Changing package name will not be issue , Android SDK will handle references efficiently

From Android package Specifications

A full Java-language-style package name for the application. The name should be unique. The name may contain uppercase or lowercase letters ('A' through 'Z'), numbers, and underscores ('_'). However, individual package name parts may only start with letters. To avoid conflicts with other developers, you should use Internet domain ownership as the basis for your package names (in reverse). For example, applications published by Google start with com.google. You should also never use the com.example namespace when publishing your applications.

The package name serves as a unique identifier for the application. It's also the default name for the application process (see the element's process process attribute) and the default task affinity of an activity (see the element's taskAffinity attribute).

Caution: Once you publish your application, you cannot change the package name. The package name defines your application's identity, so if you change it, then it is considered to be a different application and users of the previous version cannot update to the new version

.

Answer 3

NO there will not be any conflict rather then made a copy of your app with different package

Answer 4

com.mycompanyname.beta and com.mycompanyname.android are different package names of your app. It never be conflict each over. Both app can be installed in same device.

If it is conflict then better to check the manifest file of app package. May have same package. Then it make conflict. Your App package name should be like that

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.mycompanyname.beta"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >
</manifest >

and other one

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.mycompanyname.android"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >
</manifest >