Licensing & selling an Android app

[J. Landman Gay]

On 6/3/12 5:16 PM, Richard Miller wrote:
> Are you certain that this works this easily on most Android devices?
>  From my little testing, this didn't seem to work reliably. I had to use
> an app like tAttachApkInstaller (specifically designed to install apk's
> sent by email), but even that didn't seem to work reliably or easily on
> the half-dozen phones I tried at Verizon.
>
>> If you send the apk as an email attachment, clicking the link in the
>> email will install the app provided the customer reads the email on
>> their Android device.
>>
>> There are many other ways too, but they usually involved an Android
>> file manager. Dropbox is another easy, direct way to install but not
>> all your customers may have that.

I tested by sending an email to my gmail account with an apk attached. 
Gmail showed the attachment as an enclosure with a button next to it 
titled "Install". Clicking that installed the app right from email.

I didn't try with my regular email account, so maybe it would be 
different. Or maybe it depends on the version of the Android OS or the 
mail client the OEM installs. But I'm with Shawn, just about every 
android user knows how to get an apk to their device. Like him, I was 
doing it within a day or two after getting my first Android tablet.

There are so many ways to transfer an apk that I'd be surprised if any 
but the very newest android user didn't know how. You can:

1. Attach the device to the computer via cable and drag the apk over. 
Open it using the built-in file manager on the device and it will install.

2. Drag it to a dropbox folder (or any other cloud service,) open it in 
dropbox on the device, it installs.

3. Email it to yourself. If the enclosure doesn't install when you click 
it (it did for me,) it will download instead. Then use the file manager 
to click it to install.

4. Link to a download on a web page. The android browser will download 
it from the link. When the notification appears that the download is 
complete, tap the message in the notification bar and it installs. Or at 
any time later, select "Downloads" from the browser menu and tap on the 
downloaded file in the list to install it. (This is another easy option.)

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com