Update a Published App

To update your app or add new features, submit a new version of your app through the app submission workflow. Your app retains customer ratings and download statistics across versions.

Note: Apps cannot be updated while they are in the Amazon review process.

Update an existing app
Perform a live metadata update
How and when app updates happen for customers on Fire TV

Update an existing app

Review how the following terms are used in this document

app: Your listing in the Amazon Appstore, which includes the title, description, categorization, and other details, as well as all the APKs associated with the app.

APK: A single Android APK file. Thus, there's a difference between updating your app and updating your APK. A single app can have multiple APKs.

binary file: The app file you upload to the Appstore Developer Console as a part of app submission. Can refer to either your Android App Bundle (AAB) or your APK file.

When you update an existing app, your updates will need to be approved before your updated app goes live. If you're making updates to descriptions or assets only, use the steps in Live metadata update.

Follow these steps to publish a new version of your app.

If uploading an Android app file (AAB or APK), first build your new binary file, giving it a new versionCode in the app's Gradle build file.

Important: In order for your app to update properly for existing users, the value of android:versionCode must be greater than that of the currently live version of your app. Additionally, your package name must remain the same as your previous binary file.
Sign in to the Developer Console.
From the Dashboard (the default homepage), under the Amazon Appstore section, click App List.
Select the app you want to update.
Click Add Upcoming Version in the sidebar. A confirmation message appears — click Confirm to proceed. You can use the upcoming version feature both for updating existing binary files and for adding new binary files.

Under Current Version, an Upcoming Version section opens in the sidebar. The Upcoming Version section has app submission screens that mirror your current version. Green check marks in the sidebar indicate that the required fields have been pre-filled with the information associated with the live version your app. This information is copied from your live app.
In the sidebar, New version updates is selected, which shows you the Upload Your App File screen. Here, upload your AAB or APK binary files. You have two options for updating your existing binary:
- Replace your previous binary file: To replace your existing binary with a new file that supports the same devices, click Replace on the uploaded file. Replacing your binary file allows you to retain all your previous Supported devices settings as before. For example, if you already selected which devices your binary file supports, and your new binary supports all the same devices, choose this replace option rather than reconfiguring your device support selections.
- Delete your previous binary file: To delete your binary file and all previous device support selections, click Delete on the uploaded file. Then upload a new binary and configure the device support selections on the Target Your App screen. To change the devices your app supports, click Edit supported devices in the Supported devices section.
  
  Warning: If you choose to delete your binary file, remember that you have to reconfigure which devices your new binary supports. Otherwise, you might be pushing out a new app that is inadvertently supported on devices that you either don't support or don't want to support.
For apps with multiple binary files: Suppose you have multiple binary files for your app. If you want different binaries to support different devices, you must first clear any devices from the first binary that you want the second binary to support. After you clear the devices from the first binary, these devices become selectable options in the second binary. More detail is provided in Add multiple APKs for the same app. See also Multiple APKs for the same application listing. When you add binary files for new devices, customers using the app on previously supported devices will not receive an app update.

Web apps: For web apps, update your web app files as desired.

Green check marks appear in the sidebar when you complete the required information on each screen. When the Upload Your App File, Target Your App, and Appstore Details screens have green check marks, the Submit App button is enabled on the Review & Submit screen. You can change the information on any screen until you submit your app.
On the Upload Your App File screen, a Release notes field appears where you describe the changes you've made in this release. Add your release notes here. A set of release notes is required for each translation defined for your app.

If you previously published an updated version of your app and entered release notes, an option to Copy release notes from the previous app version for all languages will be available to you. Select this option to populate the field with the release notes from the previous version of your app.
Edit the information on the remaining screens as needed. For details with the remaining screens, see Submitting Apps to the Amazon Appstore.
On the Review & Submit screen, verify the updates and click Submit App.

Note: If you start to create a new version of your app but decide not to publish the update, you can delete the unpublished version. Use the Delete Upcoming Version button (at the bottom of the page) to roll back to the currently published version of the app.

Perform a live metadata update

You can perform a live metadata update when you want to update only the description or other assets and don't have a new binary file to publish. You don't need to create a new upcoming version of your app for these changes, but the Appstore must approve these updates before they are published on the Appstore. Use these steps to perform a live metadata update.

Go to the Developer Console dashboard.
In the Amazon Appstore section, click App List.
Select the app you want to update.
Edit the descriptions, images, or other assets as needed. For details on the app submission screens, see Submitting Apps to the Amazon Appstore.
Note: Certain fields on the app submission screens can't be updated for an already live app. This includes the binary file, supported languages, supported devices, target audience, and content rating. If you need to make updates to these fields, you must submit a new version of your app, as detailed in Update an existing app.
On the Review & Submit screen, verify the updates and click Submit App.

After you click Submit App, the app goes into a review state. While in review, the app will no longer be available on the Appstore until the review is completed and app updates are live. The time it takes to complete the review process depends on the metadata changes, but it is shorter than updates that include a binary file. For example, updates that require manual verification or content policy review are likely to take longer than those that don't.

The Developer Console displays a banner at the top of the app submission screens after your app updates are live.

You can stage changes that you aren't ready to submit for publishing by making the changes and allowing the console to auto-save those changes. The saved changes won't be published until after you click Submit App and the update is approved.

How and when app updates happen for customers on Fire TV

For updates that do not have permission changes, Fire TV applies the update in the background. For apps that do have permission changes, the customer has to manually review the permission changes and apply the update. With apps that have permissions changes, the update process differs between Fire OS 6 and Fire OS 5 devices:

Updates for Fire OS 6 devices:

On Fire OS 6 devices, permission approvals are applied at runtime (rather than at installation time), so customers don't have to manually approve the permission changes before the update is applied. Instead, the update gets applied in the background; when customers launch the app, they're prompted to approve the new permissions. In short, with Fire OS 6, any update can be installed, but access to the feature is deferred to runtime. (This assumes the app supports Marshmallow or later APIs, as this is when runtime permissions were introduced on Android.)
Updates for Fire OS 5 devices:

Apps with API levels lower than Marshmallow (less than Level 23) require customers to manually approve the updates before the updates can be applied. For these updates, Fire TV sends an actionable heads-up notification every 24 hours letting customers know about pending approvals for updates. These notifications also stay in the Notification Center and take customers to a screen that shows all the pending updates.

When customers launch an app that has a manual update pending, Fire TV shows a message that asks if customers want to update the app first before launching it. If customers decline, Fire TV does not prompt customers to update the app on subsequent launches for another seven days.

If customers go to the app details page, an update button appears for apps that have a pending update.

Note: To redirect customers from within your app to a pending app update, use the intent=app_update parameter in your deep link to ensure that any pending app update is shown to the customer. Use this parameter for Fire TV or mobile Android devices; it's not required for Fire tablets. For details, see Link to Amazon from within Your App.

Last updated: Nov 05, 2024