Support in-app updates (Unity)

This guide describes how to support in-app updates in your app using Unity. There are separate guides for cases where your implementation uses the Kotlin programming language or the Java programming language, and cases where your implementation uses native code (C/C++).

Set up your development environment

openupm add com.google.play.appupdate

Unity SDK overview

The Play in-app update API is part of the Play Core SDK family. The Unity Plugin offers an AppUpdateManager class to handle communication between your app and the Play API. You must instantiate this class before you can use it to manage in-app updates:

AppUpdateManager appUpdateManager = new AppUpdateManager();

Check for update availability

Before you request an update, check if there is an update available for your app. Use AppUpdateManager to check for an update in a coroutine:

IEnumerator CheckForUpdate()
{
  PlayAsyncOperation<AppUpdateInfo, AppUpdateErrorCode> appUpdateInfoOperation =
    appUpdateManager.GetAppUpdateInfo();

  // Wait until the asynchronous operation completes.
  yield return appUpdateInfoOperation;

  if (appUpdateInfoOperation.IsSuccessful)
  {
    var appUpdateInfoResult = appUpdateInfoOperation.GetResult();
    // Check AppUpdateInfo's UpdateAvailability, UpdatePriority,
    // IsUpdateTypeAllowed(), etc. and decide whether to ask the user
    // to start an in-app update.
  }
  else
  {
    // Log appUpdateInfoOperation.Error.
  }
}

The returned AppUpdateInfo instance contains the update availability status. If an in-app update is already in progress, the instance also reports the status of the in-progress update.

Check update staleness

In addition to checking whether an update is available, you might also want to check how much time has passed since the user was last notified of an update through the Play Store. This can help you decide whether you should initiate a flexible update or an immediate update. For example, you might wait a few days before notifying the user with a flexible update, and a few days after that before requiring an immediate update.

Use ClientVersionStalenessDays to check the number of days since the update became available through the Play Store:

var stalenessDays = appUpdateInfoOperation.ClientVersionStalenessDays;

Check update priority

The Google Play Developer API allows you to set the priority of each update. This allows your app to decide how strongly to recommend an update to the user. For example, consider the following strategy for setting update priority:

• Minor UI improvements: Low-priority update; request neither a flexible update nor an immediate update.
• Performance improvements: Medium-priority update; request a flexible update.
• Critical security update: High-priority update; request an immediate update.

To determine priority, Google Play uses an integer value between 0 and 5, with 0 being the default and 5 being the highest priority. To set the priority for an update, use the inAppUpdatePriority field under Edits.tracks.releases in the Google Play Developer API. All newly-added versions in the release are considered to be the same priority as the release. Priority can only be set when rolling out a new release and cannot be changed later.

Set the priority using the Google Play Developer API as described in the Play Developer API documentation. In-app update priority should be specified in the Edit.tracks resource passed in the Edit.tracks: update method. The following example demonstrates releasing an app with version code 88 and inAppUpdatePriority 5:

{
  "releases": [{
      "versionCodes": ["88"],
      "inAppUpdatePriority": 5,
      "status": "completed"
  }]
}

In your app's code, you can check the priority level for a given update using UpdatePriority:

var priority = appUpdateInfoOperation.UpdatePriority;

Start an update

After ensuring that an update is available, you can request an update using AppUpdateManager.StartUpdate(). Before you request an update, make sure that you have an up-to-date AppUpdateInfo object. You must also create an AppUpdateOptions object to configure the update flow.

The following example creates an AppUpdateOptions object for an immediate update flow:

// Creates an AppUpdateOptions defining an immediate in-app
// update flow and its parameters.
var appUpdateOptions = AppUpdateOptions.ImmediateAppUpdateOptions();

The following example creates an AppUpdateOptions object for a flexible update flow:

// Creates an AppUpdateOptions defining a flexible in-app
// update flow and its parameters.
var appUpdateOptions = AppUpdateOptions.FlexibleAppUpdateOptions();

The AppUpdateOptions object also contains an AllowAssetPackDeletion field that defines whether the update is allowed to clear asset packs in case of limited device storage. This field is set to false by default, but you can pass the allowAssetPackDeletion optional argument to ImmediateAppUpdateOptions() or FlexibleAppUpdateOptions() to set it to true instead:

// Creates an AppUpdateOptions for an immediate flow that allows
// asset pack deletion.
var appUpdateOptions =
  AppUpdateOptions.ImmediateAppUpdateOptions(allowAssetPackDeletion: true);

// Creates an AppUpdateOptions for a flexible flow that allows asset
// pack deletion.
var appUpdateOptions =
  AppUpdateOptions.FlexibleAppUpdateOptions(allowAssetPackDeletion: true);

The next steps depend on whether you are requesting a flexible update or an immediate update.

Handle a flexible update

After you have an up-to-date AppUpdateInfo object and a properly-configured AppUpdateOptions object, you can call AppUpdateManager.StartUpdate() to asynchronously request an update flow.

IEnumerator StartFlexibleUpdate()
{
  // Creates an AppUpdateRequest that can be used to monitor the
  // requested in-app update flow.
  var startUpdateRequest = appUpdateManager.StartUpdate(
    // The result returned by PlayAsyncOperation.GetResult().
    appUpdateInfoResult,
    // The AppUpdateOptions created defining the requested in-app update
    // and its parameters.
    appUpdateOptions);

  while (!startUpdateRequest.IsDone)
  {
  // For flexible flow,the user can continue to use the app while
  // the update downloads in the background. You can implement a
  // progress bar showing the download status during this time.
  yield return null;
  }

}

For a flexible update flow, you must trigger the installation of the app update after the download finishes successfully. To do this, call AppUpdateManager.CompleteUpdate(), as shown in the following example:

IEnumerator CompleteFlexibleUpdate()
{
  var result = appUpdateManager.CompleteUpdate();
  yield return result;

  // If the update completes successfully, then the app restarts and this line
  // is never reached. If this line is reached, then handle the failure (e.g. by
  // logging result.Error or by displaying a message to the user).
}

Handle an immediate update

After you have an up-to-date AppUpdateInfo object and a properly-configured AppUpdateOptions object, you can call AppUpdateManager.StartUpdate() to asynchronously request an update flow.

IEnumerator StartImmediateUpdate()
{
  // Creates an AppUpdateRequest that can be used to monitor the
  // requested in-app update flow.
  var startUpdateRequest = appUpdateManager.StartUpdate(
    // The result returned by PlayAsyncOperation.GetResult().
    appUpdateInfoResult,
    // The AppUpdateOptions created defining the requested in-app update
    // and its parameters.
    appUpdateOptions);
  yield return startUpdateRequest;

  // If the update completes successfully, then the app restarts and this line
  // is never reached. If this line is reached, then handle the failure (for
  // example, by logging result.Error or by displaying a message to the user).
}

For an immediate update flow, Google Play displays a user confirmation dialog. When the user accepts the request, Google Play automatically downloads and installs the update, then restarts the app to the updated version if installation is successful.

Error handling

This section describes solutions for common errors.

• If StartUpdate() throws an ArgumentNullException, it means that AppUpdateInfo is null. Make sure the AppUpdateInfo object returned from GetAppUpdateInfo() is not null before starting the update flow.
• If PlayAsyncOperation returns the ErrorUpdateUnavailable error code, make sure there is an updated app version available that has the same application ID and signing key.
• If PlayAsyncOperation returns the ErrorUpdateNotAllowed error code, it means that the AppUpdateOptions object indicates an update type that is not allowed for the available update. Check whether the AppUpdateInfo object indicates that the selected update type is allowed before starting the update flow.

Next steps

Test your app's in-app updates to verify that your integration is working correctly.