Prompt users to update to your latest app version

Overview

If users are running an outdated or broken version of your app, you can use Play Console to prompt them to update. This recovery tool can be particularly helpful if you've discovered a problem with a previous app version, such as a security vulnerability.

You can start the process by selecting the app bundle version that you want to upgrade users from. You can then choose your targeting criteria. You can target: 

• all users on the selected app version;
• by country/region; or
• by Android version.

The next time that targeted users open your app, they will see a full-screen prompt saying that the app needs to be updated. Users can then choose to update or dismiss. If they dismiss, they will see the dialogue after every cold restart of the app. Otherwise, upon acceptance, the app will be updated to the latest available compatible version.

Here's an example of how the prompt to update may look to your users:

Prompt users to update

Here are some important things to note before you begin to prompt users to update in Play Console:

• There must be a new version for users to move to in all tracks containing the app version that you want users to update from.
• You can cancel this recovery action at any time. Cancelling an update will only affect users who have not yet updated.
• You can expand your targeting criteria at any time.

Prerequisites:

To prompt users running an outdated or broken version of your app to update to the latest available compatible version.

• Your app must be enrolled in Play app signing.
• Your app must be published using the Android App Bundle.

To prompt users to update:

1. Open Play Console and go to the App bundle explorer page (Release > App bundle explorer).
   • Note: You can also start recovery from the Release overview page (Release > Releases overview). Under 'Latest releases', click the right arrow next to the release that you want users to update from. This opens the Release details page.
2. On the top-right of the page, click Recovery tools and select Prompt users to update in the drop-down.
3. Under 'Choose a bundle', choose the app bundle(s) that you want to prompt users to update from.
   • Note: Some tracks with app bundles might not have newer releases available. If applicable, these tracks are listed under 'Unavailable'. You can click on an app bundle listed here to view which tracks it's unavailable on.
4. After you've chosen your app bundle(s), click Next.
5. Optional: You can click Show instructions to expand the on-screen steps to test your prompt.
6. Choose your targeting criteria. You can target:
   • all users on the selected app version;
   • by country/region; or
   • by Android version.

Note the following:

• If you select Android version, you must also select which Android versions you want to include (you can also select all Android versions).
• If you select country/region, you must also select which countries/regions you want to include (you can also select all countries/regions).

You can view the number of users that will be prompted to update based on your chosen targeting criteria.

7. Click Initiate prompt to begin prompting users to update.

Manage your update

After prompting users to update, you can use Play Console's recovery tools to edit your update configuration, view its progress or cancel the recovery action. Click on a section below to expand or collapse it.

Other update options

Prompting users to update using recover tools is useful to trigger a full-screen dialogue to encourage users to update versions that have already been published. In-app updates can potentially offer greater flexibility:

You can choose if and when to show the dialogue.

You can show a less invasive dialogue (not a full-screen dialogue).

However, you have to manually implement it in your code, and only future versions of your app will benefit from it.