Guide for versioning an android application

Question

I am trying to release an update of an existing Android application.

What is the correct way of versioning an Android application?

Here Developer guide I found that format may be <major>.<minor>.<point>.

Can someone please explain me what each of major, minor and point mean?

score 14 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

14

androidVersionCode is an integer that you increase with each update. So the first version could be 1, the next update could be 2, etc.

androidVersionName is just a string value that you decide - it's displayed on Google Play.

The documentation refers to <major>.<minor>.<point> as a suggested format for the versionName, e.g. version 1.1.1 or 2.0.4. It's up to you, but there's a good explanation here.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

Community

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answered Sep 24 '13 at 06:01

ashatte

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You would increase if your update included a bug fix or something simple. It would imply that no major features have changed in that update, yet it is still a newer version, hence an increased version number. – ashatte Sep 24 '13 at 06:09
Thank you :) This is what i was expecting for :) sorry for asking again about because i didn't see the link you had given :) – Rage Sep 24 '13 at 06:24

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 24 '13 at 05:57

As long as you update android:versionCode each time, it doesn't really matter what you put into android:versionName. It can be three different numbers or any other string, e.g. "1.0.0", "a", or "best release ever".

This is a general discussion of Software Versioning from Wikipedia.

Maxi Rosson · Answer 3 · 2021-11-21T00:18:11.017

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Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, increment the:

MAJOR version when you make incompatible API changes,
MINOR version when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner, and
PATCH version when you make backwards-compatible bug fixes.

I wrote a post about versioning android apps: https://blog.dipien.com/versioning-android-apps-d6ec171cfd82

edited Nov 21 '21 at 00:18

answered Jul 14 '20 at 19:48

Maxi Rosson

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 24 '13 at 05:58

The version code is an integer and must be strictly increasing with each new version.

The version name is totally up to you. A scheme that is often used is x.y where x is incremented for really big changes (maybe even introducing incompatibilities with previous versions), while y is incremented for minor changes.

Guide for versioning an android application

4 Answers4