Forced Access App Update

With the Forced Access App Update feature, the production flavor of a branded Access App checks the official iOS and Android app stores for new app versions. If a new app version is available, the end user is forced to update the app before being able to continue using it. This ensures that end users always use the latest, most secure and backend-compatible version of the Access App. However, to not compromise the user experience, the app will continue working as intended in case the public app store is not reachable or the app entry could not be found.

For this feature to work correctly, it is required to have a published app in the public app store.

Disabled by default

The forced update feature is disabled by default. If you like to use it inform Nevis when ordering the Access App.

Update Detection Delay

Note that depending on the rollout of the apps into respective public store pages, the end user will not immediately receive a notification after a new app version has been published.

In the Apple App Store for example, it can take up to one day until the update is detected.

How does the forced App Update work?

The forced app update feature is implemented differently between the platforms due to the available options each platform offers for detecting available newer app versions.

Android

On Android we rely on the Android APIs provided AppUpdateManager. This one relies on the Google play service to check whether an app update is available. The app will trigger the update upon app opening or re-opening if it detects an update is available. The Google play service itself directly obtains the information from the Google Play Store.

As the Google Play Store rolls out the app in multiple stages it may be that the information hasn't propagated all the way through and thus the app doesn't detect a newer available version right away.

iOS

On iOS there's no such service as the Google Play service to check for app updates so the iOS app directly queries the Apple App Store to detect whether a new version is available and then starts the update procedure.