What happens when I unpublish an app from the Google Play market?

Question

When I unpublish an app, what happens then?

I've an app, which is relying on third party data, which stopped working now. After quick review I realized, that update will take me a few weeks. To avoid bad ratings (which I started to receive today), I would like to temporarily unpublish my app for example for 3-4 weeks, and then republish it. I don't wanna change package name, or anything else, just unpublish and after few weeks republish it, so I'll keep my comments and ratings.

1) When I unpublish app, can users find my app by market SEARCH?

2) When I unpublish app, can users find my app by clicking on your DEVELOPERS PROFILE?

3) When I unpublish app, can I publish same app with same package name later with keeping my old ratings and comments?

Solution

if app is unpublished then is will not be available for download, will not appear in in-store search results, and simply cannot be installed from store. No details information from Google Play can be received even with direct URL to the application. Unpublishing however does not affect existing installations (so apps will not be automatically removed from any device that got it installed already). Also existing users still would be able to update if they are on older version.

And you cannot have another application with the same package name, no matter what.

EDIT

Please note that you unpublish (and this means just what name says, nothing more) not just APK - you hide all related stuff (app's page in Google Play etc). To end user it looks like the app is gone. For you - it is still in your console, you can edit description, images, see comments, stats or update APKs etc., but unless you publish it again, nobody will see these changes.

Comments

[qkx]

Thats sounds great :) To your last sentence - I know, I can't publish any app with same package, I was asking if I can "cancel" unpublish or how to say it - simple again make my app visible to users? With all history = comments/ratings/everything saved as it was? Of course except search rankings, I know I will fall down ;)

[Marcin Orlowski]

unpublishing hides app from users nothing more. All related data remains and stays unaffected.

[qkx]

great, exactly what I need to hear. Hope u have tested it :)) Thank you very much

[Marcin Orlowski]

Sure I did tested it many times. And what pisses me off is that I cannot fully remove anything from Play myself (and I got one app I'd live to completelty delete). And if my answer helped, pleaase accept it.

[qkx]

done. Yeah, I understand that this can be annoying, but fortunately this is for me no problem (at least for now). Thx again

[deadfish]

now you can use filter to hide unpublished apps in console :)

[Jade]

One update to the answer, per Google's Update your apps page, users still will be able to update an app even if the app is unpublished: Existing app users will still be able to receive app updates, even if you unpublish your app.

[Marcin Orlowski]

@Benjamin Thanks. I updated my answer to reflect that.

[tony m]

@MarcinOrlowski can you please confirm that if we unpublish an android app and then later republish the same app, will all the existing download stats and ratings , that were acquired before unpublishing, remain intact on republishing the app ?

[Marcin Orlowski]

@tony: yes. Unpublishing means the app is no longer available for new users. It won't show up in search results etc, but unpublishing won't affect current users nor your stats..Unpublising does NOT mean "delete"....

[user_iOS_Dev]

What does existing users mean here ? does it also include the user who had once installed the app on his device but currently does not have that app installed in device?

[Victor Rius]

and doest the app lose its ASO positioning?

[Marcin Orlowski]

@user_iOS_Dev: Those who uninstalled the app are out of luck too. They could reinstall from i. e. backup (or via sideload) but not from the store.

[user-123]

What about the reviews? Do they also get deleted after unpublishing? Or if I re-publish it again, the same reviews will appear?

[Marcin Orlowski]

No. The app is hidden so all the related elements incl. Reviews