Google Play Store app Updates

I currently have my project in closed Beta on the google play store. Currently, none of my testers get pushed the update when I publish a new version. Instead, they have to manually go to the play store listing and click update.

I understand that users can turn off auto-update on their device. In this situation, if you have an important glitch that you've fixed on a new version and you want to notify these users they should update the application, how is this done?

I would much prefer all of my new versions get pushed out to everyone and automatically updated. Is this possible?

If the user has auto-update turned on, will they be pushed the new version every time I publish an update with the version code incremented? What if I only change the Bundle Version Code?

Thanks.

 

Actually you have to change the bundle version code every time you release a new version. There are can be few reasons why the app is not being updated automatically:
1. user has turned off auto update.
2. You added new permissions, which were not there before. In this case user has to manually approve your game again.

But in any case, it will be much easier if you will message the players in-game about the new beta version and ask them to update it. It's not that difficult to implement at all.

 

Wouldn't you need your own server to message the players in-game?

 

No. There are a lot of services which u can use, its basic messaging. For example:
https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/unity/client