I sent a ticket that I have a problem with the companion app, after exchanging a few emails I got information that my ticket is closed and the topic is transferred to another team with a new ticket number. After that there was silence, no one contacted me, no one answers my questions - how to contact about the new ticket number.
Does anyone know anything about this?
Should I send an email to support with my new ticket number?
Is there a dedicated page where these tickets are and where can I contact them?
If you sent the ticket to google, they will keep silence like this way and you will be wait forever.
Even if you got an answer, that answer will contains a lots of questions - who, why, how, when etc etc!!! That’s google way of working !!
@DigitX, I have not personally had to get into contact with support yet so I cannot give any advice regarding how to proceed with them. However, if they provided you with a new ticket number then I would expect that you should be able to contact support again, provide them with the new ticket number you were given, and ask them who you need to contact (if not the support team) in order to keep things moving.
That said, you mentioned that you “have a problem with the companion app.” Is the problem you are having a problem that maybe some of us here in this forum could help you with?
It looks like this. I have an application (watchface) in two formats:
wearos
smartphone version
The WearOs version works fine, but the smartphone version (companion app) mistakenly has:
Permissions:
android.permission.WAKE_LOCK, com.android.alarm.permission.SET_ALARM, com.google.android.wearable.permission.BIND_WATCH_FACE_CONTROL, com.google.android.wearable.permission.RECEIVE_COMPLICATION_DATA, com.samsung.android.watch.watchface.hideinformation.setting.READ_HIDE_INFORMATION
Why is it interpreted as a smartwatch application, but it is a version for smartphones as support for watchface installation.
Google Play blocks the update because due to the lack of these functions in the new version, no one can update this application. Only the current version of the application has not been installed by anyone because it does not work on smartphones due to a mistake in the code (phone application but permissions and functions as in the smartwatch application).
I want to add an update that will remove these functions, so that the application can be installed on smartphones (as this version should, because the wearos version is in a separate file).
For the sake of clarity, I want to confirm that I am understanding your situation correctly. It sounds like the following is true?:
You have fixed the issue(s) in your companion app (removed the unwanted items.)
You have created and signed a new .aab or .apk file with those changes.
You created a new release in Google Play to update the companion app in the “Phones, Tablets, Chrome OS” form factor.
Google Play has blocked you from uploading the new file to the release, or maybe just blocked you from finalizing the release?
If that is all true, I’m not sure I understand why they would block your update release as long as the updated companion app resolves the issues. If they are blocking new releases, how else would they expect someone to be able to resolve the problem?
Another clarification point – I have read on this forum that some people have released their watch face and companion app in the same release tracks. I think if this is how yours is configured, maybe that could be part of the issue? But that is just a guess. I have released my companion app in a separate track and so far I have been able to update the watch face and companion app separately from one another. This is how it looks in my Play Console:
I uploaded my watch face in 2022. From what I remember, I did it the same way as in this tutorial: https://youtu.be/sJLJCUZ65fs?si=IcCMsxivIr9SEGzd
And just like that, I uploaded the watch face and companion app to one path. But currently, the Play console has automatically set two paths for this watch face (“Phones, Tablets, Chrome OS” and “WearOs”).
Currently, the companion app (on the path “Phones, Tablets, Chrome OS”) cannot be updated by me, because either I get a message that the “android.hardware.type.watch” function is missing or that this function (when I add it) does not allow the application to be added to the “Phones, Tablets, Chrome OS” path.
I have not included this in my companion app manifest file, but from what I understand, it looks like including this line tells Android to treat the application as a watch application instead of a smartphone application.
Since it sounds like you cannot update the current “Phones, Tablets, Chrome OS” release track if you remove that line from an updated version of the app, can you instead create a new “Phones, Tablets, Chrome OS” release track and upload the updated version of the companion app to that?
EN:
Last year (2023), Google Play set a deadline until the end of August for updating apps to a certain SDK (I don’t remember which one exactly). Any app that wasn’t updated to the latest SDK lost the ability to receive updates—this issue comes up every year… This time, the deadline was until the end of August to update to SDK 34. So, most likely, you haven’t updated your app since 2022, which means updates are no longer possible.
PL:
W ubiegłym roku (2023) do konca sierpnia Google Play dało czas na aktualizacje aplikacji do któregoś SDK (już nie pamietam). Kazda aplikacja która nie została zaktualizowała do najnowszego SDK straciła możliwość aktualizacji - ten temat przewija się co roku… teraz był czas do konca sierpnia na aktualizację SDK 34. Więc najprawdopodobniej nie zaktualizowałeś swojej aplikacji od 2022 roku więc aktualizacja nie jest już możliwa.
From what I see I can’t add a new path “Phones, Tablets, Chrome OS”, and the new version on the current path still shows me:
a message about the lack of the “android.hardware.type.watch” function
OR
a message that current users (there are still 0 of these users) will not be able to update.
Generally, there is no way to bypass this, but when I explained everything to Google support, they decided that nothing can be done at the moment and that they will work on it in the future. When I asked if anything was known, someone else replied and informed me that according to them I know everything, I have all the necessary information and I should try to do something instead of asking.
Very helpful…
@adrianrogalski
At the right time I applied for an extension of this time until November 1, so this is not the issue.
You wrote that you uploaded watch face + companion app in 2022.
Watch Face didn’t need to update with SDK in 2023m but you should have updated the companion app in 2023 for higher SKD, did you update companion app since 2022 ?
If not I guess thats is the reason… thats my thoughts
@adrianrogalski
Updating the “WearOs” path works fine. The “Phones, Tablets, Chrome OS” path doesn’t even let me add a new file. So that’s a completely different case.
"Updating the “WearOs” path works fine. " → sure, because you didn’t have to update your watch face app since 2022 till 2024
The “Phones, Tablets, Chrome OS” path doesn’t even let me add a new file. → Thats what Im trying to tell you. Because if you publish your companion app on that path, you should update companion app to SDK 33 in 2023. If you didnt do it - that path is blocked for you
I can safely update all other apps that do not have this bug (regardless of when I created them or when I updated them) except this one.
The console says that the app does not contain an element that identifies it as a watch app (“android.hardware.type.watch” function), so Google misidentifies it and does not allow me to update it.
