We Have Removed Beiwe From The Play Store But Is Still Here

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As of December 4th, 2023 the Beiwe Android App will no longer be visible or installable from the Play Store.

However, if you ever installed the Beiwe App from the Play Store and are logged into that Google account, you will still be able to search for and view the Play Store landing page. This is annoying but there isn't much we can do.

Instead, have your study participants download the app from your Beiwe server.
The link is https://the_domain_your_study_is_on.org-or-whatever/download

Or you can also go to your Beiwe website on any Android phone and tap the link in the bottom-right corner on all pages. (Layout differs some depending on display orientation and dimensions.)

This download link always points to the most up to date version of the app, we are still brainstorming the least disruptive way to incorporate easy app updates.

Currently that link downloads the .apk file directly, we will be updating it to show a landing page with app installation directions.

Why Are We Doing This?

As privacy and data security concerns have grown over the years, especially since the original version of the Beiwe app in ~2015 that targeted Android 5, Google has placed restrictions on capabilities of apps listed on the Play Store. Several years ago a major feature of the Beiwe Android app, communication statistics (e.g. texts and calls), caused updates to the app to be blocked due to a new policy. This feature was not required by all studies, so we decided to shift to building two versions of the app: one for the Play Store without the feature, and one accessible as an .apk file downloadable via a link from all Beiwe websites.

Welp, the same thing has happened again, but this time to a rather more critical data stream: GPS.

At Onnela Lab we have hosted hundreds of studies - I cannot provide an exact number because many of these studies were created for testing purposes - but out of hundreds of real studies a whopping 3 did not have the GPS data stream enabled.

It is simply not viable for the health of the Beiwe Platform for an easily accessible version of the app to be limited in this fashion.

So... What's Next?

Mostly nothing. We are already set up to distribute the app as an .apk file.

Study Administrators will need to update their personal directions, but all directions created for the Beiwe platform have, for many years, referenced both installation options.

Is there any Good news?

It's almost like you can read my mind! Yes! Yes there is.

A good chunk of developer time and effort was caused directly by Play Store code churn. Also, there is now slightly less bureaucracy around just releasing an update.

In order to list an app on the Play Store it must conform to various rules and requirements that are part of the "SDK Version". This happens, very roughly, about twice a year.

Without going into detail on the developer frustrations that these shifting SDK targets cause, I will say this:
Sometimes it is fine. But, sometimes, it is not.

2023 was a "not" year.

Saying goodbye to enforced churn, the architectural hurdles visible only to those following the commits stream, and those semiannual deadlines will not be missed. Not even a little.