google play store - how to promote test app with different package name?

Question

This is a question about package names in android. I currently have two build flavors in gradle. Production and Staging.

I have created a google play store account and i want users to alpha and beta test my app. The staging app currenly has a package name of: com.mobile.myapp.staging while the production flavor has a package name of com.mobile.myapp.

so we have

com.mobile.myapp.staging vs com.mobile.myapp

in the end i clearly want to promote com.mobile.myapp to production not the staging. but i'd like the users to test with the staging variant for a long while (as its connected to staging apis . etc etc.)

How can i do this ? would i have to create two different apps in the google play store ? I am wondering if i have to do this as they both have different package names. They both will be signed with the same keystore. Please help.

my gradle file looks like this:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

android {
compileSdkVersion 25
buildToolsVersion "25.0.3"
defaultConfig {
minSdkVersion project.ext.minimumSdkVersion
//check top level build.gradle  file for attributes -
targetSdkVersion 25
applicationId "com.mobile.myapp"
versionCode 150010203
versionName 1.2.3 
testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"

//renderscriptTargetApi 25
//renderscriptSupportModeEnabled true
multiDexEnabled true
}
buildTypes {
release {
    minifyEnabled false
    proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
}
}

dexOptions {
javaMaxHeapSize "6g"
}//for out of memory gc overhead error
lintOptions {
abortOnError false
}

productFlavors {

def STRING = "String"
def BOOLEAN = "boolean"
def TRUE = "true"
def FALSE = "false"
def FLAVOR = "FLAVOR"
def RETROFIT_LOG_ALL = "RETROFIT_LOG_ALL"
def BASE_ENDPOINT = "BASE_ENDPOINT"

staging {
    // applicationId "com.mobile.myapp.staging"
    buildConfigField STRING, BASE_ENDPOINT, '"https://api.flyingSaucerxx-staging.com"'
    buildConfigField BOOLEAN, RETROFIT_LOG_ALL, TRUE
    manifestPlaceholders = [appDrawerName: "FlyingSaucer-Staging"]
    applicationIdSuffix '.staging'
    versionNameSuffix '-STAGING'
}

prod {
    buildConfigField STRING, BASE_ENDPOINT, '"https://api.flyingSaucerxx.com"'
    buildConfigField BOOLEAN, RETROFIT_LOG_ALL, FALSE
    manifestPlaceholders = [appDrawerName: "FlyingSaucer"]
}
}
}

///.. dependencies below

Answer 1

It is not possible to use different package names in Google Play Store for the same app.

So the only option you have is to change package name of your staging app to production one. And submit it to alpha/beta testers. And sure watch out to not promote it to production.

Another option is to use other delivery channels like hockeyapp or crashlitics beta.