Hidden Google Play Store developer setting enables Internal App Sharing

he Google Play Store acts as the central gateway to Google’s Android experience. It’s used by millions of users everyday, consciously and unconsciously, as apps gets downloaded, installed, and updated on a frequent basis. But in addition to serving the needs of the users, the Play Store also serves the needs of the developers of the apps that populate the store. While users expect apps to work flawlessly on their device, the developers have to ensure that their app works across the myriad working conditions of the Android OS. Doing so requires extensive testing, and for which Google released features like internal test channels for trusted users. Now, a hidden Google Play Store developer setting sheds light on an upcoming Internal App Sharing feature.

To access this setting, you need to enable Developer Options within the Google Play Store. This is similar to enabling Developer Options within the Android Settings app. Simply open up the Play Store, navigate to the Settings, and tap seven times on the Play Store Version. Once you get the “You are now a developer!” prompt, you will see the “Internal App Sharing” option pop up on your device. Enabling Internal App Sharing will display a warning regarding the internal test nature of the apps that you can now download.

A point to note though, we could download and install internal test versions of our app with and without enabling this setting. A test version of the app could be installed on my OnePlus 6 (settings not enabled) and on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro (settings enabled). Google already allows sharing internal test versions of apps, so we are unsure of how this feature is different and what it exactly does. So far, the feature appears to be a mere stub which hasn’t been activated.

If you figure out how the feature is different from internal test channels, do let us know in the comments below!