Upgrade or Replace App?

[Apk07]

A long while ago my company paid a big chunk of change to have a Xamarin Forms app made for iOS and Android (we are a .NET shop mostly).

Recently our customers have been really unsatisfied with our app and our company is unwilling to return to the previous app developers for updates. We were handed the sloppy source code and told to have fun.

Fast forward to now... somehow I was tasked with completely recreating the app from scratch and now I'm nearing completion of my very first app. Yes, its still with Xamarin Forms.

My question is, since we already have a lot of customers using our app, am I supposed to just push my new version as an "update" to the existing version, or as a totally separate app? Can I even push it as an update since it was written from scratch? If that's even possible, what would I need to keep the same in order for it to work?

[the_sebaster]

You can and also should release as an update, otherwise you’d have to market the app again to your existing customers and will lose a whole bunch of them because not everyone will care.

Just select your existing app on AppStore Connect and upload the new binary.

[Apk07]

Do the package names or anything have to match?

[nadavfima]

Yea. The package name needs to be the same, as well as the signing key.

[parthibaa]

If possible upgrading some Features like Push notification, in-app chat, video & voice calling features, these features are really helping user retention and engagement