I read Mixing Listed and Unlisted Add-ons on addons.mozilla.org blog post recently and the comments are already closed there. Could you clirify one question: is there a way to shift all users from the listed version to unlisted?
We don’t support any way to automatically move users to an unlisted version, since unlisted versions are not reviewed. You can upload an update that encourages users to move to the unlisted version, but it shouldn’t automatically run the installer.
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There is API to install and remove extensions. You can make the update install the new unlisted addon with a different UUID. The unlisted extension can remove the old listed extension after install.
I’m not sure if this trick, can pass the code review since is not a good idea to do stuff without the user’s concent. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/AMO/Policy/Reviews
You may show a button or a notification to the user that installs the unlisted addon and explain the consequences and the benefits. This might pass the review since the user action does the switch.
May I ask why you want to switch to unlisted addons?
The whole point of the blog post I mentioned (Mixing Listed and Unlisted Add-ons on addons.mozilla.org) is that listed and unlisted versions of the same extension can have the same ID now (but not the same version number), it was impossible before. So AddonManager will be able to install the unlisted extension with the same ID and higher version number (so no need to uninstall the listed version).
The main question is: even if I add a proper notification to the user, could this pass the manual review?
No, replacing a listed version with an unlisted one won’t pass review. You can offer the alternative to the user, but they need to go through the whole installation process from a web page.
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