[android help] Phonegap Android app trigger update programmatically

I am building an Android app that is hosted on a server outside Google Play. I need the app to check for new version and prompt user to update when the app starts.

I built a mechanism to check for new version (the app checks for a file on server and compares version) which is working well. Then I prompt user to update, but if user chooses to proceed with the update, I'm not able to trigger the download and installation of the apk.

I tried simply opening the apk url:

window.open(apkURL);

where the apkURL is the full http link to the .apk file hosted on server.

But it doesn't seem to do anything.

I've been researching but I don't find an answer on how to do this. I found some suggestions using native code, like this post Install Application programmatically on Android but I don't know how to do that from within my Phonegap app. Is this the right way to trigger the update? How can something like this be done from within a Phonegap app?

Thanks!

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