How to Publish an Android App to Google Play : development of your andriod application..

 

You completed the development of your android app created the release app bundle or APK now you would like to share it with the world you are in the right place because in this video I will show you how you can publish your android application on the google play store the google play store is the first place android users go to download apps and for sure most developers would like their apps to be featured there but to upload your app and have it ready for download by billions of users there are some steps that you need to follow you need to have an account create the app on the platform provide some information about the app content prepare the store listing and create the app release if you are not sure what the steps imply no worries we will go through them one after the order I will also share at the end of the video some good practices that you would like to keep in mind when publishing your app so if you're interested definitely stay until the end in this video I assume that you have already built your release at bundle or Apk if you haven't done that yet please check this video where I explain how to prepare your app for production release the link will be in the description as mentioned earlier you must have a google play developer account to publish your apps to create a developer account you will need to navigate to this link I will also put it in the video description the link will lead you to a Page like this one the signup process is fairly straightforward so we will not go through it in detail you will need to provide some basic Information review and approve the developer distribution agreement once that is done you'll be asked to pay a one-time registration fee of 25 using your credit or debit card but not prepaid to finish the signup process you may have to fill out some other account details then you will be redirected to your developer console page also I have to mention if you want to publish a paid app or plan to sell in-app purchases you need to create a payment profile i.e a merchant account to do that you can go to settings developer account payment settings then Click create payments profile fill the form and submit it now that you have set up your google play console account go to the left navigation menu then select all apps here you will click create app in the upper right corner on this page you will have to enter the app name select the default language of your app is it in a power game is it free or paid don't worry too much about those values at this stage you will have the possibility to change them later make sure you review and accept the developer program policies and the us export laws then click create   an app to continue now you'll be taken to your app dashboard page from here there are two approaches that you can use to publish your app you can follow and complete the different tasks included here in this Dashboard or you can use this left navigation menu to complete them in your preferred order but in this case you will need to know where to find each task in this menu hierarchy so before we start let me give you a quick overview of the different sections that we have in here and where you can find them in the navigation menu the dashboard shows you what you need to do to get your app up and running the different sections are organized here in the order that the google team suggests you to implement them when publishing a new app that means you should start with an internal testing with a limited number of testers then while testing you can start providing details about your app's Content and preparing your store listing after that you will move to the app release section where you can start with a closed beta testing at this stage your app will be on the play store but only users with the link will be able to download it then if you're satisfied with the result of the closed beta testing you can move to an open beta test where any user can choose to download the beta version of your app from google play this section will guide you on how to build prerelease excitement and awareness for your app before the projection release and finally this section is to actually release your app in production on google Play  making it available to billions of users in this video we will only focus on the steps required to get your app published in production and ready for download that means we'll focus on those two sections set up your app and publish your app on google play for more information about internal testing and beta testing check this post the link will be in the description one thing that is important to know is that the dashboard will display different information depending on what stage you are in your app deployment for Example after publishing the app this dashboard page will no longer display those Sections but a screen like this one with statistics and metrics about the app so when you will need to publish an update for your app you will have no other choice than to use the navigation Menu that's why this tutorial will mostly use the navigation menu instead of following the dashboard now enough with the explanations let's start setting up the app we will start with the app content section which is at the bottom of the Navigation menu you will need to complete all those Tasks except for the privacy policy that is required only if your target audience includes children under 13. also you are not required to complete the tasks in this order you can skip one and come back to it later let's start with the app access since google will review your app you need to give them access to it so if parts of your app are restricted based on login credentials or other forms of authentication you must provide the access details by filling this form for this demo we will choose all functionality is available without special access and click save at the bottom right of the page let's go back to app content and continue with the ads here you have to declare if your app displays ads or Not this will be visible to a user that wants to download your app on the app download page save then back to app content next task content rating here you will complete an iarc questionnaire to calculate your operating this rating will be displayed on your app page to help users decide whether your app is suitable for them we will first enter an email then choose a category among those for the app let's choose reference news or educational here are some other questions to answer for this demo we will choose not for all of Them but in your case you must choose the answer that applies to your app let's save then next those are your app ratings for different places in the world if you agree with everything click submit let's go back to app content to continue with the other tasks here you will tell google the target age group of your app this helps to make sure that apps designed for children are safe and appropriate as mentioned Earlier if you want to target children under 13 you will have to add a privacy policy I will show you how to add that later for now let's choose 13 and over then click next since our app doesn't target children under 13 it skips those two steps could you store listing unintentionally appeal to Children by store listing they mean your app page on the play store even though we haven't created our store listing yet I am sure it will not appeal to children so let's choose no then next if you agree with the summary click save and go back to app content is your app a news app if you choose yes you will have to provide some information on how you source your news content in our case it's no click save then back to app content even though the privacy policy is not always Required It's good practice to always add one you will only need to paste the link that will resurrect the users to your privacy policy page on the website now all those tasks are completed you can move to the next group of tasks but before we do that let's quickly look at the dashboard as you can see we have a progress bar that shows our progression to continue we can click here or go to the growth section of the navigation Menu select store presents then store Settings on this page you will need to choose an application type category and tags that best describe the content or primary function of your app you must carefully choose those values because they will help users discover your apps on google play the app type is one of the selections that we made earlier when creating the app for the category we will go with education the tags are not required but they help our app ASO to have them in this list you will have to choose up to five tags describing the content and functionality of our app since this is a demo we will choose 5 random tags for your contact details you must give at least an email your contacts will be shown to the users just in case they would like to contact You external marketing this is free advertising from google so I always leave it checked let's click Save next we will select the main store listing this page is maybe where you will spend most of your time and also the one that requires more planning that is because your app name short description and long description will play a big role in helping the user to find your app in the play store use the right keywords but don't overdo it make sure your app doesn't come across as spammy or promotional or it will risk getting suspended on the play Store since this is a demo I just entered some random things the graphic assets are as important as the app details they help you showcase your app's features and functionalities the app icon phone and tablet screenshots should make a great first Impression and therefore drive mode download for your app all the graphic assets are Mandatory Except for the promotional video as you can see there are specific requirements such as the file format and dimensions for each graphic asset that you need to Upload pay attention to those requirements when preparing your icon featured image and screenshots I have already prepared some graphics so let's quickly add them since the requirement for the phone screenshots are the same for the tablets I will use the same images for a real App you should have specific screenshots for each device size you can also add translations for your app details and assets by clicking this drop down at the top and choosing manage your own translation an empty store listing will be created for each language you add so you can provide your own translated text and assets we will not add translation for the demo so let's remove that now that we've completed this section let's click save and go to the dashboard to see our progression as you can see the app setup section is no longer visible because we have completed all the required tasks so now we can move to the release Section and select production here you will first go to the countries and regions Tab to add the countries where you want your app to be available so let's click add countries regions if you want your app to target some specific countries you can search them here in this demo I will choose all countries by checking this checkbox then click add countries and regions click add to confirm next you will move to the release tab where you will have the possibility to upload your app and to start click create a new release before you can upload your app bundle you need to choose if you are going to manage your upside name or let google play manages it for you I will not go in detail on what is play app signing just keep in mind when you use play app signing if you lose your upload key you can contact google to revoke your old upload key and generate a new one that way you can continue to upload new versions of your app as updates to the original app even if you change upload keys also play up signing is mandatory when you are uploading an app bundle I always choose continue at this point now we can finally upload our app bundle or APK the release name will be automatically filled when the upload completes the release notes are not mandatory especially since it is our first release but when you will update your app I will encourage you to enter a brief description of the changes that were made in the update let's save then review release and finally start rollout to production here once you click rollout the status of your app will be pending with you for me the review generally takes one to three days since this is a demo I will not click rollout now that you know how to publish your app on google Play it's important to keep in mind some best practices or recommendations one use app bundle when using a bundle instead of APK most developers see a significant size reduction of the app file on google play which translates to faster download and install for potential users also on august 2021 all new apps and games will be required to publish with the android app bundle format two read the developer policy center the policy center gives you detailed information about issues that may cause your app to be rejected or even worse your account suspended following these policies will not only keep your app in good standing on google Play but will also keep your users safe and Protected three free or paid as long as your app has not been published you can change whether it is free or paid but once published you can only change your app from paid to free if you decide to charge for the app you must build a new one with a different package name and set the price four use the help Section all the options and configurations in the google play console are documented in the help section furthermore the google team did an excellent job by incorporating links and learn more buttons directly into the Pages so don't hesitate to click on them to better understand the process five keep improving your app after you publish your app use the dashboard TO see your key metrics and statistics also pay attention to your app's reviews they are a great source of ideas for new features and improvements for your app in this video we saw how to publish your app to production using the google play console in future videos I will show how to do the same for IOS to learn more about how to prepare and publish off loader apps watch this video or that video since you made it so far