How to Publish an Android App in Google Play Store: a Complete Guide

Before all else, we need to mention that Google Play is not a unique option for you. There are lots of alternative app stores when you think where to publish an Android app. To choose the best variant you need to consider the target audience and geography you want to cover. As you probably know, Google Play doesn't work in China. So, if your app is mainly for the Asian market, you need to think about an alternative app store for your project. Yet, this article is about how to publish Android app to Google Play only.

In our company, we give our customers choice. They can upload an Android app to Google Play by themselves, or we can do it for them. You may be surprised but lots of product owners often want to do it on their own. It's all connected with a certificate generated in Android Studio. This document is a unique digital certificate that includes data about an owner of an app. It's a signature to sign an application. Product owners want to release Android app to Google Play by themselves to keep this signature safe.

When our customers face any issues with an app release, we recommend them to create an account in Google Developer Console and walk them through the whole process. Thus, they hold the certificate and are the only owners of a created application. 

If you are an experienced Android developer and your 'first time' was long ago, you may find that all written in this article isn't new to you. However, if you are a beginner in Android development or you are a product owner who wants to publish an application with a unique certificate, then you have to follow our guide with all the tips and tricks written in plain English.

Before you start deploying an Android app to Google Play, make sure that everything is ready. You will need some screenshots of your app (in high quality), the description of the application and, of course, an APK file (the app itself). Pay attention that there are strict limitations concerning the size of an app. The maximum size is 100 Mbytes, however, It would be better if it's less than 50 Mbytes, then users who live in areas with a bad internet connection would have a chance to try your app. Here are the steps to publish an Android app on Google Play:

Basically, that is all you need to know to release an Android app to Google Play successfully. With Google Play Console you can get all the statistics data concerning your application. And it's great news actually because here you see how effective and productive your app is (if it is). Here you'll get comprehensive data about the income, users and conversion of your product. You can also get financial reports for the period you need and much more.If you want to get even more data on your application, users and monetization effectiveness you should think about one of the best mobile analytics tools, you can find a great review about them in our recent article.

Still don't believe that a landing page can promote your app even better than a commercial? Watch our video and write down all the tips, because you're going to need them soon!

However, be careful while you're publishing your Android application, there are some cases when your app could be rejected and your account blocked. Here they are.

If you did everything correctly you have nothing to be afraid of. Strict sanctions are imposed on the developers who violated the rules and policy of Google Play. Your app will not be published if you haven't indicated the adult content in it. And even if you did, the things like violence or porn are prohibited on Google Play, so there are no chances to publish such an app here.

The other case is if your app collects users' data and you haven't informed them about it in a privacy policy agreement. Under these circumstances your account can be blocked without an opportunity to unblock it.

But don't think that after you have successfully uploaded an app to Play Store you can repose on your laurels. There are a lot of things to do, your job hasn't been finished yet! The life of your application after launching depends only on you (or a team that works for you). In most cases, mobile platforms require ongoing tech support to ensure their operability in the long run. At Cleveroad, we offer result-oriented IT support within mobile development services to guarantee great user experience and on-the-go improvement of your IT operations.

The best hack here is to listen to your customers. Active users are the greatest advisors. They will tell you what is wrong with your product. If you use customers' feedback as a source of useful information you have all chances to maximize revenue and make it extra popular. Collect feedback, fix all the left bugs, improve your application and update it regularly according to the wishes of your audience. This is all the secret of a successful project.

As for us, we continue to cooperate with our customers even after the release, to make sure that our products work seamlessly and to improve them upon first request.

I hope that our article is going to be useful for you. The standard instruction of how to submit an Android app to Google Play Store, you can find on the official site Google Play Developer Console. We wanted to give you more handy information and share our experience based on real situations. If you need more information about any stages of a product delivery process, write us anytime.

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