App development is essential for every business nowadays. Almost every successful business, whether it is in retail, pharma, food, transport, banking, travel, education, entertainment, etc., are having an app-based business. These businesses enjoy a turnover of billions of dollars because the reach of their business app is massive and available to almost every smartphone.
To provide accessibility of apps to almost every smartphone, there is only one name that comes into my mind, and that is the Google play store.
No one can doubt the dominance of the Google play store in the realm of mobile applications. Over 3 million apps are available on the Google play store, and each day approximately 3,750 applications are realized.
These numbers signify that google play is a magnificent platform to upload your application on.
Now, if you are wondering what the process is to upload your application on google play, then the end of the search is here.
In this blog, we are going to discuss:
What is a complete process to submit or upload your application on google play?
What are the requisitions to be fulfilled before uploading the app on google play?
We start with the obligations that need to fulfill before uploading the app on google play:
- Test Your Application first
The first and the most important part is to test your application. No matter how good features, interface, and design your app has, if it fails to perform up to the expectations of users or is not able to generate expected leads or users.
It would be recommended to test your app on different criteria to make yourself 100% certain about the performance and expectations before you look ahead to upload the app on the play store.
You can always utilize emulators for this purpose. However, using an Android-enabled device will make the testing process more powerful and effective. It will give you a real experience of using your app on a real device, as would users, and enable you to analyze and detect any discrepancies or bugs.
- Compressed App Size
The size of the application matters a lot, small-sized apps are preferred by the users because it is easy to download and occupy less space in the phone memory. Moreover, Google permits the application size up to 50 MB.
Even if the size of your app is more than the permitted limit, then you can use Android APK’s expansion files to successfully upload the app to the play store.
Android APK will break your application into parts and each part is up to 2GB and gives an additional 4GB space to your app. This additional data is saved in google cloud and can be recovered whenever the application is installed. - Get App Licensed
Getting your app license is up to you, it is an optional choice. it would not bother you to get your app licensed before you upload your app to Google Play Store. licensing your application is more useful if it is a paid app in nature. By having the End User License Agreement, you will have full authority and control over the application, which may help you in the future if any deviation occurs.
- Create your APK file with Version Number and Bundle ID.
- You need to develop an APK file in which you can allocate a version number to your application which will be helpful in the future when you are required to upload a new update for your app. This number is given in the code and would increase as the updates for the application are introduced.
- Bundle ID, also called App ID, helps to make an application unique, making it a crucial part of the essential for offering in your application. This is fitted for all the applications for Android 5.0 and above.
- Sign in App with Security Certificate
it would be recommended to create a private key using Release Keystore. It is an APK’s security certificate which is required every time you publish your application on the google store. This is also well known as a JSK file, including credentials such as Keystore password. - App Store Listing
Application listing is the next step that helps your application in attaining downloads. Not everyone gives their time to app listing, but if you list your app before submission, you will definitely see some wonderful outcomes.
In the app listing, you provide some basic information to users about what type of application it is and what its features are. Using high-quality pictures and screenshots is a good practice for app listing. Google play store allows developers to use a maximum of 8 images and a minimum of 2 to promote and list your application.
Here are some of the top practices that must be included in your app listing process: –
- Including Title of the app
- Including a Short Description of the app
- Full Description with details
- Use Screenshots of your application (24-bit PNG or JPEG or ) (Min-320 px and Max-3840 px)
- Use Hi-resolution icon (512 x 512) (with alpha) 32-bit PNG)
- Feature Graphic (1024 width x 500 height) (24-bit PNG or JPG) with (no alpha)
- Type of application you have
- Different Categories of your app
- Rating the content
- Email of Company or Developer
- URL for Privacy Policy of the app
- Go Through Guidelines
When you go through and compare the guidelines and policy of the Play Store and Apple Store. you can easily work with the guidelines and policies of Google play store are more flexible, elastic and it works in the favor of developers.
Although, you have to be aware and careful when you add an application to the Google Store, and you have to make sure that you follow all the guidelines given by Google before your application has been launched.
Upload App to Google Play Store- Step-by-Step Process
Let’s proceed with the steps in regard to how to upload an app on Play Store.
- Google Play Developer Console
In series to upload a mobile app to Google Play Store, we start with Google Play developer console dashboard. It is a backend controlling system from which developers submit an app to Google Play Store.
There is a one-time fee of US $25 by which a developer can open and start an account with functions and control features on the Google play store. After the payment of this one-time fee, you can upload apps to the Play Store for free as many times as your developer wants.
You need to fill up all the basic details and credentials asked while creating the account on the platform, such as your name, country, etc., Once you submit your account, it will take up to 48 hours to get approved. - Link Google Wallet Merchant Account with Developer Account
Once your developer account gets approved your app getting uploaded to Play Store supports in-app purchases, that you will need a merchant account for the next step.
To create it, you can sign in to your Google Console account and click on ‘Reports’ followed by the ‘Financial Reports’ option. After this, you may select the ‘Set up a merchant account now’ option and fill out the details required.
After that, your merchant account will automatically get linked to your Google Console account and allow you to manage and examine app sales. - Create the application
This is another step towards publishing an application to the google play store.
Once you are logged into your developer account, follow the few steps below:
– In the menu, move to the ‘All applications’ option
– You will see a tab ‘Create Application’, choose it
– From the drop-down menu option, choose the application’s default language (as per your requirement)
– Enter your application’s title (it could be changed later)
– Now, click on “Create” - App Store Listing
It is at this point, and your preparations will come in handy.
In this step you came to know how to upload an app to the google play store, you need to fill up all the information and details you have already prepared before.
Make sure you must use appropriate keywords in your application title and description to escalate the possibility of your application showing up in searches of potential users. Ahead of this, make sure to utilize all the data we have talked about in the requisite segments for app listing.
- Upload App APK or Bundles to Google Play store
In this step, you need to upload the files such as APK or App bundle and sign-up app release and upload them into your application.
This is how you do it:
Navigate to the ‘Release Management’ and then the ‘App Release’ option in the menu. After this, you will be asked to opt for any one type of release from these four options- internal test, production release, close test, and an open test.
Once you have decided and selected the type of release you desire, then you choose ‘Create Release’.
After this, you will be redirected to the new release to the production page. Here, you again need to make another decision- to select for Google Play store application signing on the app or not. If you choose the latter, then simply opt on the ‘OPT-OUT’ option.
Next, select the ‘Browse files’ option and then watch how to upload APK to the play store with naming and describing your release through the on-screen command. You can also click on ‘Review’ to certify the information. When everything is taken care of and reviewed, then press ‘Save’. - Content Rating
The next step is with reference to, how to publish apps on the Play Store is to rate your app. This is critical because it is listed as ‘Unrated’, it might be removed from the Play store, so it is essential to rate the application.
For the Content Rating, you must again navigate to the menu on the left side of the screen and then select the same. By clicking on ‘Continue,’ you can move forward by typing your email address in the respective field and then press ‘Confirm’.
Now, you may fill the questionnaire given for your application rating. After that select the ‘Save Questionnaire’ option and then click ‘Calculate Rating’, after this, you can see your app rating on the Google Play Store. The last thing to complete your app’s content rating is to click on the ‘Apply’ option. - Fix the Application Pricing and Distribution
Now, you have to decide about the countries in which your app is going to be available. The point to be noted here is that Google does not support publishing an app in all regions or worldwide. The app could be published in selected countries only.
Furthermore, assigning a price to your app is a crucial task. If you want your app to be free, make sure that this decision is permanent, as Google does not allow you to transform free apps into paid ones in the future. even though the price of the app can be altered or changed in the future.
To make all this possible, scroll to the Pricing and Distribution option in the menu, and then make a decision whether you want to make your app to be Free or Paid. At this point, you can select the countries in which you want your app to be released. In addition, if your application is well-suited for children under the age of 13, you may select the option of ‘Yes’ for Primary Child-Detected. Otherwise, simply select the option ‘No’. Similarly, you can also select the options for allowing ads into your application as per your choice. - Ultimately, Publish the Application
Once you are confirmed that everything is correct, take the last step of this process on how to upload an app on the Play Store or we can say that how to add the application to the platform. You need to go back to the option ‘App Releases’ and then click ‘Manage Production’ followed by ‘Edit Release.’ After this, select ‘Review’ and then choose the ‘Start rollout to production’ option. To bring this process to an end, click the ‘Confirm’ option and Voila!
You have successfully uploaded your android app to the Google Play Store for free.
Now, wait for your application to get reviewed and approved. Generally, it took about two hours for your application to get reviewed. But with Google Play’s new updated privacy policy, it will now take hours and even days for the same. it will help to encourage mobile app development companies to create even more flawless applications that get selected instantly. So, hold your excitement in the place and wait.