The Google Play store is one of the biggest app stores for Android, featuring more than 2.7 million apps available for download. This guide will show you how to submit and release your app on the Google Play store.
Prerequirements
- Be signed up as an app developer on the Google Play Console
- Your app is well tested and ready for release – Google will reject apps that are not fully functional & well tested
- Have a signed app release ready to be uploaded (read more about creating an app release here)
If you fulfill all of the requirements above, it’s time to submit and publish your app to the Google Play store.
Create your app
Start by logging into the Google Play Console. Within the “all apps” page, click on “Create app” to create your first application on the Google Play Store. You will now need to choose a title (limited to 50 characters), set the default language (you can add translations later on), choose between App or Game, and finally decide on whether your app is Free or Paid. Be careful: free apps can’t be turned into paid apps, once they got released. Click “Create app” to create your app.
Now it’s time to add more information to your Google Play Store listing. Navigate to “Store presence” and click on “Main store listing“. This is where you can manage all details for your listing.
- Short description: A brief description of your app. This will be shown on the app’s Google Play Store listing and should draw the attention of your users. As it’s limited to 80 characters, make sure that it only contains critical information and catches the user’s attention.
- Full description: This is the place to go into full detail. Highlight your features, story & more. The full description is limited to 4000 characters.
- App icon: This is the main icon that will be shown on the Google Play Store. It must be a transparent PNG or JPEG, up to 1 MB, 512 px by 512 px, and meet the Google Play Store design specifications and metadata policy.
- Feature graphic: This image will be shown on your Google Play Store listing. The feature graphic must be a PNG or JPEG, up to 1MB, and 1,024px by 500px.
- Screenshots (phone & tablet): These are really important as many people look at the screenshots first, to decide whether they want to go and read more details or not. You must upload 2 to 8 phone screenshots. If your app is also available for tablets, you must also upload screenshots for tablets.
- Video link: We really recommend creating and adding a video link as this is a great opportunity to showcase your application to potential customers, without the need of installing the application.
After filling out all required information, head over to “Store settings“. This is the place to choose your app category & add your contact details. Click here to find more information on which category to choose.
Set your app pricing
Now it’s time to choose your pricing. You have the option to set your app to “Paid” or “Free“, but pay attention, that you can’t set a free app back to paid, once the app got published.
With “Paid” apps must set a price. The price can be global or country-specific. The default price doesn’t include tax.
App content
To get an app content rating for your app, you must go through all app content wizards. These help you to find the perfect content rating for your app and make sure your app plays along with the Google Play Store guidelines. Simply go through every wizard, to get ready for the next step. Uploading your app bundle.
Upload & release your app bundle
Now it’s time for the fun part – uploading your signed app bundle. Navigate to “Production” and click “Create new release“. You can now choose to use Play Store signing (which we recommend – you can find more information on it here) or not. You are now required to upload your freshly built and signed app bundle (.aab File). For new apps, APKs are not supported anymore – you must provide a signed app bundle to publish on the Play Store.
Additionally, you must set a release name & release notes. These will be shown in your Play Store listing. This is a great way to let your users know, what’s new.
Once done, click on “Review release” to finalize your release.
Congratulations – you are almost done. Now you need to hit “Start rollout to production“. If this is your first rollout, your app might go through a Play Store review. Usually, this review takes a few hours and is done mostly automated, but there are some situations, where reviews take up to 7 days. Always make sure to submit apps to the Play Store ahead of time.
Congratulations to submitting your first app to the Google Play Store!