Steps To Publish An Android App To The Play Store

In this blog, I will walk you through how you can publish your app in the Android Play Store. Although it’s a super easy process, yet there are always some beginners have a problem on how to publish and what are the steps involved?

Here, I’ll walk you through with the process involved in publishing an App on the Android app store also known as Google Play Store.

When compared to iOs it’s actually super simple where it would take like more efforts while publishing in iOs, whereas it would take only a few efforts in Google Play Store.

 

To know about the complete procedure for submitting your iOS app in the App store, you can read the blog “Seven simple steps for iOS app submission”.

The reason behind this is that it’s very kind of a playful and it doesn’t really check much of the things so you can play the system as well a lot of time. This is why tons of crappy apps available in the Play Store. I suggest you do not upload those crappy apps.

But anyway, let’s get started…

Sign In or Sign Up For a Developer Account

Now the first and foremost thing you need in order to publish your app on Google Play Store is that you need a developer account.

If you already have a developer account Login, if not Sign up.

To create a developer account you may just easily sign up to the Google Play Console using your existing Google account. It may cost you a small fee of around $25 to $30.

It may vary a little bit based on the country you live but it usually is between $25 and that’s a one-time fee when compared to the Apple’s yearly fees. So, make sure you have enrolled in the Play Store Console.

Remember, the registration may take up to 48 hrs to get processed. So, be patient.

Once your account is active or you have logged in, Click PUBLISH AN ANDROID APP ON GOOGLE PLAY button.

Now a dialog box saying Create Application will appear, Enter your App‘s Title in the box and Click Create.

After you will be directed to a different window with a list of options in the left-hand side panel like App Releases, Android instant apps, Artifact library, App Signing, Store listing, Content Rating, Pricing & distribution, in-app products, Translation service, Service & API’s.

Among the available sections, you need to fill out the below fours sections to publish your Android app to the Play Store.

1. Store Listing
2. App Releases
3. Content Rating
4. Pricing and distribution.

First, let’s navigate to the Store listing Section.

Store Listing

To fill out the Store Listing section, you have to be prepared with the following assets:

• App Name
• Short Description
• Full Description
• Screenshots – Minimum 2
• App icon
• Application Banner

These are the most important assets which are compulsory and I suggest you be ready with these and enter in the appropriate section.

Along with these, you must also be required to enter the Categorization section and Privacy Policy section for your App.

If all done, Click Save Draft.

Now you are ready with the Store Listing section for your App Submission. So, let’s move on to App Releases section.

App Releases

Under App Releases Section you can manage your app with a variety of track options like Production Track, Open Track, Closed Track, and Internal Test Track.

So now move on to this Production Track section and click on MANAGE which lets you add App bundles or Apks for production to make your app available to the Play store users.

Then Click CREATE RELEASE.

Now click Continue to enroll your app into app signing by Google Play. You may also click Opt-Out if you don’t want to.

After clicking CONFIRM, Click on Browse Files button to add Android App Bundles and APKs.

I hope you have your release APK files are ready and built using Android App Studio. So, I suggest you add those files from the right directory to the Play Store Console for submission.

The Android App Studio lets you create Android Apps from the Scratch which I will explain in another Blog.

You may also Drag and Drop your bundles here. At once you did add bundles it would take some processing time according to the size of your App the bigger the longer you have to wait.

Once it is processed, you may find Release name below which must be automatically detected from your app. Then you have to enter some description on what your app provides on this release.

Finally, click on Save so that your App releases section is done and ready for the submission.

Now let’s move on to the next section which is Content Rating.

Content Rating

In the Content Rating section, you will need to provide your Email address. Once it is confirmed select appropriate Category of your app below.

Then comes a Questionnaire related to your app, complete this by selecting Yes or No.

Then click on SAVE QUESTIONNAIRE and CALCULATE RATING to continue.

After you clicked, its gonna generate a content rating for your app and at the same time, you will receive an email in your inbox.

Now click on APPLY RATING to apply the rating to your App.

Now you are done with your Content Rating section.

Let’s now move on to the next section which is Pricing and distribution.

Pricing & distribution

Click on the Pricing & distribution menu from the side panel and select the appropriate option, to list your app on Google Play as a PAID app or FREE app.

If you selected Paid app then you have to enter the Price amount. If you opted for Free app then Skip this step.

Now below you have to fill out the starred sections like Countries and Tick-mark the checkboxes like Contains ads, Content guidelines, and US export laws which best suits your app.

Finally, click Save Draft so that this section is ready now.

Final Few Steps

Now let us get back to the App Releases section and hit EDIT RELEASE in Production track.

Then click on REVIEW

And then Finally, click on START ROLLOUT TO PRODUCTION.

Now it might be visible to you that your app status may have changed to Pending publication which means your app is successfully submitted on Google Play.

To Sum Up

There we go simple and easy process on how to publish your app right from the start till the end. One tip that I can give you that always keep separate accounts for the app that you use for your business purposes and the other apps for testing, teaching or any other demo purposes. This is because any time there might be changes in Google policies and they may remove your app just like that, so I hope you safeguard your app by using separate accounts.