Google Play
- Introduction
- Google Play gives
you an easy way to distribute your applications to Android users.
- You must register on the
Google Play Developer Console to distribute your products
through Google Play.
There is a $25 registration fee.
- To sell apps you must also have a
Google Wallet
Merchant account.
- You can also distribute outside Google Play if you want.
- Putting Apps on Google Play
- An app is identified by its package - once you have used a
package name for an app, it cannot be used for anything else.
- App assets
- .apk file, maximally 50MB
- 2-8 screenshots
- 512x512 application icon
- Feature graphic
- Listing details
- Title of the app
- Description
- Language of the app
- Application type - Applications or Games, and category
(long list)
- Content rating (see below)
- Pricing (see below)
- Locations for distribution
- Contact information
- Website or email
- Visible in the market
- Optional privacy policy
- Content policies
- Every app must be given a content rating
- Everyone - no location, user generated content or
communication, fantasy violence
- Low maturity - no drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling,
inflamatory content, sharing location data, crude
humour, suggestive or sexual references, realistic
violence
- Medium maturity - no focus on consumption or sale of
drugs, alcohol or tobacco, graphic violence
- High maturity
- No ...
- Illegal content
- Invasions of personal privacy or violations of the
right of publicity
- Content that interferes with the functioning of any
services of other parties
- Promotions of hate or incitement of violence
- Violations of intellectual property rights, including
patent, copyright (see DMCA policy), trademark, trade
secret, or other proprietary right of any party
- Any material not suitable for persons under 18
- Pornography, obscenity, nudity, or sexual activity
- Also don't ...
- Harm user devices or personal data.
- Create unpredictable network usage that has an adverse
impact on a user's service charges or a Authorized
Carrier's network.
- Knowingly violate an Authorized Carrier's terms of
service for allowed usage.
- Android will remove applications that violate these policies.
Pricing Policies
- If you publish an app as free, you can never charge for it (without
changing the package name)
- Apps have minimal prices in various countries, e.g., 99c in US.
- You cannot buy your own app ... makes it hard to test the system.
- InApp Products allow you to sell content within an app.
- The Merchant Account provides details of all sales.
Upgrading an app
- Increase the version code in the manifest, and probably
update the version name.
- Explain recent changes in the listing details
- Users get upgrades automatically
Feedback
- Ratings
- Determined by app users
- Star rating and comment, once only per user
- Errors
- Crash and freeze reports
- User chooses to send back bug report
- Provides exception log, ala logcat
- Statistics
- Number of installation, number of active installations
- Breakdown by Android version, device, country, language