How to Submit an App to Google Play Store? Step by Step Process

Small businesses and large companies have been developing apps for almost everything. Almost all businesses have mobile apps to keep their audience engaged. If anyone is planning to publish a mobile app, there is no better platform to reach billions of users than the Google Play Store. Google Play store helps your app to be discovered, generate more revenue, and boost your business globally. When the application is fully developed, the next step is to publish your product to the app stores. First app publishing may be exciting and tricky. Don’t worry. Today we will guide you on how to submit an app to the google play store? 

Step 1: Create a Google play publisher account

You need a developer account to publish an app on the Google play store. Google Play console is like a backend controlling platform, where developers submit Play Store apps for Android. It is a simple process. You only need a google account to sign-in in the console, accept the developer agreement, pay a $25 registration fee, and add some personal information. Usually, it takes 48 hours to get approval from Google. You can also update your account details later.

Step 2: Create a Google wallet merchant account and link it with developer account

If you are planning to launch a paid app or your app supports in-app purchases, then a merchant account is required to receive payments made by users. You can also manage your app sales and monthly payouts through a merchant account. To create a merchant account, first, you need to sign in to your developer account, go to the menu section and click report, select the financial report option, click on a set-up merchant account, add details, and click on submit. The merchant account will be linked to your Google Play Console account and will allow you to manage and examine app sales.

Step 3: Create your Android app

After linking the merchant account, you can now upload the app to Play Store. To upload the app, select all applications from the menu, click on add a new application, choose the default language from the drop-down, enter your application title(not more than 30 characters), and then click create.

Step 4: Packaging your app for distribution

Android requires that APKs are digitally signed with a certificate before they can be installed. The certificate identifies the developer of the app. You can find more information about app signing in the official documentation.

There are two ways of distributing apps – using the traditional Android Application Package (APK) format and the new Android App Bundle (AAB) format. In August 2021, Google decided all new apps ready for publishing to Google Play have to be in the form of the Android App Bundle to support Dynamic Delivery. 

Step 5: Creating a new KeyStore

To create a signed app bundle or package, you’ll use KeyStore — the storage place for your saved certificates. Be sure to keep these private! Android Studio will create your KeyStore inside the app folder by running a terminal command. Don’t lose it, because you’ll need it and its password info to make any updates to your app! If you are using a version control system, you shouldn’t be including this file in it. Don’t allow unauthorized people to have access to it, either.

Using this KeyStore, you can easily create your Signed APK or Signed Bundle according to your choice that needs to be uploaded on Play Store.

Read More: Create Your In-House Apps Easily With These Tools

Step 6: Upload the Android package kit

The APK or Android Package Kit is a file format for Android that stores, distributes, and installs apps on Android devices. To upload the Android kit follow this steps:

1. Click release management in the menu.
2. Select the app release, and choose the type of release: you have four options: internal test, close test, open test, and production release. 
3. If you first want to test your app, select from an internal test, closed test, or open test options.
4. If you are ready to launch your app to the mass audience, choose a production release. 
5. Once you have decided the type of release, select create release.
6. Then follow the instructions to upload APK files.

Step 7: Prepare play store publishing information

In this stage, you need to fill in detailed information about your app to upload in the Play Store. You need to add an app title (up to 50 characters), a short description (up to 80 characters), a full description (up to 4000 characters), app screenshots, images, icons, videos, and other graphics content. Then add translation of your app in different languages, select the relevant type and category for your app, and place your contact details so users can contact you. In the end, add a link to your Privacy Policy if you wish to access sensitive data.

• App title: App’s name on the Google Play Store, it has a 50 characters limit, and it accepts one localized title per language.
• App icon: 512×512, 32-bit format high-resolution version of the app icon. The icon should be saved as PNG: any other format won’t be accepted on the play Store.
• Feature graphic(MANDATORY): A 1024×500 size “feature graphic” to display at the top of the page
• Screenshots: Provide, at least, two screenshots of your app. You can provide up to a maximum of eight images per form factor: phone, tablet, android tv and wear OS. Just let me know which screens you want to showcase and we can take the screenshots.
• Short description: The short description will be the first text to be seen when looking at your app’s detail page on the Play Store app. It has a maximum limit of 80 characters.
• Full description: Users can expand the short description to view the app’s full description, which will show the app’s description on Google Play. It has a 4,000 characters limit.
• Privacy policy URL: It’s mandatory to attach a link (URL) to the privacy policy provided in the store listing to your app, to ensure it’s working properly. 
• Contact details: Contact details as a way to offer support to your customers regarding your app. It includes multiple contact channel like email address, website URL, and phone number

Step 8: Add content rating

It is one of the crucial stages while publishing your app in the app store. If your app is listed as Unrated, it might get removed from the store, so it is crucial to rate the application. For this, select the Content Rating option in the menu on the left side of the screen, then click  ‘Continue’ to move forward, enter your email address in the respective field and then ‘Confirm’ it.

Now, you may fill out the questionnaire for your app rating, click on Save Questionnaire, then choose the Calculate Rating option to see your app rating on the Play Store, and at last, click on Apply.

Step 9: App pricing and distribution

In this step, you need to choose whether your app is free or Paid. Be careful when choosing a pricing model for your app. Google Play Store allows change from a paid app to a free one later but not from a free app to a paid one.

Once you decide on the pricing model, choose the countries you want your app to be distributed. You can select all countries or choose specific countries for your app distribution. You can also choose specific Android programs and devices for your app.

Final Step: Publish your app

Once you are confirmed that everything is correct, you finally hit Publish Your App. You will be informed of any warnings, missed information, or other errors that may be a hindrance. Review all things before going ahead.