How To Upload An Android App To Google Play Store? [2023]

Several businesses prefer Google Play Store to reach out to more users in less time as this platform separately has more than 1 billion active users worldwide in over 190 countries. Hence, deploying an app on the Google Play Store will benefit ventures with get discovered, generate profit, and empower the services at the global level.

Do you know the number of available applications in the Google Play Store was recorded at 2.59 million apps from December 2009 to June 2023? Yes, it’s true! This particular platform already surpassed 1 million applications in July 2013. Looking at these stats, you can get an idea of how much dominance this single mobile app deployment platform has over the market.

Adding further, Google Play Store was founded in October 2008 originally for releasing Android app. Customers can search for a broad range of applications related to different industries such as finance, entertainment, education, etc. In comparison to Apple Play Store, Google Play Store has a large base of users and provides more advantages, that’s the reason why businesses choose to develop an app for Google Play Store.

If you are also here to find out the easy steps to know how to submit an app to Google Play Store, then you’re at the right place. Below, we have curated a step-by-step guide to publishing an Android app on Google Play Store that you can consider. Let’s go through this guide-

Steps to Upload Android App to Google Play Store

While checking out this guide to publishing apps to Google Play Store, it is necessary to ponder every aspect used to launch the app successfully. Be it a newbie or an experienced one, these steps will guide all to launch the app while avoiding any future issues. Have a look-Make a Google Developer Account

• Make a Google Developer Account
• Setup a Google Merchant Account
• Create a Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
• Read Google Developer Guidelines
• Check All Technical Requirements
• Create An App
• Google Play Store Listing
• Content Rating
• Setup Application Pricing
• Upload App Bundles To Google Play
• Rollout Release to Launch Your App

Step 1: Make a Google Developer Account

The first step towards how to upload an android app to Google Play Store is to create a Google Play developer account. For this, you need to follow the below steps-

• Visit Google Play Console Website and sign in with your Google account if you have one.

• If you don’t have a Google Developer account, then you need to create one first.

• For this, you need to choose between a personal or business account.

• For a personal account, you need to submit details like the developer’s name, address, email, contact name, number, and website.

• For a business account, you must enter information such as Developer’s name, organization name, address, contact number, website, contact name, and email address.

• To create an account, you must have to pay $25, a one-time signing-up fee.
• Consider reviewing the Developer Distributor Agreement to make a payment via credit or debit card.
• After this, your account will be reviewed, and it will take around 2 days to get authorized.

Step 2: Setup a Google Merchant Account

Setting up a Google merchant account holds the utmost importance when it comes to getting an understanding of how to submit an app on the Google Play Store. If your developed app comprises any kind of in-app purchases or is a paid app, then the Google merchant account i.e., a payment center profile will help you manage the sales.

Once created, this account will automatically link to your Google Play Console. It is done to streamline, review, and download financial reports. Have a look at below steps-

• Go to the merchant center website and sign in with the Google account.

• Then, you must have to enter all the information related to your business such as business name, address, website name or store name, contact number, etc.

• Choose ‘customer checkout type’ among websites, Google, and local store.
• Select your third-party platforms.
• Decide your email preferences, then, you can create the account.

Step 3: Create a Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

There is always a need to work on the required documents, whether it is about to build an app or launching it on the selected platform. Similar goes with the process of how to upload mobile apps in the Google Play Store. In this process, you will need several legal documents and you must prepare for EULA (End User License Agreement) and privacy policies.

You can contact legal experts or top-rated mobile application development companies who can help you by taking references from similar mobile applications. While talking about EULA, it works as a contract between an owner (business) and a user. It comprises the permission allotted to users to do within the app, intellectual property information, licensing fees, and others.

Considering terms and conditions, it includes how you suppose users to behave in exchange for services you provide. To make it simple, you can just generate one document combining terms of use and other privacy policies. You can add the below aspects to the privacy policies-

• List of accumulated, managed, and used data via the app.
• Free and paid app features & functions.
• Technical configuration of the devices and installed operating system.
• The place where the company is registered or the location of the app’s patent owner.
• Nationality of mass of app users.
• Specifications of the subscription.
• Age bar to see the specific content.

Step 4: Read Google Developer Guidelines

Reviewing and understanding the Google Developer policies and guidelines set by Google is important to make the launch of the app successful. This step ensures that the application fulfils Google’s standards and rules.

The working of the entire app depends on these policies including development, updates, and promotions. If Google finds out about any defiance of its policies, there is a high chance the app might get rejected, deleted, or even blocked from Google Play. In short, these policies have taken place to make sure the privacy and safety of users while preventing inappropriate or malicious behavior.

Hence, you must study the below aspects before going to publish app to Google Play Store-

• Google Play Store Listing & Advertising.
• Restricted Content Definition.
• Monetization and Ads.
• Impersonation
• Intellectual Property.
• Privacy, Deception, and Device Abuse
• Spam And Minimum Functionality
• Malware
• Appropriate Content for Families & Children
• Mobile Unwanted Software (MUwS)

Step 5: Check All Technical Requirements

Before proceeding with that, you must make sure that your mobile app meets all the required technical guidelines preferred by Google Play Store. Here are some considerable things for this step-

• You must provide a unique Bundle ID to represent the application that can be set in the app’s manifest file.
• You must sign the app digitally with a developer’s certificate used to find the app’s author and cannot be produced again.
• There is a limit on the app size uploaded to Google Play Store which is 100MB applicable for Android 2.3 versions and higher than that (API level 9 to 10, 14 or above). It goes 50MB suitable for lower Android versions. To extend this value, you have to swap to APK Expansion Files.
• When it comes to file formats supported by Google, they are .APK and App Bundle (.AAB). .AAB is the most chosen format among both. To have this, registration in app authorization by Google Play is required.

Step 6: Create App

Setting up the Play Console is the most significant step in how to upload an android app to Google Play Store that you have already done. Now, it’s the right time to come a step closer to the final goal and add the app. You have to go after the following steps:

• Go to the ‘All applications’ button available in the menu.
• Tap on ‘create application’.

• Pick the app’s default language using the drop-down list.
• Write a title for your app and hit the button named ‘create’.

The title you provide will be displayed on Google Play later. And all the information you provide should be verified and ensured that the application meets the Google policies of the Developer program and agrees with US trade laws. Also, you need to follow some basic criteria for app creation that includes:

• App Name– You need to write a 30-character long app name that will be previewed on Google Play Console. This name can be altered later.
• Default Language– It is one of the fields while setting up the app language. Navigate to the drop-down menu and choose a default app language.
• Free or Paid– It will decide whether your app will be completely free, or users must pay for using functions. This information can be updated from the paid app page later, you can only do it before publishing the app. If the app gets live, you can’t change the status from free to paid.
• App or Game– It will define the app type and you can change it later from the store settings.

Step 7: Google Play Store Listing

Let’s navigate to the next step in how to publish an app on Google Play store. All the details you provide here will show up to audiences on your application’s listing on Google Play. It will include three important details comprising the app name, and a short and full description that is as below-

• App Title– You need to add an app Label including up to 30 characters.
• Short Description– It includes a brief app summary displayed on the Google Play Store’s app listing including up to 80 characters. It will make people download the app, hence, write the most exciting and essential data in the earliest 3 lines.
• Full Description– It goes for additional information about the created app including a limit of 4000 characters. Here you can highlight the key features and benefits of the app. When a user goes to the application’s store listing, it will show up to them. 

Once you have submitted all the information to Google Console, the next step will include the information about the app category, graphics, icons, screenshots, and the privacy policy. Get all the details here-

• Screenshots– It is important to show how your app performs. Go to add screenshots and post some screenshots. You are needed to upload at least 4 to 8 screenshots that must be between 1080 and 7680px for excellent possible outcomes. Also, don’t forget to put the best screenshots in the first place to lure the audience. You need to keep the ratio 16:9 for landscape and 9:16 for portrait.

If you want to show up in the Play Store’s Designed for Tablets list, post app screenshots operating on a 7-inch & 10-inch Tablet. Other supporting device types are Android TVs, Wear OS watches and smartphones.

• Hi-res Icon– The app icon displays in the Google Play Store and also when users download the app, hence it must be of high resolution. The standard size will be 512*512 in 32-bit PNG format. The maximum file size will be 1024KB.
• Feature Graphic– It works as an elective marketing tool exhibited in different areas of Google Play such as the homepage. These graphics can be available in JPEG or 24-bit PNG with a standard size of 1024*500px.
• Contact Details– There is required to provide essential contact forms so that it will be easy for users to get in touch with you.
• Privacy Policy– To avoid privacy breaches of the app, Google mandates to include a privacy policy. You need to add a complete privacy policy that includes how your app gets, utilizes, and shares the data. You can also include a URL directing to your privacy policy in your google play store listing. If you want to do it later, you can save the draft and finish it later. 

Step 8: Content Rating

Are you thinking this is it? No, before making your app open for public use, you need to do a review of content rating and distributing & pricing plan. To be precise, content is a perfect way to communicate with the users that helps to increase user engagement with the right audiences.

Also, it is significant to get a good content rating for your application, otherwise, the app will be considered unrated. And there is a chance it may get removed from Google Play.

To get the app rating, you need to fill out a content rating form that you can get by following the below steps:

• Open Google Play Console and navigate to the App Content page. (Policy>App Content)
• Tap Start.
• Review all the essential information related to the questionnaire while entering the email address.
• The entered email will be used to associate with IARC (International Age Rating Coalition).
• After that, you must choose a category and then, click next.
• Finish the questionnaire. If you want to change any of your responses, choose to edit, otherwise, click save draft.
• These responses will help to produce calculated ratings that will be displayed on the Summary page.  
• You can review the ratings and select Submit.
• If you are not satisfied with the ratings, you can retake the questionnaire.   

It is required to make sure that you submit accurate information as any kind of misrepresentation can lead to removal or suspension of the app.

Step 9: Setup Application Pricing

Here, you must decide whether you want to keep your app free or paid, though you can change the paid app into a free one later. You can also choose to distribute the app only in specific nations as an alternative to releasing it worldwide. Follow these steps:

• Go to Play Console and open the App Pricing Page. (Products> App Pricing)
• After going into the pricing segment, choose between Make your app free or Make your app paid.

Now, you are just one step away to complete the procedure of how to upload your android app on the Google Play Store. Scroll below to know about it-

Step 10: Upload App Bundles To Google Play

You have made further steps easier by forming a strong base to launch your app on Google Play Store. It’s time to focus on creating a release to manage the Android App Bundle of your app or APK (created before August 2021 for apps). Follow these steps to complete the process:

• Reach the app menu and lead to Release Management.
• Choose ‘Create new Release’ among three testing tracks or to production including open testing, closed testing, internal testing, and production.
• Select the release type you want to launch your app version to, but you must get ‘release apps to testing tracks’ permission before that.
• It’s time to prepare your app’s release, here you can change the app signing key by clicking- app integrity> change app signing key.
• Now, you can fill in all the details like release name, enter release notes, etc.
• After entering the information, choose ‘save as draft’.
• When you have finished the release preparation, tap ‘next’.

After completing these steps, you have moved one step closer to knowing how to post an app on Google Play Store. Let’s move ahead-

Step 10: Rollout Release to Launch Your App

Now, when all the information has been submitted and the whole checklist is done, we are ready to launch the app on Google Play Store. The final step comprises reviewing & rolling out the app release after a last check. For this, you need to pursue:

• Choose ‘Manage Production’ followed by ‘Edit Release’.
• Then, pick out Review from the bottom right of the page.
• Go for ‘start rollout to production’.
• Click on ‘confirm’ and here you go!

Now, your app has officially been submitted for release. After that, it will forward all the information for review to Google. It will take a few hours and then it will be available on the Google Play Store in the nations you have chosen. But after release, you just can’t sit back and relax as you have to put effort into promoting the app. Try to update it time-to-time and also emphasize app maintenance.

Conclusion

In the above article, we have penned all the required information and steps to follow to submit the app to Google Play Store. Whenever you are going to launch any app, you need to consider the above-written substantial to make the process easier and smoother. And even after getting approval for the app’s launch, you need to invest more time to get the app promoted and maintained to keep the users engaged and attracted.

Your app will automatically rank high if it has got the right features and functions. For that, you need to get help from top mobile application development company like SemiDot Infotech that have expert developers to deliver you the right solutions that can meet the specific guidelines of the Google Play Store.

SemiDot Infotech stands second to none when it comes to providing appropriate tech solutions or feature-rich mobile apps. Over the years, we have helped businesses to successfully launch their Android apps worldwide and get higher user engagement. Contact us and we will assist you with the further process.

FAQs

The below FAQs will address the most common queries related to app publishing on Google Play Store, have a look-