Useful Tips for Adding an App to the Google Play Store

The Android operating system is actively used in over 190 countries in the world, with over 1 billion users. Google Play Store is the largest application store globally, home to over 3 million android applications. With its large user base, hosting apps on Google Play Store is one of the best ways to generate income as an Android developer. There may be some issues with hosting that affect your app and your relationship with Google Play.

In this article, we will walk you through the process of adding apps to Google Play. We will also discuss possible problems when publishing applications and their prevention, one of which is the popular problem of an application or account getting banned.

How to Add an App to the Google Play Store

1. Create a Google Developer Account:You can create a Google developer account, using an already existing Google account or setting up a new one. Once you have signed in with your Google account, proceed to accept the terms. It usually takes 48 hours for a developer account to be approved.
   

   Link Your Google Merchant Account: If you will be making purchases and payments in your app, you need a merchant account. This account will enable you to track sales and other metrics.

2. Create Your Application: Go to your Google Developer page. On the page, click on “Create Application”. Add your language and a brief description before clicking on “Create”.

   
   

3. Store List Your Application: The next step is store-listing your application. To do this, you need to provide information about your application (its name, multiple and long descriptions, application icon, etc).  The specification for each item is stated in the guidelines.

4. Content Rating: Passing a rating questionnaire is important to avoid being flagged as an unrated app. Make sure to provide accurate information about your app when answering the questionnaire. Any details that do not match what your app offers, might lead to removal from the Google Play Store. Answer the questions and click on “Save Questionnaire”. Follow this by clicking on “Calculate Rating”, this will provide you with a rating. Complete this step by clicking on “Apply Rating” to complete the content rating.

5. Pricing: Pricing your application is straightforward. Simply answer the questions that are provided.

   
   

6. Submit Your Application for Publishing: To submit your application, you need to upload it in ABB or APK format. Your application should not exceed 100MB in size. Submit in Alpha, Beta, or Production mode, which will be followed by a Google review. The application review typically takes up to 7 days, after which your app is published.

Common Issues That Come With Publishing Apps on the Google Play Store

Some developers have difficulty publishing their apps on Google Play for the following reasons.

• Broken Functionality: The goal of Google Play is to provide users with only the best products. Therefore, applications with broken features are often rejected by the store. Before publishing, it is always worth checking that all the features of your app work correctly.

  
  

• Bugs and Errors: A buggy app is a user’s nightmare. Bugs and errors are known to make applications crash, thereby affecting the overall user experience. Naturally, Google rejects applications with such violations. You should always check your applications for bugs and errors before publishing.

  
  

• Uniqueness: Uniqueness is the main criterion for approving applications on the Google Play Store. Similarities between code, design, and concept can result in your app being marked as spam and subsequently banned. The best way to deal with this problem is to create a unique code for your applications.

  
  

Creating Unique Applications with AppRefactoring

In the process of writing applications, developers can borrow code from their old programs and this is normal. Old code helps when there is a shortage of resources that are not enough to create a new one, or when you need to rewrite the system from scratch, the developer can simply integrate the old code into the new application.

In addition, by creating similar applications (for example, two versions of the photo editor), the developer can use the same source code to write them. This is done to make your job easier. But, as a result, such actions lead to code duplication, which Google Play can easily mark as "non-unique" code, and this leads to a ban on the application/account.

To avoid such problems on Google Play, it is still worth creating unique applications. It is better to spend time on a unique code than to deal with a ban from Google Play.

If time is still your priority, you can use a special tool that helps you create a unique source code. AppRefactoring analyzes the downloaded code and gives recommendations for its uniqueness. With the help of refactoring and obfuscation, you can create code in a couple of clicks that can avoid getting banned from Google Play.

The AppRefactoring tool will compare your codebase, showing any intersections. This ensures that you will be able to host unique and functional applications approved by Google Play.

Conclusion

Now you know how to submit your product to the Android app store and what information is needed to do so. You also know that there are a number of problems (functionality violation, presence of bugs and errors, uniqueness problem) that lead to difficulties in working on Google Play, and the “uniqueness” problem can lead your application or account to be banned.

For this reason, it is worth creating unique applications that will be protected from the Google Play ban. To create a unique code, the AppRefactoring tool will help you, which will simplify your work and show great results in a short time. The tool will analyze the code, compare it with your entire/team database, and make recommendations for creating unique code. All these processes accelerate the development and release of applications to the site.

Let me know, in the comments, what your experience is with placing applications on the Android platform.