page.title=Publishing on Android Market @jd:body
Go to Android Market, create a developer account, and upload your application. For more information about required assets, listing details, and publishing options, see Upload Applications.
One of the most effective ways to get your application into users' hands is to publish it on an application marketplace like Android Market. Publishing on Android Market is a straightforward process that you can do in just a few simple steps—register, configure, upload, and publish. Registration takes only a few minutes and needs to be done only once. The configuration and publishing steps can all be done through the Android Market Developer Console after you register as an Android Market developer.
To start publishing on Android Market, first read this topic and then go to the Android Market publisher site and register as an Android Market developer.
Android Market is a robust publishing platform that helps you publicize, sell, and distribute your Android applications to users around the world. When you release your applications through Android Market you have access to a suite of developer tools that let you analyze your sales, identify market trends, and control who your applications are being distributed to. You also have access to several revenue-enhancing features, such as in-app billing and application licensing.
Before you can publish applications on Android Market, you need to register as an Android Market developer. During the registration process you will need to create a developer profile, pay a registration fee, and agree to the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement. After you register you can access the Android Market Developer Console, where you can upload applications, configure publishing options, and monitor publishing data. If you want to sell your applications or use the in-app billing feature, you will also need to set up a Google Checkout merchant account. For more information about the registration process, see Developer Registration.
Publishing your application on Android Market is a simple process that involves three basic tasks (see figure 1):
Figure 1. To publish apps on Android Market you must first prepare your app for release and then perform three simple tasks.
Important: You must prepare your application for release before you can publish it on Android Market. When you prepare your application for release you configure it for release and build it in release mode. Building in release mode signs your application's {@code .apk} file with your private release key. You cannot publish an application on Android Market unless it is signed with your own private release key.
To fully leverage the marketing and publicity capabilities of Android Market, you need to create several graphical assets that accompany your app on Android Market, such as screenshots, videos, promotional graphics, and promotional text. At a minimum you must provide two screenshots of your application and a high resolution application icon. The screenshots are displayed on the details page for your application in Android Market, and the high resolution application icon is displayed in various locations throughout Android Market. The high resolution icon does not replace the launcher icon for your application, rather, it serves as a supplemental icon and should look the same as your launcher icon. Promotional video, graphics, and text are optional, although we strongly recommended that you prepare these for your app. For more information about the graphic assets that accompany your application, see Graphic Assets for your Application.
Android Market lets you target your application to a worldwide pool of users and devices. To reach these users you can use the Android Market Developer Console to configure various publishing options and listing details for your app. For example, you can choose the countries you want to reach, the listing languages you want to use, and the price you want to charge in each country. You can also configure listing details such as the application type, category, and content rating. In addition, if you want to sell items within your app using the in-app billing feature, you can use the Developer Console to create a product list and control which items are available for purchase in your app.
When you are finished setting publishing options and listing details, you can upload your assets and your application to Android Market. You can also upload your application as a draft (unpublished) application, which lets you do final testing before you publish it for final release.
To learn more about Android Market publishing settings, see the following resources:
When you are satisfied that your publishing settings are correctly configured and your uploaded application is ready to be released to the public, you can simply click Publish in the Developer Console to make your app available for download around the world. Keep in mind, it can take several hours for your app to appear on Android Market after you click Publish in the Developer Console.
If your application targets different device configurations, you can control which Android-powered devices have access to your application on Android Market by using Android Market filters. Filtering compares device configurations that you declare in your app's manifest file to the configuration defined by a device. For example, if you declare the camera filter in your manifest, only those devices that have a camera will see your app on Android Market. Filters must be configured in your application's manifest file when you are preparing your app for release (that is, before you upload your app to Android Market). For more information, see Market Filters.
You can also use the multiple APK feature to distribute different {@code .apk} files under the same application listing and the same package name; however, you should use this option only as a last resort. Android applications usually run on most compatible devices with a single APK, by supplying alternative resources for different configurations (for example, different layouts for different screen sizes) and the Android system selects the appropriate resources for the device at runtime. In a few cases, however, a single APK is unable to support all device configurations, because alternative resources make the APK file too big (greater than 50MB) or other technical challenges prevent a single APK from working on all devices. Although we encourage you to develop and publish a single APK that supports as many device configurations as possible, doing so is sometimes not possible. To help you publish your application for as many devices as possible, Android Market allows you to publish multiple APKs under the same application listing. Android Market then supplies each APK to the appropriate devices based on configuration support you've declared in the manifest file of each APK. To use this feature, you need to build your separate {@code .apk} files when you are preparing your app for release (that is, before you upload your app to Android Market). For more information, see Multiple APK Support.
At any time after publishing an application on Android Market, you can upload and publish an update to the same application package. When you publish an update to an application, users who have already installed the application may receive a notification that an update is available for the application. They can then choose to update the application to the latest version.
Before uploading the updated application, be sure that you have incremented
the android:versionCode
and android:versionName
attributes in the <manifest>
element of the manifest file. Also, the package name must be the same as the existing version and
the {@code .apk} file must be signed with the same private key. If the package name and signing
certificate do not match those of the existing version, Market will
consider it a new application, publish it as such, and will not offer it to existing users as an
update.
If you plan to publish your application on Android Market, you must make sure that it meets the requirements listed below, which are enforced by the Market server when you upload the application.
Android Market offers a licensing service that lets you enforce licensing policies for paid applications that you publish through Android Market. With Android Market Licensing, your applications can query Android Market at runtime to obtain the licensing status for the current user, then allow or disallow further use of the application as appropriate. Using the service, you can apply a flexible licensing policy on an application-by-application basis—each application can enforce its licensing status in the way most appropriate for it.
Any application that you publish through Android Market can use the Android Market Licensing Service. The service uses no dedicated framework APIs, so you can add licensing to any application that uses a minimum API Level of 3 or higher.
For complete information about Android Market Licensing Service and how to use it in your application, read Application Licensing.
Android Market In-app Billing is an Android Market service that lets you sell digital content in your applications. You can use the service to sell a wide range of content, including downloadable content such as media files or photos, and virtual content such as game levels or potions.
When you use Android Market's in-app billing service to sell an item, Android Market handles all billing details so your application never has to directly process any financial transactions. Android Market uses the same checkout service that is used for application purchases, so your users experience a consistent and familiar purchase flow (see figure 1). Also, the transaction fee for in-app purchases is the same as the transaction fee for application purchases (30%).
Any application that you publish through Android Market can implement in-app billing. No special account or registration is required other than an Android Market publisher account and a Google Checkout Merchant account. Also, because the service uses no dedicated framework APIs, you can add in-app billing to any application that uses a minimum API level of 4 or higher.
To help you integrate in-app billing into your application, the Android SDK provides a sample application that demonstrates a simple implementation of in-app billing. The sample application contains examples of billing-related classes you can use to implement in-app billing in your application. It also contains examples of the database, user interface, and business logic you might use to implement in-app billing. For more information about the in-app billing feature, see the In-app Billing documentation.
To help users discover your published applications, you can use two special Android Market URIs that direct users to your application's details page or perform a search for all of your published applications in Android Market. You can use these URIs to create a button in your application or a link on a web page that:
You can launch the Android Market application or web site in the following ways:
In both cases, whether you want to initiate the action from your application or from a web page, the URIs are quite similar. The only difference is the URI prefix.
To open the Android Market application from your application, the prefix for the intent's data URI is:
market://
To open Android Market from your web site, the prefix for the link URI is:
http://market.android.com/
The following sections describe how to create a complete URI for each action.
Note: If you create a link to open Android Market from your web site and the user selects it from an Android-powered device, the device's Market application will resolve the link so the user can use the Market application instead of opening the web site. As such, you should always use {@code http://market.android.com/} URIs when creating a link on a web page. When pointing to your apps from within your Android app, use the {@code market://} URIs in an intent, so that the Market application always opens.
As described above, you can open the details page for a specific application either on the Android Market application or the Android Market web site. The details page allows the user to see the application description, screenshots, reviews and more, and choose to install it.
The format for the URI that opens the details page is:
<URI_prefix>details?id=<package_name>
The <package_name>
is a placeholder for the target application's
fully-qualified package name, as declared in the {@code
package} attribute of the {@code
<manifest>} element.
To open the Android Market details page from your application, create an intent with the {@link android.content.Intent#ACTION_VIEW} action and include a data URI in this format:
market://details?id=<package_name>
For example, here's how you can create an intent and open an application's details page in Android Market:
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW); intent.setData(Uri.parse("market://details?id=com.android.example")); startActivity(intent);
This will open the Android Market application on the device to view the {@code com.android.example} application.
To open the details page from your web site, create a link with a URI in this format:
http://market.android.com/details?id=<package_name>
For example, here's a link that opens an application's details page on Android Market:
<a href="http://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.example">App Link</a>
When clicked from a desktop web browser, this opens the Android Market web site to view the {@code com.android.example} application. When clicked from an Android-powered device, users are given the option to use either their web browser or the Android Market application to view the application.
To initiate a search in Android Market, the format for the URI is:
<URI_prefix>search?q=<query>
The <query>
is a placeholder for the search query to execute in Android
Market. The query can be a raw text string or you can include a parameter that performs a search
based on the publisher name:
<URI_prefix>search?q=<search_query>
<URI_prefix>search?q=pub:<publisher_name>
You can use this type of search to show all of your published applications.
To initiate a search on Android Market from your application, create an intent with the {@link android.content.Intent#ACTION_VIEW} action and include a data URI in this format:
market://search?q=<query>
The query may include the {@code pub:} parameter described above.
For example, here's how you can initiate a search in the Android Market application, based on the publisher name:
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW); intent.setData(Uri.parse("market://search?q=pub:Your Publisher Name")); startActivity(intent);
This opens the Android Market application to perform the search. The search result shows all applications published by the publisher that are compatible with the current device.
To initiate a search on Android Market from your web site, create a link with a URI in this format:
http://market.android.com/search?q=<query>
The query may include the {@code pub:} parameter described above.
For example, here's a link that initiates a search on Android Market, based on the publisher name:
<a href="http://market.android.com/search?q=pub:Your Publisher Name">Search Link</a>
When clicked from a desktop web browser, this opens the Android Market web site and performs the search. When clicked from an Android-powered device, users are given the option to use either their web browser or the Android Market application to perform the search.
Use the following form to generate an "Available in Android Market" button that you can use on your web site. Input either your application's package name or publisher name and the button will take users to Android Market to either view your application's information or view a list of your published apps. If users click the button while on an Android-powered device, the Android Market application will respond to show users your application(s).
This form offers four versions of the official "Available in Android Market" button at recommended sizes. If you want to create a different size, you can download an EPS file for the button images from the Android Brand Guidelines.
The table below provides a summary of the URIs currently supported by the Android Market (both on the web and in the Android application), as discussed in the previous sections.
For this result | Use this URI in a web page link | Or this URI in an {@link android.content.Intent#ACTION_VIEW} intent |
---|---|---|
Display the details screen for a specific application | http://market.android.com/details?id=<package_name>
| market://details?id=<package_name> |
Search for applications using a general string query. | http://market.android.com/search?q=<query> |
market://search?q=<query> |
Search for applications by publisher name | http://market.android.com/search?q=pub:<publisher_name> |
market://search?q=pub:<publisher_name> |