108 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
108 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
page.title=Open Distribution
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@jd:body
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<p>As an open platform, Android offers choice. You
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distribute your Android apps to users in any way you want, using any
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distribution approach or combination of approaches that meets your needs.
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From publishing in an app marketplace to serving your apps from a web site or
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emailing them directly users, you are never locked into any
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particular distribution platform.</p>
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<p>The process for building and packaging your app for distribution is the same,
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regardless of how you will distribute your app. This saves you time and lets you
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automate parts of the process as needed. You can read <a
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href="{@docRoot}tools/publishing/preparing.html">Preparing
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for Release</a> for more information.</p>
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<p>The sections below highlight some of the alternatives for distributing
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your apps to users.</p>
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<h2 id="publishing-marketplace">Distributing through an App Marketplace</h2>
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<p>Usually, to reach the broadest possible audience, you would distribute your
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apps through a marketplace, such as Google Play.</p>
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<p>Google Play is the premier marketplace for Android apps and is particularly
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useful if you want to distribute your applications to a large global audience.
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However, you can distribute your apps through any app marketplace you want or
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you can use multiple marketplaces.</p>
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<h2 id="publishing-email">Distributing your application through email</h2>
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<div class="figure" style="width:246px">
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<img src="{@docRoot}images/publishing/publishing_via_email.png"
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alt="Screenshot showing the graphical user interface users see when you send them an app"
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style="width:240px;" />
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<p class="img-caption">
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<strong>Figure 1.</strong> Users can simply click <strong>Install</strong> when you send them
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an application via email.
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</p>
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</div>
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<p>The easiest and quickest way to release your application is to send it to users through
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email. To do this, you prepare your application for release and then attach it to an email
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and send it to a user. When users open your email message on their Android-powered device,
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the Android system will recognize the APK and display an <strong>Install Now</strong>
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button in the email message (see figure 1). Users can install your application by touching the
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button.</p>
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<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> The <strong>Install Now</strong> button
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shown in Figure 1 appears only if users have configured their device to allow
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installation from <a href="#unknown-sources">unknown sources</a> and have opened your
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email with the native Gmail application.</p>
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<p>Distributing applications through email is convenient if you are sending your application to
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only a few trusted users, but it provides few protections from piracy and unauthorized
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distribution; that is, anyone you send your application to can simply forward it to someone else.</p>
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<h2 id="publishing-website">Distributing through a web site</h2>
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<p>If you do not want to release your app on a marketplace like Google Play, you
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can make the app available for download on your own website or server, including
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on a private or enterprise server. To do this, you must first prepare your
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application for release in the normal way. Then all you need to do is host the
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release-ready APK file on your website and provide a download link to users.
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</p>
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<p>When users browse to the download link from their Android-powered devices,
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the file is downloaded and Android system automatically starts installing it on
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the device. However, the installation process will start automatically only if
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users have configured their Settings to allow the installation of apps from
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<a href="#unknown-sources">unknown sources</a>.</p>
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<p>Although it is relatively easy to release your application on your own
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website, it can be inefficient. For example, if you want to monetize your
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application you will have to process and track all financial transactions
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yourself and you will not be able to use Google Play's <a
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href="{@docRoot}guide/google/play/billing/index.html">In-app Billing service</a>
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to sell in-app products. In addition, you will not be able to use the <a
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href="{@docRoot}guide/google/play/licensing/index.html">Licensing service</a> to
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help prevent unauthorized installation and use of your application.</p>
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<h2 id="unknown-sources">User Opt-In for Apps from Unknown Sources</h2>
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<div class="figure" style="width:246px;margin-top:0;">
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<img src="{@docRoot}images/publishing/publishing_unknown_sources_sm.png"
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alt="Screenshot showing the setting for accepting download and install of
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apps from unknown sources." style="width:240px;" />
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<p class="img-caption">
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<strong>Figure 2.</strong> Users must enable the <strong>Unknown sources</strong>
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setting before they can install apps not downloaded from Google Play.
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</p>
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</div>
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<p>Android protects users from inadvertent download and install of apps from
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locations other than Google Play (which is trusted). It blocks such installs
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until the user opts-in <strong>Unknown sources</strong> in
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Settings <strong>></strong> Security, shown in Figure 2. To allow
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the installation of applications from other sources, users need to enable the
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Unknown sources setting on their devices, and they need to make this
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configuration change <em>before</em> they download your application to their
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devices.</p>
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<p class="note">Note that some network providers do not allow users to install
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applications from unknown sources.</p>
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