Apps in Google Play are identified by their package name. Each package name can only be used by a single app; no two apps in the market can have the same package name.

When you start an Andromo project, a unique package name is generated for you. Once you upload your app to Google Play, its package name will forever be tied to your Google Play publisher account.

If you want to prevent someone else from taking your app and putting it on the market as their own, you need to put it on the market first, before you make it available to anyone.

If you did share your app publicly and someone else published it to Google Play before you did, you would be forced to create a new Andromo project (in order to generate a new package name) in order to publish your app on Google Play.

So, the best practice is to upload your .apk file to Google Play (even as a "draft" that isn't publicly available yet) before you give it to anyone else.

If you publish your application and make it free, you cannot at a later date start charging for the same application. This is one of the rules of Google Play. If you would like to start charging for the application, you need to create a new project in Andromo that contains the same information, and upload that to the market as a new application. (You may use the same name and information in Andromo.) You can also use this method to provide free and paid versions of an app that may be slightly different.

This rule also applies to applications you previously charged money for. Once they've been made free, you cannot start charging for them again. You will again be forced to create a new project.

Please note that these are the rules of Google Play. We didn't make the rules - we're just telling you what they are.

Android 4.0 and Up

Getting setup to take screen shots for the first time on older versions of Android was a pain, but as of Android 4.X it got much easier. Now you don't need to install anything onto your computer instead you just need to press a few buttons:

1. Press and hold the Power button and the Volume-Down button at the same time.
2. After a few seconds your screen will flash and you will see something like the following:

3. Now you can access the screen shot via the notifications or using the Gallery app. The screenshots are located within the "Screenshot" album.
Notification:

Gallery App:

4. Email yourself the image if you want to access it on your desktop computer.

Pre Android 4.0

We have also made a more detailed post on our blog: Taking Screenshots of your Android App

Install the Android SDK

In order to take screenshots, you will first need to download and install the Android SDK on your PC. Take note of where you installed it because you will need to locate it in a later step.

Turn on USB Debugging

Before connecting your phone/tablet to your computer, you must enable USB Debugging so that the Android tool DDMS can interact with it. You can do this by selecting Settings > Applications > Development on your phone or tablet and enabling the USB Debugging option.

Install your Application

If you haven't already done so, install your application on your phone/tablet. For further details, see the article: How to install your App onto a device.

Connect your Phone/Tablet to your PC

Connect your phone/tablet to your PC using the supplied USB cable.

Run the DDMS Android Tool

Browse to the "tools" folder of the Android SDK on your PC, located in \android-sdk-windows\tools. Locate the file named ddms (with extension, ddms.bat), and double click it to launch the DDMS (Dalvik Debug Monitor Service).

Take Screen Captures

Now you're ready to take screenshots of your application. First make sure your device is listed and selected under 'Name'. Under the Device menu, select Screen capture.... This will open a Device Screen Capture window that will show the current screen of your phone/tablet.

Each time you want to take a screenshot of your application, first click the Refresh button to update it to the current screen, then click the Save button to save the capture to an image file (.png image).

Repeat this process for as many images as you like, and when you're finished, simply click the Done button to close the Device Screen Capture window, followed by closing the Dalvik Debug Monitor window.

Given the data the Kindle Fire and the Amazon Appstore represent an Android market that Andromo developers should explore. After all the Kindle Fire runs and OS based on the Android OS which means that developers can bring their apps to the Amazon Appstore with almost no changes. The only issues a developer may encounter surround Amazon’s Appstore approval process and the requirements necessary for that approval. With the release of Andromo 3.1.0 Andromo developers can now fully target the Amazon Appstore and be approved in a reliable way.

The Story So Far

The story previous to Andromo 3.1.0 was one of headaches and rejected apps for Andromo developers attempting to add their app to the Amazon Appstore. While Andromo made steps to improve support for Amazon kindle devices (as it became clear that it was something our developers wanted to target) it wasn’t enough. We tried a few different approaches including the 3.0.8 update which automatically translated Google Play activity links to Amazon App Store links when it detected that the app was running on a Kindle. We wanted to let people build one app and then be able to upload it to any Android store they wanted, but as time went on it became clear that this approach wouldn’t work.

The reality is that if you are going to develop apps for Google Play and for Amazon at the same time you are generally going to have to provide special builds for each app store. Builds that target each app store specifically, regardless of what device they are running, and will therefore pass the Amazon Appstore approval process.

The Solution

The addition of the Target Market setting on the App Info tab in Andromo 3.1.0 solves this problem and lets you easily add your apps to the Amazon Appstore. This setting allows you to build a version of your app that targets a specific marketplace. It changes the destination links for Google Play activities, PDF dependencies, share text, etc. so they point to either Google Play or the Amazon appstore.

As hinted at above if you want to add your app to both the Google Play and Amazon Appstore marketplaces you will need to build your app twice, once for each app store. In general this means following these two steps:

1. Build your app with the target market set to Google Play: Android Phones and Tablets. When the build is done, save the file to your computer with a name that lets you know it was built for Google Play. E.g. app_xxx_yyy_google.apk

2. After that is done edit your app and set Amazon Appstore: Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD as your target. Save your changes, and build the app again. When this build is done save the apk file to your computer with a name that lets you know that it was built for the Amazon Appstore: app_xxx_yyy_amazon.apk.

Now you are ready to add your app to each app store.

What Doesn’t Work

AirBop is not supported on Amazon devices as they do not have the necessary Google Services installed. If you want to use AirBop you will have to disable it when you target the Amazon Appstore.

Any links to Google Play in your HTML code. If you are attempting to promote or link to something in Google Play in any HTML Archive or Custom Page activity, you will have to edit your code so that it points to the correct app store that the target setting refers to.

This article describes the process of updating an existing app in Google Play. If this article doesn't answer all of your questions, please reference Google Play's Updates article for further information.

Increment your Version

Every time you build your Andromo app, its 'version code' is incremented. Google Play uses this value to determine whether it's a new build of your app. This however differs from the version string. The version string is what you and your users will see to identify the version of the app. While it isn't technically required, we strongly suggest increasing your application's version number each time you release your app. For example, increment your version from 1.0.0.0 to 1.0.0.1.

You can adjust this setting on the "App Info" tab of your Andromo project's settings. After updating the version, build your app again and download the new Android Package file (APK) that represents your updated application.

Upload your New APK

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since you're not signing the app yourself, you should not enroll your app in Google Play App Signing.

Once your Andromo app is ready to be published, login to your Google Play Developer Console. Select your app from the list, and then select the "APK" tab along the left-hand side. You can upload your new APK file using the "Upload new APK to Production" button. You can then either save those changes, or publish your new file.

Update the Store Listing

The next step is to let your users know what has changed since the last version of your application, such as bug fixes or new features. This information can be entered in the "Recent changes" area of your store listing, for example: 1.0.0.1 - Fixed an issue....

You can read about the recent changes section in the Recent Changes topic of the Google Play for Developers Help.

Once you're finished making changes to your listing, make sure to click the "Save and Publish" button to update your app in the store.

How Updates Work

Once your app has been updated in the Developer Console, it will take a while for the changes to become visible in the store, so be patient. Wait at least 24 hours before contacting Google Play support. It will also take some time for your users to be notified that an update is available. Users will see an update available notification for your app, or if they have automatic updates enabled, your app will be automatically updated for them, and they'll be notified of the change.

Note: Update notifications are controlled by users on their device, so users that have chosen not to receive notifications will not be notified of the app update.

If you're creating an application that you want to distribute to the public, the best way to do so is to upload your application to Google Play. Google has help specifically aimed at developers, so if you have any questions not answered by this article, it’s a great reference: Google Play for Developers Help. There is also a very useful document entitled: Publishing Checklist for Google Play that discusses what is required to publish to Google Play.

For an in-depth walk though of Google Play and the entire publishing perspective, please read the Publishing section of the Android developer documentation. It will walk you through all aspects of the publishing phase of development, as well as the Google Play developer console.

Note: Before publishing it is important to decide whether or not you want to charge money for your application. More information on this decision can be found in the You can't charge for previously published free apps knowledge base article.

Register for Google Play

The first step in publishing is to register for Google Play at the Google Play publisher site. The process is relatively straightforward and should only take you a few minutes. Note: There is a $25 USD charge to register.

Are you going to Sell your App?

If you want to sell your apps, instead of offering them for free with ads, you also need to set up a Google Wallet Merchant account as described in the Getting Started with Publishing article in Google Play's help.

Note: We recommend turning ads off when selling your app on Google Play. An Andromo subscription is required to do this.

Prepare to Publish

The publishing process in Google Play can be a lot quicker if you have all of the store listing content complete and available before you start. So when you're ready to publish your app, here are the items you should have available:

• Your final Andromo application file (APK) to be uploaded. It must be under 50MB in size to be accepted.
• The title for your app (max 30 characters).
• A description of your app (max 4000 characters).
• High-res icon, 512 x 512 32-bit PNG (with alpha).
• At least 2 screenshots are required overall (Max 8 screenshots per type), JPEG or 24-bit PNG (no alpha). Min length for any side: 320px. Max length for any side: 3840px. (You can upload a maximum of 8 screenshots per type. Types include "Phone", "7-inch tablet" and "10-inch tablet".)

Optional items that can be updated later include:

• Optional promo text (80 characters) and promo graphic. Promo graphic needs to be 180w x 120 h JPG or 24-bit PNG (no alpha).
• Screenshots: Only 2 are required, but you can upload a maximum of 8 screenshots per type. Types include "Phone", "7-inch tablet" and "10-inch tablet".
• Feature graphic: 1024w x 500h JPG or 24-bit PNG (no alpha).

Information on taking screenshots can be found in the How to take screenshots of your application knowledge base article.

Add New Application

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since you're not signing the app yourself, you should not enroll your app in Google Play App Signing.

Once you've registered, you can log in to your Google Play developer account and begin publishing your application via the "+ Add new application" button. The first thing you'll see is a dialog asking for the default language and the title of your app. You're then presented two options "Upload APK" and "Prepare Store Listing". The one you start with is up to you, but for this article, we'll assume you'll choose the upload first.

Upload APK

This step is the process of uploading your application’s Android Package File (APK). A link to this file is emailed to you whenever you successfully build your application, and can be downloaded at any time from your projects section on Andromo. Click the "Upload APK" button, and browse for your application file to upload. You'll see a "Save Draft" button on the dialog box after you upload the APK. Once you complete this step, you'll see a checkmark listed beside "APK" along the left hand side of the screen. The next step is to prepare your store listing.

Store Listing

The Store Listing controls what your end users will see when they find your application in Google Play. The available listing details are described in detail in Google’s uploading applications help topic. This step involves submitting content such as your title, description, icon, screenshots, categorization, contact details, and privacy policy. As discussed in the "Prepare to Publish" section, some of these items are required, while others are optional. When you're finished, click the save button.

If you've entered all of the required information, you'll see a checkmark listed beside the "Store Listing" along the left hand side of the screen. The next step is to complete the "Pricing & Distribution" details.

You can learn more about graphic assets in the article Graphic and Image Assets in Google Play's help. Information on taking screenshots can be found in the How to take screenshots of your application knowledge base article.

Pricing & Distribution

In this section, you define the pricing details for your app (free or paid), where you want it available, and consent options. When you're finished, save your changes and if you've entered all of the required information, it will show a checkmark next to "Pricing & Distribution" along the left-hand side.

Publishing your App

If you've submitted all of the required information, a "Publish this app" button will be enabled on the page. Your application should appear in the store usually after a few hours (but could take longer). If you've included AdMob in your app, don't forget to "link your app" which you can normally do about 24 hours after it's been published.

Editing your Listing

If you want to go back to edit your listing, or upload a new version of your application, you can. When you make your changes simply save them and they should be live in the store in twenty minutes or so. Note: This can sometimes take quite a while, so be patient.