Chapter 43: Publish on Android Market

In order to publish your app on Android Market, you will have to be registered as an "Android Market developer". This registration includes paying a one-time fee of $25.

If you are not willing or able to pay this fee, you cannot publish your app on Android Market. (There are other Marketplaces/Appstores, but I will not cover them in this article.)

I have already performed my registration last year, so I will not be able to provide screenshots and full details regarding this, but I think it should be quite clear anyway ;-)

Step 1 - Create a Google account

It is quite possible that you already have this already. Visit https://accounts.google.com/ and either sign up for a new account, or log in with an existing account.

Step 2 - Register as Android Market developer

Visit http://market.android.com/publish and fill in the registration form

Step 3 - Prepare your app

This step is really important and it is very well described on http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/preparing.html, so for the first time in this article series, I will not write my own version of this step. Only these few bullets that are easy to forget:

• Remove all debug printouts
• Set android.versionCode and android.versionName in the manifest to proper values
• Build a signed copy of your app (In Eclipse, right click on your project folder, select Android Tools -> Export signed Application Package)
• Make a snapshot of your source code/project, so you know what was included in the app version you just built
• Try the signed version on a real device

Step 4 - Prepare text and graphic material

You need to prepare

• At least two screenshots (320 x 480, 480 x 800, 480 x 854, 1280 x 720 or 1280 x 800)
• One high resolution application icon (512 x 512)
• A description

Step 5 - Upload

Goto the Developer Console on https://market.android.com/publish/Home and click on the Upload Application button:

Select the (signed) APK-file you just built and click Upload:

and then Save.

You will now have to spend somewhere between 15 and 60 minutes to fill as many details as possible and add the images you prepared.

When all detailes are filled in, click "Save" at the top of the page, and then click on the "APK files" tab:

Activate your newly uploaded APK and then click "Publish".

Done! Our app is published!

You can now send the link to your friends and ask them to try it out. The link should be in the form:

http://market.android.com/details?id=<package_name>

For example: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.ajomannen.justroids for JustRoids that I just published.

So, the result of this whole tutorial, all those months of work, all late nights...is the following button: