Quick answer: publishing on Google Play takes a one-time $25 developer account with identity verification, an App Bundle with a permanent package name and a rising version code, a store listing (512 px icon, 1024×500 feature graphic, screenshots, descriptions), a public privacy policy, completed data-safety and content-rating forms, and a pass through a test track before production. Review usually takes a few days.
Stage 1 — the developer account
A single $25 fee, paid once, covering every app you ever publish. Identity verification — legal name and address, and matching documents for a business account — can take days on its own, so start it before the app is finished.
Choose the account type deliberately. A personal account publishes under your legal name, visible on the listing. A business account needs a D-U-N-S number and publishes under the organisation. Switching later is awkward. Personal accounts also have to run a closed test with a group of testers before production access is granted; plan the time.
Stage 2 — create the app and lock the identifiers
Play asks for name, default language, app or game, free or paid. Free can never become paid — the reverse is fine. The package name is fixed by the first upload.
Stage 3 — the listing
Treat it as marketing, not a form. It is the whole conversion funnel.
| Field | Limit | Note |
|---|---|---|
| App name | 30 characters | Keyword stuffing violates policy |
| Short description | 80 | The line people actually read |
| Full description | 4,000 | The first two lines do most of the work |
| Icon | 512 × 512 | 32-bit PNG, no transparency |
| Feature graphic | 1024 × 500 | Required |
| Phone screenshots | 2–8 | 16:9 or 9:16, at least 320 px |
Stage 4 — the three policy forms
Privacy policy
A working, public URL on your own domain, required for practically every app. It must describe what the app actually does; a template that contradicts the data-safety form is worse than none.
Data safety
What you collect, what you share, whether it is encrypted in transit. For a WebView app, your website's analytics, cookies and third-party scripts count. "We collect nothing" while the site runs an ad network is a false declaration.
Content rating
A questionnaire that produces regional age ratings. Inaccurate answers are grounds for removal.
Stage 5 — test tracks, in order
- Internal testing — up to 100 testers, live in minutes. Where you check what Play actually serves.
- Closed testing — a larger invited group; required for personal accounts before production.
- Open testing — anyone can join, the listing is public but marked as a test.
- Production — with staged rollout, so a broken release reaches 10% of users rather than all of them.
Stage 6 — review
A few days for a new account is typical. Rejections arrive by email, and the common ones are avoidable:
- Minimum functionality — a bare WebView with nothing a bookmark could not do.
- Dead privacy policy link — check it publicly, not just while logged in.
- Data-safety mismatch — the form says one thing, the site's trackers another.
- Placeholder content — lorem ipsum, a default icon, screenshots from another app.
- Impersonation — wrapping a site you do not own.
After launch
Play raises the minimum target API level every year; apps that fall behind stop being shown to newer devices and eventually cannot be updated. Reviews need replies, crash reports need reading, and each release needs a version code higher than the last — including releases that only went to a test track.
