Deploying Android Application to the

World
Introduction
Android application publishing is a process that makes your Android applications
available to users. Infect, publishing is the last phase of the Android application
development process.

In Android generate two type of APK:

● Signed Apk
● Unsigned/Build Apk

Figure- Android Development Life Cycle (Published Signed Apk)

Once you developed and fully tested your Android Application, you can start selling
or distributing free using Google Play (A famous Android marketplace). You can
also release your applications by sending them directly to users or by letting users
download them from your own website.

You can check a detailed publishing process at Android official website, but this
book chapter will take you through simple steps to launch your application on
Google Play.

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Deploying Android Application (Developer Console)
Publish Android apps to google play store:

Have you seen new updates in Google Play Store for uploading your app? Nothing
to worry! This module gives insight on changes in the uploading process and
publishing your Android app to the Play Store
[Link]

Generate a signed .apk file from Android Studio

Step & Activity:

1. Regression Testing Before you publish your application, you need to make sure
that its meeting the basic quality expectations for all Android apps, on all of the
devices that you are targeting. So, perform all the required testing on different
devices including phone and tablets.
2. Application Rating When you will publish your application at Google Play, you will
have to specify a content rating for your app, which informs Google Play users of
its maturity level. Currently available ratings are (a) Everyone (b) Low maturity (c)
Medium maturity (d) High maturity.
3. Targeted Regions Google Play lets you control what countries and territories
where your application will be sold. Accordingly, you must take care of setting up
time zone, localization or any other specific requirement as per the targeted
region.
4. Application Size Currently, the maximum size for an APK published on Google
Play is 50 MB. If your app exceeds that size, or if you want to offer a secondary
download, you can use APK Expansion Files, which Google Play will host for free
on its server infrastructure and automatically handle the download to devices.
5. SDK and Screen Compatibility It is important to make sure that your app is
designed to run properly on the Android platform versions and device screen sizes
that you want to target.

6. Application Pricing Deciding whether you app will be free or paid is important
because, on Google Play, free app's must remain free. If you want to sell your
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 application then you will have to specify its price in different currencies.
7. Promotional Content It is a good marketing practice to supply a variety of high-
quality graphic assets to showcase your app or brand. After you publish, these
appear on your product details page, in store listings and search results, and
elsewhere.
8. Build and Upload release-ready APK. The release-ready APK is what you you will
upload to the Developer Console and distribute to users. You can check complete
detail on how to create a release-ready version of your app: Preparing for Release.
9. Finalize Application Detail Google Play gives you a variety of ways to promote
your app and engage with users on your product details page, from colourful
graphics, screen shots, and videos to localized descriptions, release details, and
links to your other apps. So you can decorate your application page and provide
as much as clear crisp detail you can provide.
Export Android Application Process

Before exporting the apps, you must some of tools

● Dx tools (Dalvik executable tools ): It going to convert .class file to .dex file.
it has useful for memory optimization and reduce the boot-up speed time
● AAPT (Android assistance packaging tool):it has useful to convert .Dex file
[Link]
● APK (Android packaging kit): The final stage of deployment process is
called as .apk.

Figure - Android Application Development Process

You will need to export your application as an APK (Android Package) file before you
upload it Google Play marketplace.
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To export an application, just open that application project in Android studio and select
Build → Generate Signed APK from your Android studio and follow the simple steps
to export your application –

Figure Android Studio signed APK Manu

Next select, Generate Signed APK option as shown in the above screen shot and
then click it so that you get the following screen where you will choose Create new
keystore to store your application.

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 Figure- Select option for Android Apps Build or Direct APK

Figure- Insert Credential for then KeyStore and application Path

Enter your key store path,key store password,key alias and key password to protect
your application and click on Next button once again. It will display following screen to
let you create an application −

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Once you filled up all the information, like app destination, build type and flavours
click finish button While creating an application it will show as below

Finally, it will generate your Android Application as APK formate File which will be
uploaded at Google Play marketplace.

Google Play Registration

The most important step is to register with Google Play using Google Play
Marketplace. You can use your existing google ID if you have any otherwise you
can create a new Google ID and then register with the marketplace. You will
have following screen to accept terms and condition.

Figure- Google Play Console

You can use Continue to payment button to proceed to make a payment of $25 as a
registration fee and finally to complete your account detail.

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Once you are a registered user at Google Play, you can upload release-ready APK for
your application and finally you will complete application detail using application
detail page as mentioned in step 9 of the above-mentioned checklist.

Important step

Choose build type as „release‟ & select both signature versions V1 & V2. If your app is not
signed with these signatures then while uploading a .apk file, it will give you an error. If
you are unable to select the V1 & V2 checkboxes then you need to update your
Android Studio and build gradle. After this step, it will generate a signed .apk file
which is good to go to Play Store.

Figure- Sign into Google play console using your Google developer account, Select your existing
application

Figure- Click on „Release Management‟ > „App Releases‟

1. Here you can see all of your app releases based on the environment like
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 Production, Beta & Alpha. As per your need, you can go to the
respectiveEnvironment to upload your Android build.

Click on „Manage Production‟.

2. This will display your existing app and its details. Click „Create Release‟

Figure- Click on create Release

3. If you are doing app release for the first time then you need to add the app‟s
description, app icons etc details about your app. You can navigate to „Store
presence‟ from the left side menu and then to Store listing to update your
app information. This looks like below:

Figure- Store listing to update your app information

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 Figure- App information

Figure- App information

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 Figure- Contact Details

4. Now you will need to upload your signed .apk file

Figure- Upload .apk file

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 5. Browse your .apk file, it will get uploaded & it will display below information.

Figure- Information of .apk file

6. This gives you details about your app version code, Google API levels etc
mentioned in [Link] file. This defines support for minimum
Android OS version for your app. The version compatibility depends upon the
Google API version that you are using in your project. For example, if you are
using Google API 18 then that means your app will be available to download
on Android devices which has Android OS version 4.3 & above.

7. Retain your existing builds to have rollback compatibility

Figure- .apk retain

8. Once you upload your latest build, it will display existing APKs to deactivate.
If you want to retain your existing build then you need to choose „RETAIN‟
option. This will give you option to rollback if something goes wrong with your
latest build.

9. Enter Release Name and What‟s new in this release

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 Figure- Release Information

10. Once all details are filled, click „Review‟

11. This will open a screen where it will ask you to check all details (if you
need any edits). If everything is good then click „Review & Rollout‟
12. You can also view the device compatibility of your app and choose different
options

Figure- Device Compatibility

How much time does it take to have your app live on play store?

Generally, it won‟t take much of time while you are giving an update of your existing app.
The Google app review is an automatic process where it runs your app build on
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different OS version with different devices. You will also get an automatic test report
from Google if you are subscribed to email notifications. This review process takes
around 1-hour time. If you are publishing your app for the first time then it takes
around 3-4 hours before users can view your app on play store.

Pre-launch report email for Google

Figure- Pre-launch report email for Google

Notification email when your app is live on Play Store

Figure- Notification email when your app is live on Play Store

This is it! Your Android app will be live on play store. Hope you got some pointers on
the publishing app process.

Published Manually
Signing Your App Manually

You do not need Android Studio to sign your app. You can sign your app from the
command line using standard tools from the Android SDK and the JDK.

To sign an app in release mode from the command line −

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 ● Generate a private key using keytool

$ keytool -genkey -v -keystore [Link]

-alias alias_name -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000

● Compile your app in release mode to obtain an unsigned APK

● Sign your app with your private key using jarsigner

$ jarsigner -verbose -sigalg SHA1withRSA -digestalg SHA1

-keystore [Link] my_application.apk alias_name

● Verify that your APK is signed. For example −

$ jarsigner -verify -verbose -certs my_application.apk

● Align the final APK package using zipalign.

$ zipalign -v 4 your_project_name-[Link] your_project_name.apk

Self-Publishing Your Application

You can distribute Android applications directly from a website, server, or email. The
self-publishing method is most appropriate for vertical market applications, content
companies developing mobile marketplaces, and big-brand websites wanting to drive
users to their branded Android applications. It can also be a good way to get beta
feedback from end users.

Although self-distribution is perhaps the easiest method of application distribution, it

might also be the hardest to market, protect, and make money in. The only
requirement for self-distribution is to have a place to host the application package
file. There are downsides to self-distribution. The Google Play licensing service will
not be available to help you protect your application from piracy. In addition, Google
Play‟s In app Billing service is not available to apps outside Google Play; therefore, you will
have

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 Figure-75 Device’s Settings application

to manage the billing aspects yourself. Furthermore, end users must configure their
devices to allow packages from unknown sources. This setting is found under the
Security section of the device‟s Settings application, as shown in above Figure. This option
is not available on all consumer devices in the market.

After that, the final step the user must take is to enter the URL of the application
package into the Web browser on the handset and download the file (or click a link
to it). When the file is downloaded, the standard Android install process occurs,
asking the user to confirm the permissions and, optionally, confirm an update or
replacement of an existing application if a version is already installed.

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