This is going to sound stupid in a way, but I want to know if it is possible to change the application logo (icon) and Android name in my subsequent releases?
Say, today I push my app in the Android market, and tomorrow I want to change the logo/icon (I know I "should" not do this), but is it possible to do so? Also, what about the application name?
Thanks
I got the same question and I asked this to android developer support, got their reply as below
You may update your icon displayed in Google Play by uploading the updated icon to the Store Listing tab of the Play Console.
However, once the app has been installed on a device, the icon will be displayed from the graphic assets of the APK as defined in the “android:icon=” manifest property. The icon that is displayed in the apps list in the Play Console is also taken from the APK.
To display a different icon, please update the icon image file in your APK. To find the location of the existing icon, you can use the manifest property or check your APK’s “res” folder.
So I got the icon updated at app store without submitting the app again (Note: I have already submitted with the icon change, so what I was looking to is how this can be reflected to App store icon). Please see screenshots attached for getting someone who is needy.
Yes, you can change the name and logo whenever you want by changing android:label and android:logo attribute of your application tag in AndroidManifest.xml file.
But, you can't change Package name once you uploaded app on play store.
You can Upload custom brand assets, screenshots, and videos to highlight what's great about your app. Provide a localized description, add notes about the latest version, and more. You can update your store listing at any time.
Upload instantly publish
From the Developer Console you can quickly upload and publish a release-ready Android application package file. The app is a draft until you publish it, at which time Google Play makes your store listing page and app available to users—your app appears in the store listings within hours, not weeks.
Once your app is published, you can update it as often as you want: Change prices, configuration, and distribution options at any time, without needing to update your app binary.
As you add features or address code issues, you can publish an updated binary at any time. The new version is available almost immediately and existing customers are notified that an update is ready for download. Users can also accept automatic updates to your app, so that your updates are delivered and installed as soon as you publish them. You can unpublish your apps app at any time.
update
put your image in drawable folder and set in manifest file...
like as
<application android:icon="#drawable/icon" android:label="#string/app_name" >
....
</application>
Note:
The 512x512 icon you upload to the developer console (when you publish the app) is the one that will be seen in Google Play. The 36x36, 48x48, 72x72, and 96x96 icons you put in your drawable resource folders are what will show up on the device homescreen/app drawer.
Yes, you can change the name by changing android:label attribute of your application tag in AndroidManifest.xml. and also you can change the application icon, but i would recommend you to add the comment in "Whats New" regarding the new Application Icon when you upload the application.But, you can NOT change Package name once you uploaded app on play store.
Also take a look at this SO Post
Yes, you can change Store listing on play store whenever you want and there is no limit for this. you can change and improve your listing in terms of Graphics and SEO improvements.
According to Google Developer Distribution Agreement you can change and Modify:
Application Name
Icon/ Screenshots
Graphics/ feature Graphic
Application Policy and agreements
Featured Video
ASO/ Keywords and description
There is no harm implementing these changes but this could take a while to implement changes depending on account health and your geographical location...
This is my application (Play Store Link...). I have released multiple versions and implemented major changes in each version.
I changed icon and graphics more than 5 times and improved ASO couple of times.
This not just improved my user experience but also increased daily installs.
Based on my experience I will recommend continuous changes for best application optimization. and I want to recommend targeting events like:
Christmas and New year, Independence Day, Halloween update, etc...
These types of updates entertain users and increase engagements and also helpful to build trust with your users.
Related
I recently uploaded an app to play store, but the app got rejected on copyright issues.
I used the word "tiktok" in the title of the app, since my app is a country specific version of the same concept.
I have changed this now, but I cannot seem to find a way to "resubmit" the app for review in the new play store interface.
I have also changed app icon, and featured graphic.
However, I cannot seem to find a way to delete previous screenshots I uploaded, for phone and for tablets etc.
My first question is, how can I delete previous screenshots?
My second question is, how do I resubmit this app for review?
The dashboard where "All apps" are listed, its not showing the "resubmit for review" button there.
The production release section is also not showing the resubmit button.
How do I resubmit this app for review?
Thanks
Screenshots: In the "Main store listing" move your mouse over the screenshot. In the top right corner you will see a trash bin icon. Simply click it to delete the screenshot.
Then upload your new ones. Then click save. It will automatically be put up to review.
Google is very sensitive about using trademarks in the apps promotional content.
No other App names in the Title, Short Description and Long Description.
No other Apps Icons or graphics in your own graphics.
For a new apk. Simply increment the version number by one and upload it into production.
I'm having trouble searching for my app on the Google play store app from my phone. My app, which can be found on this link is totally hidden from search results.
I uploaded my app to Google play store on October 29, with the title: Widget Launcher. Until October 30, I was not able to see it in the search results, of the play store app, when I search for it by app title. But I was able to see it in search results when I search it by putting the title inside quotes.
On October 30, I changed its title to: Smart Widget Launcher. After that I couldn't see it in search results even by putting the updated title inside quotes. But I could still see it after searching with "Widget Launcher" (old app title inside quotes). I have made sure that the updated app name is stated multiple times inside the app description, and the Google play console stated that the update is live.
The weird thing is, as can be seen on the attached image, I could find it by searching with the updated title (Smart Widget Launcher) on the store, from inside the Firefox app. What am I missing?
After publish, there is time for dispatch. And after any update there is time for your changes to be effective. And visible on Google Play. The only thing you may have missed is patience. And that's what I may recommend you.
For others facing similar issue, as this guide explains, one of the reasons this may happen is setting a feature or permission asked as android:required="true" by default.
To determine an application's feature compatibility with a given user's device, Google Play compares: features required by the application — an application declares features in <uses-feature> elements in its manifest, with features available on the device, in hardware or software — a device reports the features it supports as read-only system properties.
By specifying the features that your application requires, you enable Google Play to present your application only to users whose devices meet the application's feature requirements, rather than presenting it to all users.
As is explained here, The required attribute of the <uses-feature> needs to be set to false, if a specific feature is not required for your app to run. And Google Store will show your app to a device that doesn't support that feature.
Didn't find an answer from Android Dev Center so I had to stop by in Stackoverflow to find few answers...
a) Will my app get rejected if I have different icon for launcher image and Google Play store, ie. Google Play store icon will have text on it, whereas launcher image will not? Small modification will also be present.
b) Can I somehow have different app icon and app name (the one that shows in Google Play and under the launcher icon) depending on language, ie. for English and Finnish?
a) No. There are many kind of apps that doesn't show an icon in launcher, for instance, App Widgets or Live Wallpapers so I guess there are no strict rules about it. However, if the icon on the Play Store identical to the launcher icon, users can easily find your app on the Play Store so those should be same to increase a findability.
b) Yes and No. You can have different app name for each language, in app resources and Play Store listing details. You can also change the launcher icon by putting it into res directory with a locale qualifier, such as drawable-en-xhdpi. However, Play Store doesn't support changing the icon depending on language.
Edited: Now Google Play Store supports using different assets for each locale, so you may specify localized icon individually.
The exact answers of your question can be provided by the google authority. But let me try to share my findings regarding your questions.
a) I haven't found any info like this in the googleplay policies here and here. But In this link in one place it is written that
The assets should reference the same logo and icon as users will
actually find in the All Apps launcher once they have downloaded the
app
So we can conclude that it is must to use the same icon. Although I don't know how they check it.
b) So far there is now way to do that. No info like title, description, images can be set differently for different language ( someone corrects me if I am wrong ). You can do one thing. For different language you can publish different apks with different package name. By searching you can find similar problems. this so question is one of them.
You can Also check Multiple APK support in google play. Although it is targeted for different devices you can check whether the same things can be done for the different languages. (I am not sure about this :S)
What are the things to do for posting an app to the Android market when posting their first app to the market?
Most of it is explained in official docs, I'll add some points from experience:
Create your key store for App signing. Make sure you put some relevant info in your certificate if your App has copyright. keep a backup and guard it in every possible way, play store only accepts apk updates signed with same key as the original one, so does the device when installing an update.
Finalize your package name, make it unique , in future if you lose the signing key, you will have to re-upload app under a different package name.
Make a thorough review of code, watch out for test code, notes, useless comments and unwanted logging traces you might have placed there. Check your TODO items, run a code inspection from your IDE, remove any critical issues if found. Clear useless jar files, and resources. Also consider externalizing hard-coded strings to xml, so that you can add translations later on.
Check and validate manifest file, update version name and version code. Version name is shown when your app is listed in play store. Version code is incremented whenever you upload updated apk to play store. If its a major release you can bump up version name too.
Finally, build your apk in release mode, and optionally run pro-guard. If your app uses plain vanilla android API and no fancy external libraries such as RoboGuice etc, proguard will run fine. Other wise you will have to tell proguard to ignore classes under those packages. Proguard is optional, you can upload app without using it. Some IDE's have a nice GUI to do this.
Sign your apk with the key you created. Install it on test device, do a test run. Additionally, use emulator to test it across android versions. Take some screen shots, maybe a video too.
Prepare publishing material, write down few lines about your app, a list of features and any additional notes. Also, create a 512x512 icon image for your app.
If you have a website about your App, great, else make ready a valid mail id as a developer contact point.
Log in to developer console, upload apk file, fill in relevant screen shots, description, contact details etc etc. Save and publish. It can take anywhere between 2 to even 9-10 hours for your app to be visible in play store listings.
Your app url will be like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.example.myapp. Keep an eye on statistics, put keywords along with app name like "muzo - music player" , most people don't know "muzo" they usually search for "music player". Have your app reviewed, links pointing to your app improve its search ranking.
There is an excelent topic in the android documentation talking about how to prepare your app for release. The procedure is the same for your 1st or you 1000st published app.
Please see here: http://developer.android.com/tools/publishing/preparing.html
PS: And a +1 for you, interesting question.
I have an android application in Market Place. And, when I download it say it will be displayed with Name "XYZ" and with Image1 as an Icon.
Now when I update the app and in the code if I set the New Name and New image as an Icon:
Now I download the app from Market place and install in the same device where my old app is there.
So will it update the Name and Icon of the existing app automatically? If not what measures we need to take so that Name and Image of already exisitng app are updated and the total app is not re-installed.
as far as I know, until now all updates are going to "re-install" the app somehow. so you upload your new apk to the developer console (with increades version number) and the market will provide the "update" to all users.
now, the update is simply to re-install your app as it is not possible for Google to tell, what part of your codes has changed...
so, the name of the app and the icon will change, but your app is also going to be re-installed (please correct me, if I'm wrong...)
When you update information like name and app icon, it could take a day before you can see any update on the Play Store. But on your device, if you have your app icon on your home screen, just remove it and replace it by the one in the apps list