So I accidentally published on Google Play (Oops, my bad, I thought I was submitting it for some sort of review), and 5 seconds later when I realized what I had done I immediately unpublished. I'm still waiting for the review for the iOS version and want to release both at the same time.
My developer console for the app has changed now, and it treats the app like an app that has been published (I can't replace the APK, can view stats, etc.)
So my question is this: Every day I wait am I losing precious visibility in the "New apps" feature page? Or when I republish in a few days will I appear at the top of the list as if I had just released that day?
I believe re-publishing does not affect the initial publishing date, so yes, you do lose "precious visibility", but just because your app is new, does not automatically mean it will be on top of the New Releases category. There are probably several other factors that are weighed in such as ratings or downloads. Also, publishing your application does put it through review. It's just significantly faster than the Apple app store and assuming it passes the review, it will get published.
Related
Trying to time a release exactly to match iOS store. I have a reviewed and published Closed Test track. A few questions, which I have been unable to find a definitive answer to:
Does promoting to Production go through review again? Lots of conflicting information about this one.
After promoting to Production, irrespective of the above, is the app Published to the store (with or without review), or does it go back into the Managed Publishing flow, and I have to click Publish before it goes to the store?
Basically I want to know if I should promote the release now, in case it does need to be reviewed again, knowing that it WILL NOT be live on the store, I have to click Publish before a Closed Test track published version that has been promoted goes live
In both Cases the app will be reviewed but the only difference is if you want to publish it automatically after reviewing or you need to do it manually so answering to your questions:
1.Does promoting to Production go through review again? Lots of conflicting information about this one.
ANSWER: YES
2.After promoting to Production, irrespective of the above, is the app Published to the store (with or without review), or does it go back into the Managed Publishing flow, and I have to click Publish before it goes to the store?
ANSWER: YES
The app will be reviewed again
If you choose the Managed Publishing so you need to publish it manually
after being reviewed and approved ,
otherwise if you turn it off, the app will be published automatically after
being reviewed and approved
I'm fairly new to app development and I uploaded a couple of instances of an app to closed testing in Google Play Console. The first reviews from Google went quite fast and was approved, but now it is over 4 hours since I uploaded the most recent APK for closed testing and it still says that it is under review. I think I published around 5 APKs today for closed testing. I was just wondering if this is common? How long does it usually take? Does it take longer for them to review if you upload more APKs in a short amount of time? If so, is there a way to avoid this kind of behaviour?
Best regards
The time of review can vary a lot. From an hour to a few days.
If one of your APK is in the queue for review and you upload another APK that overrides the first one (i.e. on the same track), the first APK will no longer be reviewed, only the last one will be reviewed and enters the queue again. So if you upload APKs faster than they can be reviewed, nothing gets published.
I would suggest not to publish so frequently. Use the internal test track rather than a closed track if you want to iterate quickly within the same day. There's no review time for this track so it will be much faster. Use a closed track for the first round of testing within the company, internal QA, etc., by uploading an APK only every few days.
Play Console and fast releases are not compatible things, at the end of 2022 our apps sometimes getting published within 10 minutes, and sometimes it takes more than 10 days to review new update, sometimes some apps age getting rejected with reasons like "You app should not have in app deposits, kinda looks like you are casino app and so on" when in fact we develop crypto wallet, sometime we just republish app and it getting approved. Some updates are still fast but when we add something like referral program it takes weeks.
That is why many apps like Telegram who deliver via Play store ask users to download APK directly from their website (with a message like "If you want to receive updates faster") and then they have auto-update component which re-downloads APK and shows user APK installation system dialog. This works pretty fine, no additional permissions apart of the allowing Android to install pure APK files, which has a "risk" warning.
If I released a closed beta version of my app to production on the play store how long will it take to show on the play store for all my users?
Also, will the app have to be reviewed again since it has already been reviewed when I released it to beta?
Darren,
Take a look here, it gives most of the info you're looking for. The average time is between 5 - 7 days however, due to CV-19 there is "Longer than usual" review times for your app.
Your app will be reviewed when it goes into production. Hope that helps. if it does...click the tick next to this answer.
After discussing with the Play Store support team and with other app developers I received these answers.
The review process is mainly automated and they have reviewers for certain scenarios.
The review process for a beta release and a production release is exactly the same.
If you promote a beta release to become a production release it needs to be reviewed again.
The review process time varies depending on multiple factors. An example of this is another developer's app that was reviewed on average within 4 days and he works for a banking app. Whilst other apps were reviewed (including mine) within 24 hours on average.
There is no defined time for your app deployment; for an update usually you will have to wait for a few hours for the app to be delivered to all Google servers.
For a new app you will have to wait from hours to days.
Google uses an algorithm to analyse your app for violations, but from my experience, if you suffered a previous violation, it was rejected or suspended previously, you app will need more time in order to be released.
Note: For certain developer accounts, we’ll take more time to
thoroughly review your app(s) to help better protect users. This may
result in review times of up to 7 days or longer in exceptional cases.
You’ll receive a notification on your app's Dashboard about how long
this should take.
I have quite a simple question, but I cannot find the answer.
I have made an Android app, and I want to check if Google will accept on the Play Store, but I'm not ready to release it. If google will make issues I want to know now before going further. Is there any way I can send it for approval, and then publish it at a later date?
I know I can do Alpha and Beta testing, but I don't know if that means Google will approve the app for the store.
Thanks!
Edit: The feature seems to have been renamed Managed publishing.
There is a feature called Timed publishing which may be of help.
How does timed publishing work?
When you select timed publishing, your
update needs to be processed before it can go live. Processing takes
up to a few hours.
When your update is processed, you'll see a Go live button. When you
select Go live, you'll make the update available on Google Play within
a few minutes.
As there is no release "sign off" on google play, releasing an app to alpha or beta will trigger the whole process. You will get the malware scan as well as the pre-launch-report to tell you about stuff that didn't work.
There is nothing more that i know of.
You can upload your artifact (APK) in your artifact library, after the upload finishes the Google Play Console will tell you if your APK is valid for rollout. However once an artifact is uploaded it cannot be removed (at least I don't know how). The important thing is to NOT roll out your APK to avoid it to be listed as an app in the Play Store.
PlayStore doesn't have an "approval" phase like Apple's AppStore does, when you first launch your app it takes about six hours to be processed and appear to all PlayStore users.
I just published a new release of an android app on google play yet it seems to take ages for it to appear for the users of the google play store. In the developer console it is immediately updated so I assume all is okay with the apk. Taking ages means for me right now over one hour. Is this normal and if so, is there a way to speed up the process?
Yes, it's normal, and no, you can't speed it up. It's just the time it takes to propagate the new information across all of Google's servers.
This is for updating.
I just released a new APK as the initial Beta release(V1.0) and it took almost 6 days to publish in the Play Store for Open Testing. (01.09.2020 to 06.09.2020).
After that, I released V1.1 and it was published within 28 minutes. (06.09.2020)