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)
Related
After a long time in Beta, my app is now ready for publishing. I published it about an hour ago. It is named Colors, a very short and often used name. So that is also the title in Google Play. But now when I search for Colors my App isn't shown when I search for Colors (not in all findings (about 100)). It is there because when I also search with the developer name it comes up at place 8 or so. What to do now? Change the name or add something in it?
What would you suggest?
Here are the steps to find your app:
Go to the app console at https://play.google.com/apps/publish
Choose your app
Hover the icon with the "I" letter in the circle beside your app name
Click "View in the Play Store"
Note, that your app needs to be published (as on the attached screen).
Moreover, your app may not be published immediately and probably you need to wait about a few hours until your app will be officialy available in Google Play Store.
It may be not so easy to find your app via search if it has popular or common name. I such case, Google algorithms may adjust search results depending on a different criteria. When your app is new, it may not be recognizable in the beginning.
Firstly: If you published your app a short time ago, it is going to rank lower in searches. Give it a while, because the search feature is like google: It shows the most popular links with the same name first. It is the same thing with apps: The most popular with a given name rank first. FOr new apps, even when searching that name, similar names will rank higher because your app is newer.
Writing
pub:[Your Dev Name Here]
(without the brackets)
will show only the apps published by you. No space between : and the first letter in the developer name.
TL:DR;
The more downloads your app gets, the higher it will rank in searches. Changing the app name is not a good idea, as you will then take another long while to rank in the search for the new app name. Maintain the current name, make it good so it drives installs and it will rank higher eventually
NOTE
It takes hour before the app shows in the search results. Meaning as you posted your app one hour ago, it will not rank for another day or so(in my experience). Getting it on top when there are many apps with similar names is even harder. But what you are experiencing is the time between your app being published and it showing in the search results.
No One knows search algorithm parameters except people at Google.
But there are a lot of articles with suggestions, and what parameters influence to the position in Google Play. First of all this is popularity of your app, its score, etc. So changing app name won't affect, while you have few downloads.
For instance, I uploaded an app, named TurtleInfo. I haven't seen apps with the same name, but as soon as my app is too specific and has less than 50 downloads, Google Play search displays my app on position about 20. The apps, that goes before, just different games about Turtles, that has much more downloads than mine.
So if you wanna see your app first in search result on Google Play, you have to make it high-quality and really popular!
Link : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=your_package_name&hl=en
write your package name in front of id. and you'll get your app
A quiet basic question: I'm developing an app which should also run on the Fire TV. Is there anyway to add a icon to that launcher?
I know I can go the long way over the settings to start my app, but that is not very handy.
I'm also confused how I need to create my icon for that launcher a standard launcher icon is wrong, because Amazon uses differnt icon sizes. I found some confusing informations that the launcher icons come from the amazon store only. Is that true?
if you are sideloading your apk (adb install or pushing from your development environment) then on FireTV you won't see an icon in the launcher for your app, as you rightly point out you will only see it from the Settings | Applications | Manage All Applications menu.
The only way to have an icon appear there is to either submit and publish it, or use Live App Testing if you're not ready to submit and publish publicly but want to invite some beta testers (you can do multiple submissions through Live App Testing before going live)
When you submit your app (either for Live App Testing, or a full submission) there is an option in the developer portal to upload the various assets - icons, screenshots, descriptions, pricing etc
The default icon for any android app is ic_launcher.png. It's usually located in all the different drawable folder buckets (drawable-mdpi, hdpi, xhdpi). You can change the icon, if you are interested, by placing a new icon in one of the buckets and then modifying the android:icon attribute under the application tag in the AndroidManifest.xml file.
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.
I know it is technically possible to put the same application into the app store with 2 almost identical APKs (different package names and titles), although probably a bit dodgy - I imagine this would not be allowed by Google, but I don't see anything in their Ts & Cs that prohibit this
https://play.google.com/about/developer-distribution-agreement.html
E.g. "My cool app free" And "The awesomest app trial"
Question: Is this allowed?
Reason: A colleague and I were debating the effect of titles and descriptions of downloads (based on different indexes/user searches) and wondering if people ever post a game/app with 2 different ones to see which is more successful
You can if the package name of the app is different, as you said. This is done quite often for apps with trial and paid version. Regarding your question, we have right now around 6 apps in Google Play which are different branded versions of the same app. This means, they have their own package name, splash screen, and some database data, but the app is really the same. So far we didn't get any trouble with Google, so I would say it's possible.
Just for reference, in case you are interested in doing something similar, the best option in terms of maintainability of your app, consists in using an Android library project.
Basically you have one main big project with the "Android Library" option checked in Eclipse. You have all the main code there.
On the other hand, you create two additional projects linked to your library. They will just need their manifest.xml and some activity to call the main activity of the library. Their package names must be different if you want to publish both apps in Google Play.
Additionally, you can override some resources for every project. For instance, you could have a boolean in /res/values indicating whether the project is a trial or paid version, with different values for them. Then, in the library you could check this boolean to show advertisements if it's a trial version.
Another useful thing you can do is using a custom splash screen for every app, by having different image resources in every project with the same name.
As far as I know, it is allowed and certainly has been done in the past (malware masquerading as popular games). Provided the app you're publishing is your own work (and really only the name is different), then I can't see anyone reporting it either.
It is prohibited according to Play Console Developer Program Policy (effective October 21, 2020).
We don't allow apps that merely provide the same experience as other apps already on Google Play. Apps should provide value to users through the creation of unique content or services.
Here are some examples of common violations:
Copying content from other apps without adding any original content or value.
Creating multiple apps with highly similar functionality, content, and user experience. If these apps are each small in content volume, developers should consider creating a single app that aggregates all the content.
I have a cool name for my app that shows up when installed on a phone but I would like to have a different name for it on the Android market.
My app uses Facebook's graph API so I want to have something like "AppName for Facebook" so that it can get more Facebook keyword hits on the market but I don't actually want the full name to show up on the phone's home screen (I just want it to show as "AppName"). Is it possible to accomplish this?
The title in the Market is not the same title as on the phone. You can set the title in the Market as you wish.
Go to the developers console, click on your app, then in the details area you can set your title.
The title on the phone is of course set in the AndroidManifest.xml in the application tag
Short answer is yes.
When you upload your application, you get to fill in a 'title'-field on your market site.
The name displayed on the phones is the one you specify in the manifest file.
Yes, like all the others stated, it is possible, as you can enter a custom name when publishing the app (some apps even have stuff like "Sale" in their title).
However, I would not recommend using the word Facebook in your title
It won't impact your rank very much, as your app has only a few downloads
Your app will be removed because Facebook doesn't like apps that have their name in their title and does everything to remove these apps.