An all new tutorial on this subject is bachelor here as of May 2016! There is still some great data below – read both!

Apps you create in App Inventor may be added to the Google Play Store.

The procedure is not hard but there are many steps to the process and you volition demand to create some graphic images to illustrate and promote your app in the store.

Summary of the Steps

  • Fix your app's VersionCode and VersionName.
  • Use for a Google Developer account (one time fee of US $25 after which you tin upload an unlimited number of apps, forever).
  • Create at least 2 and up to eight screenshots of your app for display in the shop's app listing.
  • Create a "characteristic graphic" and a high resolution icon for use in the store listing.
  • Utilize the App Inventor provided keystore file, or use a keystore file y'all have created elsewhere or previously.
  • Build and consign your app as a .apk file to your computer.
  • Create a title for your app in the store
  • Write a description for your app to appear in the shop
  • Determine on free versus paid (paid requires a "merchant business relationship" to be set up up).
  • Upload your apk file, keystore file, paradigm files and title and description, and provide some additional data (such equally product category, pricing, and target audience).

Detailed Steps

  • Set your app's VersionCode and VersionName. Open your app in App Inventor. Select the Screen1 component in the Designer and then refer to the Properties of Screen1, at the right side of the screen. At the bottom of the backdrop list, yous should see a VersionCode and VersionName items. The VersionCode is a decimal number indicating the version of your app. Information technology starts at 1, and every fourth dimension y'all revise the app for submission to the Google Play shop, information technology must be incremented past one such that the next upload is "ii", then "3" and so on. Separately, you can enter a text version name – this may comprise annihilation you want it to contain. Most developers will use 1.0, 1.one, 1.ii, 1.3, etc, to bespeak pocket-size updates, and and so change that 2.0 for the next major update.
  • Sign up for a Google developer account – https://play.google.com/apps/publish/signup/ – or login into your existing developer account.
  • Create a set of screen snapshots after installing and running the app on your phone.  On my phone, I simultaneously press the Power push button and the Volume Down push button and Android creates a screen snapshot image or photo of my screen. I use that to create screen snapshots of various screens in my app. And so I either email the photo files to myself and download on my computer, or connect up my phone over USB and copy files. If your app may besides run on a tablet, you will need to create screen snapshots on a tablet device. Specifics on screen snapshots every bit quoted from Google:
    • "JPEG or 24-flake PNG (no alpha)
    • Minimum dimension: 320px
    • Maximum dimension: 3840px
    • The maximum dimension of your screenshot tin't be more than twice as long as the minimum dimension."
  • Design your characteristic graphic and high resolution icon. For this y'all will demand some graphic software. You tin create images using painting programs, or GIMP (free), merely there are besides commercial cartoon and illustration programs that may do a improve job (just cost coin). If you exercise non know how to use these painting or drawing programs, you will need to learn how to use them – or if you lot are lucky, may be you take a friend that does graphic design!
    For your feature graphic:
    • JPEG or 24-bit PNG (no alpha)
    • Dimensions: 1024px by 500px

    For your icon graphic:

    • 32-bit PNG (with blastoff)
    • Dimensions: 512px by 512px
    • Maximum file size: 1024KB"
  • Create your app's Title (upwardly to xxx characters)
  • Create your app'south product clarification (up to 4000 characters)
  • Decide your app'south cost. App's that get-go out as gratuitous will always remain free (can not change to a paid app later). All the same, to have a paid app you must gear up a "merchant account" with Google (not described in this tutorial – you lot volition encounter information on setting up a "merchant account" in the Pricing & Distribution section of the Google Play listing management – meet illustration below).
  • Download the .apk file to your reckoner. In App Inventor, open your project and so select Build | App (relieve .apk file to my computer).
  • About keystore files.In App Inventor, the Projects menu has options to import and consign keystore files. A keystore file is a digital signature that uniquely identifies the app. If you lot take a keystore file you from elsewhere (such as creating Coffee apps in Android Studio or Eclipse), you and import that file here. If you practise not accept a keystore file, App Inventor will create one for you and associate information technology with your account. When you Build apps in App Inventor, your .apk files will be "signed" with this keystore file.A keystore file is a unique digital signature. If you later on wish to update your app, you must provide the original keystore file. If you lose the keystore file, then you volition not exist able to update the existing app in the shop (although y'all could all the same delete it or remove information technology from the store).  This too means that y'all would lose any user reviews or comments about your app. Therefore, store and backup your keystore file to a safe place. I shop mine on ii computers plus have a copy located in a cloud storage organization. A LOST KEYSTORE FILE Tin can NEVER BE RECOVERED; ONCE LOST, It IS LOST FOREVER.You can apply Projects | Export keystore to salve a copy on your figurer; utilize Import keystore to load an existing keystore file into App Inventor and so Build your .apk file.
  • Upload your .apk file and other "avails" to the Google Play shop. After your file is uploaded (optionally you may skip the .apk upload and move to the product clarification, if you wish, and then upload the .apk later). As you tin can see, you tin can proceed down a fix of options at left to incrementally add each of the required files and data to the store list.
    Capture
  • Other issues – if your app targets Android devices running Android Os before four.0, then yous also need to create a 180×120 pixel "promo graphic". See the screen shots and icon reference, below.

Every bit you can encounter, none of these steps are super hard just they may be time consuming! The hardest parts are likely to be doing the graphic pattern for your feature graphic and loftier res icon files, and setting upwards a merchant account if y'all intend to charge a price for your app.

Additional References

  • Sign upwardly for a developer account – https://play.google.com/apps/publish/signup/
  • How to register for a developer account – https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/reply/6112435?hl=en
  • Getting Started with Publishing – http://developer.android.com/distribute/googleplay/kickoff.html
  • App Inventor specific:  http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ai2/google-play.html
  • Google's bank check list to preparing a store listing: http://developer.android.com/distribute/tools/launch-checklist.html
  • Google'south specifications for screen shots and icon images: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/1078870
  • Google's information on designing promotional graphics for use every bit the "featured graphic" and the high resolution icon:  http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/x/android-market-featured-image.html

Due east-Books and Printed Books

If yous find these tutorials helpful (I promise you do!) delight take a look at my books on App Inventor. To learn more about the books and where to become them (they are inexpensive) delight see my App Inventor Books page.

  • App Inventor 2 Introduction (Book 1 e-volume)
    Footstep-by-footstep guide to piece of cake Android programming
  • App Inventor 2 Avant-garde Concepts (Volume 2 e-book)
    Step-by-stride guide to Advanced features including TinyDB
  • App Inventor 2 Databases and Files(Volume three e-book)
    Step-by-step TinyDB, TinyWebDB, Fusion Tables and Files
  • App Inventor 2 Graphics, Blitheness and Charts (Volume 4 e-book and printed book)
    Step-by-stride guide to graphics, animation and charts

Thank yous for visiting! — Ed