So, I tried to build an Android app...

For a recent project, I wanted to also offer an Android app. I’ve never built anything for Android and have exclusively developed within the Apple ecosystem (you can find some of my recent projects here), but figured it can’t be that different, right?

Oh boy. The experience scarred me enough to write a blog post, that tells you the journey has been… something. This is my overview of the complete mess that is building for the Play Store, and why I likely won’t build another Android app in the future. 😅

First steps: Setting up my account

To have clean separation between personal and professional stuff, I always create a new account. I do this for Apple, for YouTube, for emails - for anything really where I don’t want one thing to affect the other. Also having heard enough horror stories of Google accounts getting suspended, I didn’t want to risk that either a personal or professional account suspension takes down everything with it.

I finished the first MVP version of my app and now it was time to get it to friends.

So I created a new account. Google has a few steps you have to go through to become a Play Store developer:

1. Submit a government ID: Passport, drivers license, etc
2. Submit a utility bill as proof of address - ok this is unconventional for a developer account but fine. I submitted a water bill
3. Pay the $25 developer fee - this is a one-time fee everyone has to pay to become a Play Store developer

After submitting and paying everything, we have to wait for Google to review it and approve the account. This can take anywhere between a few hours to a few days.

A couple hours later, an email from Google arrives: My new account, the account that just submitted a government ID, utility bill and paid $25 USD, has been suspended:

Funny that this happens after I paid the $25, and not before. So we’re not off to a good start.

Working in IT, I understand that likely an automated system has made this decision, and I also understand that my appeal will probably also get judged by another automated system. So I decided to write this account off and did what I didn’t want to do: Using my main Google account. This account at least has a track record of all kinds of stuff, so an automated system is less likely to insta-nuke it.

Again: Submit my government ID, submit a water bill, pay another $25 USD and pray to the Google gods that this will not nuke my entire personal Google account with Google Drive and everything.

Setting up a closed beta testing

The account survived and I got approved. I am now a Play Store developer!

In Apple land, to have a semi-open test that people can sign up for, we have TestFlight: We can submit a private build for a small review to Apple and once approved, the app becomes available for a closed TestFlight test. How this works is:

1. You share the TestFlight link to friends
2. Friends open it and download TestFlight, then accept the invite
3. The app installs on the phone and receives auto updates as new builds get reviewed by Apple

Now Google: There is no such TestFlight system. There is:

• Internal testing: just for you and some manual Google accounts you add, Apple equivalent is, well, also “internal testing”
• Closed testing: This needs Google to review your app first. Also for you and some google accounts you add manually, but you can also link a Google Group and use that as the list of testers
• Public testing: Something akin to TestFlight: People can opt-in to receive test builds of your app, but this is only available to apps already on the Play Store, so I can’t use it

Closed testing is what I want, so I tried setting it up: I created a new Google Group, linked it to the release and submitted it to Google. Reviewing can take 1-7 days, but in my case it was quite fast and after a day, the build was approved.

But just joining a Google Group does not automatically give you access to the app on the Play Store, no. That would be too easy. To actually download a test version you have to:

1. Join the Google Group
2. Click a separate link that asks you to become a tester, which only works if you’re already in the Google Group
3. Wait anywhere between 1-48 hours before the app appears on the Play Store
4. Download the app by clicking on a direct Play Store link (searching in the Play Store won’t surface it)

So to reiterate, I have to tell my users to:

• Join a Google Group which most have likely never done
• Then after joining the Google Group, click a separate link that enables them to become a tester
• Then tell them that even though they are now testers, they still can’t download the app (even through the links that are in the description of the testers page) because they first have to wait 1-24 hours and just “come back later”

And this is what one tester saw after following every step:

Fine. At least I have it semi-automated with my Google Group and this beauty of an install instruction popup that people have to read to install the app:

I share the instructions, and a day later, some friends tell me they can’t join the Google Group. Uh what?

I check and today’s surprise: my Google Group that has 7 members, without any posts or content (that’s disabled, no one can post anything) got suspended for “containing spam, malware, or other malicious content”. This is a Google Group without any content that doesn’t even allow you to post anything, and it got suspended for “containing spam or malware”, what?

So after all the effort of convincing a few people to actually go through the mess and join, the group is now gone.

I understand an automated system likely made this decision. I submit an appeal to Google (you can’t write anything into the appeal, it’s literally just a “send appeal” button), then create a new Google Group, fully expecting it would also get suspended. At this point, what choice do I really have?

I update the install instructions and send the new Google Group to my friends. Some join again, most don’t. Hopefully we’re public soon and none of this is necessary anymore.

Here’s the full loop in one real conversation: “App not available,” join the Google Group, then “Item not found.”

The mess that is getting an app publicly available

Ok let’s say after all of these steps we finally managed to get a few actual users to try the app: They joined the Google Group, they clicked the separate link and clicked “Become a tester”, they waited 1-24 hours and frequently re-checked if the app finally showed up on the Play Store. They use the app, they give you some feedback. The app is finally production ready so let’s get it public!

After all that (government ID, utility bill, $25 developer fee, closed beta live, a few friends actually using the app), you might think you’re cleared to ship onto the mighty Play Store. You’re not.

Since November 2023, Google added further restrictions and you’re greeted by this glorious section:

To be even allowed to publish to the Play Store, you have to:

• Publish a closed beta test release

• Convince 12 poor souls to go through the convoluted process of becoming a tester

• And after you hit the 12 tester mark, wait another 14 days

• Then, answer a quiz that explains how you found the testers, how they used the app and what they said about the app

If your tester count falls below 12 during this 2 weeks period, the timeframe resets back to 0 and you have to start from scratch.

But it gets better: this requirement is only for new accounts. If you have a Play Store developer account created prior to November 2023, you’re grandfathered in. No 12 testers, no 2 weeks waiting. You can just publish. Grandfathering old accounts makes the quality argument hard to take seriously.

But let’s take a step back and try to understand the reasoning of why Google is doing this:

• They want higher quality apps and not spam and scam
• There’s a huge influx of trash app and they want to filter those out before they hit the Play Store
• They want developers to actually test their apps to not have a broken mess public

But this implementation is just not it. If I were shipping trash apps, none of this would stop me. Buy an old Google account without the requirements, or run a bot farm until you hit 12 testers, and you’re through.

The policy taxes indies with real friends and barely slows anyone running fake testers. If anything, it incentivizes buying 12 testers.

It’s just not fun

I love building apps, and I love when people use my apps and give me feedback. It’s both my hobby and my profession, but shipping for Android is just not fun.

Finding users is hard. Convincing someone to try a new app is already an uphill battle, and every additional installation step makes it more likely that they disappear. Users try once, maybe twice max. Tell them to “come back later” and most simply won’t.

That’s exactly what happened here. Even people who wanted to install my app gave up after clicking “Become a tester” because the app still didn’t appear in the Play Store. I timed it: for some people it took 10 minutes, for others it took two hours. It took so long that I opened a Play Store support ticket because I thought my account was broken.

Normal people don’t understand things like “your Play Store response is cached, so you have to wait for the cache to clear.” Nor should they have to. They clicked the link, the app wasn’t there, and they moved on. The funnel was already steep. Google turned it into a cliff.

I created this meme to summarize my sentiment:

My app has been on the App Store for 2-3 weeks, despite multiple “changes requested” rounds from Apple. It still isn’t public on the Play Store.

Unless Google reforms closed testing and the new-account gate, I’m likely not going to build an app for Android again.