1page.title=Distribution Control 2page.metaDescription=Reach the users you want, whenever you want. 3 4@jd:body 5 6<p>Deliver your apps to the users you want, on the devices you want, on <em>your</em> schedule. </p> 7 8<h2 id="instant">Instant publishing, instant updates</h2> 9 10<p>On Google Play, you can publish your products to customers instantly. Just 11upload and configure your product in the <span style="font-weight:500;">Google Play Developer Console</span> 12and press the Publish button—your app appears in the store listings within 13hours, not weeks.</p> 14 15<p>Once your app is published, you can update it as often as you want. You can 16change prices, configuration, and distribution options at any time through the 17Google Play Developer Console, without needing to update your app 18binary.</p> 19 20<p>Later, as you add features or address code issues, you can publish an updated 21binary at any time. Google Play makes the new version available almost immediately and 22notifies existing customers that an update is ready for download. To streamline 23the rollout across your customer base, Google Play also lets users accept 24automatic updates of your app, so that your updates are delivered and installed 25as soon as you publish them.</p> 26 27 28<h2 id="targeting">Reaching the customers you want</h2> 29 30<div class="figure-right" style="width:400px;"> 31<img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-dc-countries.png" class="frame"> 32</div> 33 34<p>Google Play does more than connect your app with users—it helps you 35reach the broadest possible distribution across the Android ecosystem, while 36making sure that your app is only available to the audience that you want to 37reach.</p> 38 39<h3 id="geotargeting">Geographic targeting</h3> 40 41<p>You can use controls in the Google Play Developer Console to easily 42manage the geographic distribution of your apps, without any changes in your 43application binary. You can specify which countries and territories you want to 44distribute to, and even which carriers (for some countries). </p> 45 46<p>When users visit the store, Google Play makes sure that they are in one of 47your targeted countries before downloading your app. You can change your country 48and carrier targeting at any time just by saving changes in the Google Play 49Developer Console.</p> 50 51<div class="figure-right" style="width:400px;"> 52<img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-supported-dev-requirements.png" class="frame"> 53</div> 54 55<p>To help you market to users around the world, you 56can <a href="{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/publish/preparing.html#localize">localize 57your store listing</a>, including app details and description, 58promotional graphics, screenshots, and more.</p> 59 60<h3 id="captargeting">Capabilities targeting</h3> 61 62<p>Google Play also lets you control distribution according to device features 63or capabilities that your app depends on. There are several types of 64dependencies that the app can define in its manifest, such as hardware features, 65OpenGL texture compression formats, libraries, Android platform versions, and 66others.</p> 67 68<p>When you upload your app, Google Play reads the dependencies and sets up any 69necessary distribution rules. For technical information about declaring 70dependencies, read <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/filters.html">Filters on 71Google Play</a>. </p> 72 73<p>For pinpoint control over distribution, Google Play lets you see all of the 74devices your app is available to based on its dependencies (if any). From the 75Google Play Developer Console, you can list the supported devices and 76even exclude specific devices if needed.</p> 77 78<h2 id="stats">Statistics for analyzing installs and ratings</h2> 79 80<p>Once you’ve published your app, Google Play makes it easy to see how it’s 81doing. The Google Play Developer Console gives you access to a variety 82of anonymized statistics and custom charts that show you the app's installation 83performance and ratings.</p> 84 85<p>You can view data and charts for active, daily, and total installs 86per unique devices or users, as well as upgrades and uninstalls. 87You can also view the app's daily average user rating and its cumulative 88user rating. To help you analyze the data, you can view install 89and ratings statistics across a variety of different dimensions such as Android 90version, device, country, app version, and carrier.</p> 91 92<div class="figure-left"> 93 <img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-dc-stats-mini.png" class="frame"> 94</div> 95<p>You can see your app statistics on timeline charts, for 96all metrics and dimensions. At a glance, the charts highlight your app’s 97installation and ratings peaks and longer-term trends, which you can correlate 98to promotions, app improvements, or other factors. You can even focus in on 99data inside a dimension by highlighting specific data points (such as 100individual platform versions or languages) on the timeline.</p> 101 102<p>So that you can “take your data with you”, you can download all of your 103installation data as a CSV file for viewing in the business program of your 104choice.</p> 105 106 107<h2 id="advanced">Advanced delivery options</h2> 108 109<p>Google Play offers convenient options for managing how your apps are 110delivered to users.</p> 111 112<h3 id="abc">Alpha and beta testing, staged rollouts</h3> 113 114<p>It's always valuable to get real-world feedback from users, especially before 115launch. Google Play makes it easy to distribute pre-release versions of your app 116to alpha and beta test groups anywhere in the world. You can start with a small 117group of alpha testers, then move to a larger group of beta testers. Once users 118are added, they access your app's store listing and install the app. User 119feedback from alpha and beta testers goes directly to you and is not posted as 120public reviews. </p> 121 122<p>To help you ensure quality and protect your app ratings, you can choose a 123staged rollout when launching an app or an update. With staged rollout, you 124distribute the production version of your app to a percentage of users. You can 125adjust the percentage as you go, starting small and increasing until your app is 126available to all users.</p> 127 128<h3 id="multiple-apk">Multiple APK support</h3> 129 130<p>In most cases, it’s easy to create an app that supports all of your targeted 131screen sizes and platform versions from a single APK. Distributing a single APK 132to all of your users is a highly recommended approach, because it’s the easiest 133way to manage and maintain the app. If you need to deliver a different APK to 134devices, Google Play provides a way to do that. </p> 135 136<p>An option called Multiple APK support lets you create multiple APK packages 137that use the same package name but differ in their OpenGL texture compression 138formats, screen-size support, or Android platform versions supported. You can 139upload all of the APKs to Google Play under a single product listing and Google 140Play selects the best APK to deliver to users, based on the characteristics of 141their devices. </p> 142 143<p>The APK Expansion Files option lets you upload up to two secondary downloads 144for each published APK, including multiple APKs. Each of the two expansion files 145can be up to 2GB each and can contain any type of code or assets. When you 146upload the expansion files, Google Play hosts them for free and handles the 147download of the files as part of the normal APK installation.</p> 148 149<h2 id="licensing">Protecting your app</h2> 150 151<p>Google Play provides two key features to help you protect your application 152against piracy — Google Play Licensing and app encryption.</p> 153 154<p> Google Play Licensing is a network-based service that you implement in your 155app. The service lets your app query a trusted licensing server at runtime, to 156determine whether the app is licensed to the current device user. You can use 157the licensing service to protect any app, even apps that you distribute for 158free. For an overview of the service, see <a 159href="{@docRoot}google/play/licensing/index.html">Application 160Licensing</a>.</p> 161 162<p>Additionally, Google Play offers app encryption to help protect your priced 163apps. When delivering your priced apps to devices running Android 4.1 or higher, 164Google encrypts the app binary so that it can be run only by the user who 165downloaded it, on the device to which it was originally downloaded. Your priced 166apps benefit from app encryption automatically — there's no extra 167development work or configuration needed.</p> 168
