1page.title=Open Distribution 2@jd:body 3 4<p>As an open platform, Android offers choice. You 5distribute your Android apps to users in any way you want, using any 6distribution approach or combination of approaches that meets your needs. 7From publishing in an app marketplace to serving your apps from a web site or 8emailing them directly users, you are never locked into any 9particular distribution platform.</p> 10 11<p>The process for building and packaging your app for distribution is the same, 12regardless of how you will distribute your app. This saves you time and lets you 13automate parts of the process as needed. You can read <a 14href="{@docRoot}tools/publishing/preparing.html">Preparing 15for Release</a> for more information.</p> 16 17<p>The sections below highlight some of the alternatives for distributing 18your apps to users.</p> 19 20<h2 id="publishing-marketplace">Distributing through an App Marketplace</h2> 21 22<p>Usually, to reach the broadest possible audience, you would distribute your 23apps through a marketplace, such as Google Play.</p> 24 25<p>Google Play is the premier marketplace for Android apps and is particularly 26useful if you want to distribute your applications to a large global audience. 27However, you can distribute your apps through any app marketplace you want or 28you can use multiple marketplaces.</p> 29 30<h2 id="publishing-email">Distributing your application through email</h2> 31 32<div class="figure" style="width:246px"> 33 <img src="{@docRoot}images/publishing/publishing_via_email.png" 34 alt="Screenshot showing the graphical user interface users see when you send them an app" 35 style="width:240px;" /> 36 <p class="img-caption"> 37 <strong>Figure 1.</strong> Users can simply click <strong>Install</strong> when you send them 38 an application via email. 39 </p> 40</div> 41 42<p>The easiest and quickest way to release your application is to send it to users through 43email. To do this, you prepare your application for release and then attach it to an email 44and send it to a user. When users open your email message on their Android-powered device, 45the Android system will recognize the APK and display an <strong>Install Now</strong> 46button in the email message (see figure 1). Users can install your application by touching the 47button.</p> 48 49<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> The <strong>Install Now</strong> button 50shown in Figure 1 appears only if users have configured their device to allow 51installation from <a href="#unknown-sources">unknown sources</a> and have opened your 52email with the native Gmail application.</p> 53 54<p>Distributing applications through email is convenient if you are sending your application to 55only a few trusted users, but it provides few protections from piracy and unauthorized 56distribution; that is, anyone you send your application to can simply forward it to someone else.</p> 57 58<h2 id="publishing-website">Distributing through a web site</h2> 59 60<p>If you do not want to release your app on a marketplace like Google Play, you 61can make the app available for download on your own website or server, including 62on a private or enterprise server. To do this, you must first prepare your 63application for release in the normal way. Then all you need to do is host the 64release-ready APK file on your website and provide a download link to users. 65</p> 66 67<p>When users browse to the download link from their Android-powered devices, 68the file is downloaded and Android system automatically starts installing it on 69the device. However, the installation process will start automatically only if 70users have configured their Settings to allow the installation of apps from 71<a href="#unknown-sources">unknown sources</a>.</p> 72 73<p>Although it is relatively easy to release your application on your own 74website, it can be inefficient. For example, if you want to monetize your 75application you will have to process and track all financial transactions 76yourself and you will not be able to use Google Play's <a 77href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/index.html">In-app Billing service</a> 78to sell in-app products. In addition, you will not be able to use the <a 79href="{@docRoot}google/play/licensing/index.html">Licensing service</a> to 80help prevent unauthorized installation and use of your application.</p> 81 82 83<h2 id="unknown-sources">User Opt-In for Apps from Unknown Sources</h2> 84 85<div class="figure" style="width:246px;margin-top:0;"> 86 <img src="{@docRoot}images/publishing/publishing_unknown_sources_sm.png" 87 alt="Screenshot showing the setting for accepting download and install of 88 apps from unknown sources." style="width:240px;" /> 89 <p class="img-caption"> 90 <strong>Figure 2.</strong> Users must enable the <strong>Unknown sources</strong> 91 setting before they can install apps not downloaded from Google Play. 92 </p> 93</div> 94 95<p>Android protects users from inadvertent download and install of apps from 96locations other than Google Play (which is trusted). It blocks such installs 97until the user opts-in <strong>Unknown sources</strong> in 98Settings <strong>></strong> Security, shown in Figure 2. To allow 99the installation of applications from other sources, users need to enable the 100Unknown sources setting on their devices, and they need to make this 101configuration change <em>before</em> they download your application to their 102devices.</p> 103 104<p class="note">Note that some network providers do not allow users to install 105applications from unknown sources.</p> 106 107 108
