This guide walks you through the complete process of publishing your application on your Google Play Store account using the .aab file provided by Market Pay. 

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have a Google Play Developer account (a one-time $25 USD registration fee applies if you don't have one)

1. Go to this page : https://play.google.com/console
2. Select the correct e-mail address
3. (Optional) If asked, enable the two factors authentication
4. “Account type & Your organisation”
   1. Select for "An organization”
   2. Fill in the information 

1. “About you” → Fill in the field by entering the following : “An account to upload applications to the store”
2. “Developer account” : Fill in the informations and verify email and phone 

1. “Apps”: Enter the information associated to your App
2. You will need to pay a 25$ fee to finish the creation of your account

Step 1 — Create a New Application

1. Go to the Google Play Console and sign in.
2. Click Create app in the top-right corner.

1. Fill in the following details about your app 
   • App name: [PRODUCT NAME]
   • Default language: Select your primary market language
   • App or game: Select App
   • Free or paid: Select Free
2. Accept the declarations and click Create app.

Step 2 — Retrieve certificates 

Market Pay needs to have the app signing certificate, it’s necessary in order to verify that the application has not been modified, more generally to prevent counterfeit applications containing malware. To do this, follow these steps :

1. Go to “Production” → “Create new release”
2. Under the title “App integrity”, click “Change app signing key” → “Use google-generated key”
3. Go to “Setup” → “App integrity” → “App signing”
4. Send to dejamobile the MD5, SHA-1 and SHA-256 certificates

Step 3 — Complete the Store Listing

The description of your application in the store needs to contain some mandatory information.

• Go to “Store presence” → “Main store listing”
• Fill in information about your app, you may use the suggested details below :
  • “Short description” → Allow merchants to accept contactless payments
  • “Full description” → [App Name] allows merchants to accept contactless payments of any amount from a variety of contactless payments methods, including cards, mobile wallets and wearables.
  • “App icon” : The icon of the application (512px by 512px)
  • “Feature graphic” : An image showed on the left of the app screenshots, it’s generally a horizontal image presenting the main purpose of the application (1,024 px by 500px) 

• “Video” : If you have a video showing the purpose of the app, upload it to Youtube and add the url in this field. It will appear on the left of the app screenshots (must be public or unlisted, ads turned off, landscape and not be age restricted)
• “Phone” : 2-8 screenshots of the app (16:9 or 9:16, each side between 320px and 3,840px) 

• “Tablet” Same as phone but for tablet dimensions
• Click save and go to “Store settings”
• Fill in the information as per recommended below :
  • Select “App” and “Finance”
  • In “Store listing contact details”: 

• Click save

Click Save when done.

Step 4 — Complete app content declarations 

1. Go to “Policy” → “App content”
2. Start “Privacy policy”
   1. Fill in the field with the URL to your privacy policy (see APPENDIX for more information)  

1. Start “Ads"
   1. Select “No, my app does not contain ads”
2. Start “App access”
   1. Select “All or some functionality is restricted”
   2. Click “Add new instructions”
      1. Fill in the fields with an account eligible to test the application, it will be used by android team to verify your app 
3. Start “Content ratings”
   1. Click “Start questionnaire”
   2. Fill in the “Category” fields by selecting "All Other App types"
   3. Select “No” for all fields of “Questionnaire”
   4. “Save”, “Next” and “Submit”
4. Start “Target audience and content”
   1. Select “18 and over”
   2. Select “No”
5. Start “News apps”
   1. Select “No”
6. Start “COVID-19 contact tracing and status apps”
   1. Select “My app is not a publicly available COVID-19 contact tracing or status app”
7. Start “Data safety”
   1. In “Data collection and security”, select “Yes” for all
   2. In “Data types”, select as follow :
      1. “Approximate location” and “Precise location” in “Location”
      2. “Email address” in “Personal info”
      3. “Crash logs” in “App info and performance”
      4. “Device or other IDs” in “Device or other IDs”
   3. In “Data usage and handling”, it is requested to fill in information to explain the usage and collection of some data
      1. Start “Email address” in “Personal info” and select as follow
      2. Start “Approximate location” in “Location” and select as follow
      3. Start “Precise location” in “Location” and select as follow
      4. Start “Crash logs” in “App info and performance” and select as follow
      5. Start “Device or others IDs” in “Device or other IDs” and select as follow
8. Start “Advertising ID”
   1. Select “No” in “Does your app use advertising ID?”

Step 5 — Configure Testing 

If you wish, you can allow some users to test the application before its official release on the store.

These beta testers can be created by adding their email address into a list. They will then have to download you App. This page is intended to explain the different ways to proceed and will describe the features available.

Internal testing

Internal testing allows you to test your app within your company by adding your coworkers’email adresses, with a limit of 100 testers. The app is not publicly visible on Google Play.

1. Go to “Testing” → “Internal testing”
2. “Create email list” button in the “Testers” page
3. Enter a “List name”, add the list of the testers’ email addresses then click “Save changes”

Closed testing

Closed testing is similar to internal testing except that Google sends you some reporting and feedback on the tests of your app.

1. Go to “Testing” → “Closed testing” then click “Create track”
2. Enter a “Track name” then click “Create track”
3. Go to “Countries / regions” then click “Add countries / regions” on the track
4. Select the countries where you want to deploy your app then click “Add countries / regions”
5. Next, go to “Testers” and select the email list of testers you want to add. You can select the list you created before or create a new one.

Open testing

Open testing makes your App publicly visible and allows a “pre-release” warning. People can review the app, however the reviews are only visible to you.

1. Go to “Testing” → “Open testing
2. Go to “Countries / regions” then click “Add countries / regions”
3. Select the countries you want to deploy your app then click “Add countries / regions”

Step 6 — Create a Production Release

At this stage, your App is ready to be released, to be tested and published on the store.

You will use the .aab that dejamobile sent you.

1. Go to “Production”
2. Is a release already exists, click on “Edit release”, otherwise click on “Create new release”
3. Add the .aab file that dejamobile sent you in the “App bundles” part by clicking on “Upload” or dropping it. If an error appears, send an email to dejamobile with the screen of the error and the steps you have done.
4. In the “Release details”, enter the “Release name”. This is a name which identifies the release and that is not visible to users on Google Play. It can be different of the version of the app, name it whatever you want, but in a logic way.
5. In the release notes section, you may enter a description of what is in the release. For the first release, we recommend “Welcome to YourAppName”. For the next releases, you may enter a description of the updates.
6. When you are ready, you can click on “Save” and come back later to edit this release. You may also click on “Review release” to access the Review page. This page allows you to see the errors and warnings found by Google’s review if any. These errors need to be fixed in order to continue. A description of how to fix these errors will be displayed, feel free to contact dejamobile for further help with a description of the error.
7. Now, you can use this release for multiple goals, you can test it or publish it to the store.

Step 7 — Review and Roll Out

The final step of these guidelines requires the app to be released with no errors.

1. Go to “Production” then click on “Edit release”, and access to the review page
2. Before publishing your app, Google team will review your app, it can take multiple days/weeks. If they find some issues, they will block the publication, and you will need to fix these issues. If you need some support, please contact dejamobile. When you are ready to start, click on “Start rollout to Production”.

Statistics

When your app is released on the store, you will be able to access some statistics. Some basics statistics are available on the dashboard of the “Production”page . More details are available on the “Store analysis” and “Store performance” pages to access some information on the store access.

Done

We encourage you to browse the rest of the pages of the website to discover some features and statistics that are not necessary for the basic release of the app. If you need at any moment some help, please feel free to get in touch with dejamobile team, and they will support you.

The main gaps you'll want to fill are the Data Safety section answers (which must reflect your actual data collection practices) and any signing key instructions, as those tend to be the most technically specific to your product. Let me know if you'd like help drafting those sections.

APPENDIX

In order to be compliant with Google guidelines, your Privacy Policy should:

• Be specific to your app
• Specifically contains the name of your app and the name of your company
• Explicitly disclose that the app use location data and the purpose of it (used to prevent fraud, not used for tracking purpose, etc)
• Be available from any web browser, without any connexion required
• Be as static as can be (and be crawlable by robots)

Please reach out to your CSM or customer representative if you would like to get a privacy policy template, that you can personalize with your company's information