docs/html/distribute/googleplay/about/distribution.jd - platform/frameworks/base - Git at Google

 page.title=Distribution Control
 page.metaDescription=Reach the users you want, whenever you want.

 @jd:body

 <p>Deliver your apps to the users you want, on the devices you want, on <em>your</em> schedule. </p>

 <h2 id="instant">Instant publishing, instant updates</h2>

 <p>On Google Play, you can publish your products to customers instantly. Just
 upload and configure your product in the <span style="font-weight:500;">Google Play Android Developer Console</span>
 and press the Publish button&mdash;your app appears in the store listings within
 hours, not weeks.</p>

 <p>Once your app is published, you can update it as often as you want. You can
 change prices, configuration, and distribution options at any time through the
 Google Play Android Developer Console, without needing to update your app
 binary.</p>

 <p>Later, as you add features or address code issues, you can publish an updated
 binary at any time. Google Play makes the new version available immediately and
 notifies existing customers that an update is ready for download. To streamline
 the rollout across your customer base, Google Play also lets users accept
 automatic updates of your app, so that your updates are delivered and installed
 as soon as you publish them.</p>

 <h2 id="targeting">Reaching the customers you want</h2>

 <p>Google Play does more than connect your app with users&mdash;it helps you
 reach the broadest possible distribution across the Android ecosystem, while
 making sure that your app is only available to the audience that you want to
 reach.</p>

 <div style="float:right;margin-left:18px;border:1px solid #DDD;margin:1.5em;">
 <img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-dc-countries.png" style="width:400px;padding:4px;margin-bottom:0;">
 </div>

 <h3 id="geotargeting">Geographic targeting</h3>

 <p>You can use controls in the Google Play Android Developer Console to easily
 manage the geographic distribution of your apps, without any changes in your
 application binary. You can specify which countries and territories you want to
 distribute to, and even which carriers (for some countries). </p>

 <p>When users visit the store, Google Play makes sure that they are in one of
 your targeted countries before downloading your app. You can change your country
 and carrier targeting at any time just by saving changes in the Google Play
 Android Developer Console.</p>

 <p>To help you market to users around the world, you
 can <a href="{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/publish/preparing.html#localize">localize
 your store listing</a>, including app details and description,
 promotional graphics, screenshots, and more.</p>

 <div style="float:right;margin-left:18px;border:1px solid #DDD;margin:1.5em;">
 <img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-supported-dev-requirements.png"
 style="width:400px;padding:4px;margin-bottom:0;">
 </div>

 <h3 id="captargeting">Capabilities targeting</h3>

 <p>Google Play also lets you control distribution according to device features
 or capabilities that your app depends on. There are several types of
 dependencies that the app can define in its manifest, such as hardware features,
 OpenGL texture compression formats, libraries, Android platform versions, and
 others.</p>

 <p>When you upload your app, Google Play reads the dependencies and sets up any
 necessary distribution rules. For technical information about declaring
 dependencies, read <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/filters.html">Filters on
 Google Play</a>. </p>

 <p>For pinpoint control over distribution, Google Play lets you see all of the
 devices your app is available to based on its dependencies (if any). From the
 Google Play Android Developer Console, you can list the supported devices and
 even exclude specific devices if needed.</p>

 <h2 id="stats">Statistics for analyzing installs</h2>

 <p>Once you’ve published your app, Google Play makes it easy to see how it’s
 doing. The Google Play Android Developer Console gives you access to a variety
 of anonymized metrics that show your app’s installation performance measured by
 unique users and unique devices, across a variety of different dimensions such
 as country, Android version, device, country, carrier, and app version.</p>

 <div style="border:1px solid #DDD;margin:1.5em;margin-left:8%;width:608px">
 <img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-dc-stats-mini.png"
 style="width:600px;padding:4px;margin-bottom:0;">
 </div>
 <p>You can also view your installation data on timeline charts, for all metrics and
 dimensions. At a glance, these charts highlight your app’s installation peaks
 and longer-term trends, which you can correlate to promotions, app improvements,
 or other factors. You can even focus in on data inside a dimension by
 highlighting specific data points (such as individual platform versions or
 languages) on the timeline.</p>

 <p>So that you can “take your data with you”, you can download all of your
 installation data as a CSV file for viewing in the business program of your
 choice.</p>


 <h2 id="advanced">Advanced delivery options</h2>

 <p>Google Play offers convenient options for managing how your apps are
 delivered to users.</p>

 <p>In most cases, it’s easy to create an app that supports all of your targeted
 screen sizes and platform versions from a single APK. Distributing a single APK
 to all of your users is a highly recommended approach, because it’s the easiest
 way to manage and maintain the app. If you need to deliver a different APK to
 devices, Google Play provides a way to do that. </p>

 <p>An option called Multiple APK support lets you create multiple APK packages
 that use the same package name but differ in their OpenGL texture compression
 formats, screen-size support, or Android platform versions supported. You can
 upload all of the APKs to Google Play under a single product listing and Google
 Play selects the best APK to deliver to users, based on the characteristics of
 their devices.  </p>

 <p>The APK Expansion Files option lets you upload up to two secondary downloads
 for each published APK, including multiple APKs. Each of the two expansion files
 can be up to 2GB each and can contain any type of code or assets. When you
 upload the expansion files, Google Play hosts them for free and handles the
 download of the files as part of the normal APK installation.</p>

 <h2 id="licensing">Protecting your App</h2>

 <p>To help you protect your application against piracy, Google Play offers a
 licensing service that you can implement in your app. It’s a network-based
 service that lets an application query a trusted Google Play licensing server to
 determine whether the application is licensed to the current device user.</p>
	page.title=Distribution Control
	page.metaDescription=Reach the users you want, whenever you want.

	@jd:body

	<p>Deliver your apps to the users you want, on the devices you want, on <em>your</em> schedule. </p>

	<h2 id="instant">Instant publishing, instant updates</h2>

	<p>On Google Play, you can publish your products to customers instantly. Just
	upload and configure your product in the <span style="font-weight:500;">Google Play Android Developer Console</span>
	and press the Publish button—your app appears in the store listings within
	hours, not weeks.</p>

	<p>Once your app is published, you can update it as often as you want. You can
	change prices, configuration, and distribution options at any time through the
	Google Play Android Developer Console, without needing to update your app
	binary.</p>

	<p>Later, as you add features or address code issues, you can publish an updated
	binary at any time. Google Play makes the new version available immediately and
	notifies existing customers that an update is ready for download. To streamline
	the rollout across your customer base, Google Play also lets users accept
	automatic updates of your app, so that your updates are delivered and installed
	as soon as you publish them.</p>

	<h2 id="targeting">Reaching the customers you want</h2>

	<p>Google Play does more than connect your app with users—it helps you
	reach the broadest possible distribution across the Android ecosystem, while
	making sure that your app is only available to the audience that you want to
	reach.</p>

	<div style="float:right;margin-left:18px;border:1px solid #DDD;margin:1.5em;">
	<img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-dc-countries.png" style="width:400px;padding:4px;margin-bottom:0;">
	</div>

	<h3 id="geotargeting">Geographic targeting</h3>

	<p>You can use controls in the Google Play Android Developer Console to easily
	manage the geographic distribution of your apps, without any changes in your
	application binary. You can specify which countries and territories you want to
	distribute to, and even which carriers (for some countries). </p>

	<p>When users visit the store, Google Play makes sure that they are in one of
	your targeted countries before downloading your app. You can change your country
	and carrier targeting at any time just by saving changes in the Google Play
	Android Developer Console.</p>

	<p>To help you market to users around the world, you
	can <a href="{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/publish/preparing.html#localize">localize
	your store listing</a>, including app details and description,
	promotional graphics, screenshots, and more.</p>

	<div style="float:right;margin-left:18px;border:1px solid #DDD;margin:1.5em;">
	<img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-supported-dev-requirements.png"
	style="width:400px;padding:4px;margin-bottom:0;">
	</div>

	<h3 id="captargeting">Capabilities targeting</h3>

	<p>Google Play also lets you control distribution according to device features
	or capabilities that your app depends on. There are several types of
	dependencies that the app can define in its manifest, such as hardware features,
	OpenGL texture compression formats, libraries, Android platform versions, and
	others.</p>

	<p>When you upload your app, Google Play reads the dependencies and sets up any
	necessary distribution rules. For technical information about declaring
	dependencies, read <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/filters.html">Filters on
	Google Play</a>. </p>

	<p>For pinpoint control over distribution, Google Play lets you see all of the
	devices your app is available to based on its dependencies (if any). From the
	Google Play Android Developer Console, you can list the supported devices and
	even exclude specific devices if needed.</p>

	<h2 id="stats">Statistics for analyzing installs</h2>

	<p>Once you’ve published your app, Google Play makes it easy to see how it’s
	doing. The Google Play Android Developer Console gives you access to a variety
	of anonymized metrics that show your app’s installation performance measured by
	unique users and unique devices, across a variety of different dimensions such
	as country, Android version, device, country, carrier, and app version.</p>

	<div style="border:1px solid #DDD;margin:1.5em;margin-left:8%;width:608px">
	<img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-dc-stats-mini.png"
	style="width:600px;padding:4px;margin-bottom:0;">
	</div>
	<p>You can also view your installation data on timeline charts, for all metrics and
	dimensions. At a glance, these charts highlight your app’s installation peaks
	and longer-term trends, which you can correlate to promotions, app improvements,
	or other factors. You can even focus in on data inside a dimension by
	highlighting specific data points (such as individual platform versions or
	languages) on the timeline.</p>

	<p>So that you can “take your data with you”, you can download all of your
	installation data as a CSV file for viewing in the business program of your
	choice.</p>


	<h2 id="advanced">Advanced delivery options</h2>

	<p>Google Play offers convenient options for managing how your apps are
	delivered to users.</p>

	<p>In most cases, it’s easy to create an app that supports all of your targeted
	screen sizes and platform versions from a single APK. Distributing a single APK
	to all of your users is a highly recommended approach, because it’s the easiest
	way to manage and maintain the app. If you need to deliver a different APK to
	devices, Google Play provides a way to do that. </p>

	<p>An option called Multiple APK support lets you create multiple APK packages
	that use the same package name but differ in their OpenGL texture compression
	formats, screen-size support, or Android platform versions supported. You can
	upload all of the APKs to Google Play under a single product listing and Google
	Play selects the best APK to deliver to users, based on the characteristics of
	their devices. </p>

	<p>The APK Expansion Files option lets you upload up to two secondary downloads
	for each published APK, including multiple APKs. Each of the two expansion files
	can be up to 2GB each and can contain any type of code or assets. When you
	upload the expansion files, Google Play hosts them for free and handles the
	download of the files as part of the normal APK installation.</p>

	<h2 id="licensing">Protecting your App</h2>

	<p>To help you protect your application against piracy, Google Play offers a
	licensing service that you can implement in your app. It’s a network-based
	service that lets an application query a trusted Google Play licensing server to
	determine whether the application is licensed to the current device user.</p>