Publish your radio app on Google Play

1. Go to play.google.com/console and sign in with the Google account that should own the app.
2. Choose the kind of account. Personal is for publishing as yourself. Organization is for a company or a registered station, and it needs a D-U-N-S number, a company ID that Dun & Bradstreet issues. Ask for one first if you don't have it, because it can take a while to arrive.
3. Pay the $25 registration fee and follow Google's identity checks. Google may ask for an ID document and confirm your phone number and email address, which can take a few days.

Tip: an app can be moved to another developer account later, but it's far easier to start in the account that will keep it.

If your developer account is a personal account created after 13 November 2023, Google won't let you publish to everyone until you have run a closed test: at least 12 testers who stay opted in for 14 days in a row. Organization accounts skip this step.

1. Line up your testers early: listeners, presenters, family and friends with Android phones.
2. Collect the email address of the Google account each tester uses on their phone.
3. Ask them to keep the app installed for the whole two weeks. If the count drops below 12, the 14 days may have to start again.

Step 6 shows how to start the test once your app is set up.

1. In Play Console, choose Create app.
2. App name: your station's name as listeners know it, up to 30 characters.
3. Default language: the language of your store page.
4. App or game: App. Free or paid: Free. Google doesn't let a free app become a paid one later, and yours never needs to.
5. Accept the declarations and choose Create app.

Open Main store listing (you'll find it under Store presence). This is the page listeners see before they install.

1. Short description (up to 80 characters) and full description (up to 4,000): tell listeners what they'll hear, from your shows to your music and your local news.
2. App icon: icon-512.png from the google-play folder of your Store images download.
3. Feature graphic: feature-graphic-1024x500.jpg from the same folder.
4. Phone screenshots: Google asks for at least two. Install the Test app (.apk) on an Android phone and take them there: the player, your schedule and your podcasts make good ones.
5. In Store settings, choose the Music & Audio category and add an email address and your website as contact details.

Your Dashboard lists the questions Google needs answered before a release (they live under App content). Work through each one:

1. Privacy policy: paste the address shown in your control panel, under Publish in the stores.
2. Ads: no, the app contains no ads.
3. App access: everything in the app works without signing in.
4. Content rating: fill in the questionnaire about what your station broadcasts. Your rating comes from these answers, so be honest about things like strong language.
5. Target audience: choose the age groups your station is for. If you include children under 13, Google's rules for family apps apply as well.
6. Data safety: the app collects no personal data. It has no analytics, no accounts and no advertising. Like any internet radio, your streaming server sees a listener's IP address in order to send the audio, and Google's rules generally don't count data as collected when it's only processed briefly to deliver the service. Make your answers on your own judgement; Google's help page on the Data safety section explains what it counts.
7. Anything else Google asks, such as the advertising ID or whether your app is a news app: answer for your station. The app itself uses no advertising ID.

1. Open Testing, then Closed testing, and create a track, or use the one Google has already set up.
2. Add your testers by email address, or add a Google Group they belong to.
3. Create a release on that track and upload your App bundle (.aab). The first upload asks about app signing: see step 7.
4. Send your testers the opt-in link. Each one has to accept it and install the app from Google Play.
5. When at least 12 testers have stayed opted in for 14 days in a row, apply for production access from your Dashboard. Google asks a few questions about your test and reviews the application.

1. Open Production (or your test track) and choose Create new release.
2. When Google asks about signing, keep Play App Signing on. Google then looks after the key that signs the app on your listeners' phones.
3. Upload the App bundle (.aab) from your control panel. It's already signed with your upload key, which proves to Google that each update really comes from you.
4. Add release notes ("First release" is fine) and save.

Keep your upload key. In your control panel, the Android upload key card has a Download upload key button. Download it once and store the file and its password somewhere safe. We sign your builds with it, and Google checks every update against it.

Your app already has everything Android Auto needs. This step tells Google to offer it in cars.

1. Open Advanced settings. In newer versions of Play Console it sits under Test and release; in older ones, under Release.
2. Go to the Form factors tab and add Android Auto.
3. Accept the Android for Cars terms when Google shows them.

Google may review the app for cars separately, against its quality rules for apps used while driving.

1. Check your Dashboard: every setup task should be ticked off.
2. Roll out your production release, then send your changes for review from Publishing overview if Google asks you to.
3. Google checks new apps before they go live. It often takes a few days, and it can take longer for a new account.
4. Once it's approved, your app is on Google Play. Share the link with your listeners on air and on your website.

Later on: to publish an update, build again in your control panel and create a new release with the new App bundle (.aab). New streams, schedule changes and links don't need one: the app picks those up by itself.