Why publishing on Google Play has become so complicated for solo developers

How it used to be, and why it won't come back

For years, publishing on Google Play was the easy part: 25 dollars one-off for the developer account, an APK uploaded, a few hours of waiting. That world is gone, and the reasons aren't made up: the Play Store was flooded for years with junk apps, clones and malware, and Google reacted by raising the gates bit by bit. The problem is who carries the weight of those gates: big software houses walk through them with a legal department; the solo developer walks through them in the evening, after dinner, alone.

The three main obstacles

For anyone opening a personal account today and wanting to bring their first app to production, the concrete hurdles are essentially three:

• THE MANDATORY CLOSED TEST — new personal accounts have to run the app in closed testing with a minimum number of testers (the threshold Google asks for was initially twenty, later lowered to twelve) for two consecutive weeks, before you can even ask for production access. For a software house it's routine; for a hobbyist it means recruiting friends, relatives and strangers on developer mutual-aid forums^[1]
• IDENTITY VERIFICATION — ID document, address, verified contact details; organization accounts also need a D-U-N-S number^[2]. Reasonable on paper, but every step is a point where your application can get stuck for weeks
• THE MOBILE API TARGET — apps have to target a recent version of Android and stay up to date year after year, or be pulled from search or from the store. Translation: a published app is never "finished", it's a lifetime subscription to maintenance

My take

It would be easy to wrap up with "Google bad, indies good". The reality is more uncomfortable: almost every single rule, taken on its own, has a defensible justification. It's the sum that's hostile, because it's calibrated for people who publish for a living and lands identically on people who publish for love. The measurable result is a barrier to entry that selects not on the quality of the app, but on the ability to put up with bureaucracy.

For those developing solo, the practical consequences are two. First: the publishing process has to be designed like a feature, with the same lead time — the fourteen days of closed testing need to go on the calendar before you've even written the last screen. Second: it's worth asking, project by project, whether the Play Store is really the only channel — between PWAs, direct APK distribution and alternative stores, the monopoly of the main gate is no longer as total as it once was. That's exactly the topic of the next broadcast in this zone.

Frequently asked questions

What are the three main obstacles to publishing solo on Google Play?

The mandatory closed test with at least twelve testers for two consecutive weeks, identity verification (ID document, address, and a D-U-N-S number for organization accounts), and the requirement to update the API target every year.

How much does a Google Play developer account cost?

25 dollars one-off, unchanged over time — the money isn't the problem: the time required by identity verification and the closed test is.

Are there alternatives to the Play Store for distributing an Android app?

Yes: PWAs, direct APK distribution and alternative stores. The monopoly of the main channel is no longer as total as it once was — it's the topic explored in the next broadcast.