So, I tried to build an Android app... | David MohlSo, I tried to build an Android app...<br>July 21, 2026 路 9 min 路 1747 words<br>Table of Contents
For a recent project, I wanted to also offer an Android app. I’ve never built anything for Android and have exclusively developed within the Apple ecosystem (you can find some of my recent projects here), but figured it can’t be that different, right?<br>Oh boy. The experience scarred me enough to write a blog post, that tells you the journey has been… something. This is my overview of the complete mess that is building for the Play Store, and why I likely won’t build another Android app in the future. 馃槄<br>First steps: Setting up my account#<br>To have clean separation between personal and professional stuff, I always create a new account. I do this for Apple, for YouTube, for emails - for anything really where I don’t want one thing to affect the other. Also having heard enough horror stories of Google accounts getting suspended, I didn’t want to risk that either a personal or professional account suspension takes down everything with it.<br>I finished the first MVP version of my app and now it was time to get it to friends.<br>So I created a new account. Google has a few steps you have to go through to become a Play Store developer:<br>Submit a government ID: Passport, drivers license, etc<br>Submit a utility bill as proof of address - ok this is unconventional for a developer account but fine. I submitted a water bill<br>Pay the $25 developer fee - this is a one-time fee everyone has to pay to become a Play Store developer<br>After submitting and paying everything, we have to wait for Google to review it and approve the account. This can take anywhere between a few hours to a few days.<br>A couple hours later, an email from Google arrives: My new account, the account that just submitted a government ID, utility bill and paid $25 USD, has been suspended:
Funny that this happens after I paid the $25, and not before. So we’re not off to a good start.<br>Working in IT, I understand that likely an automated system has made this decision, and I also understand that my appeal will probably also get judged by another automated system. So I decided to write this account off and did what I didn’t want to do: Using my main Google account. This account at least has a track record of all kinds of stuff, so an automated system is less likely to insta-nuke it.<br>Again: Submit my government ID, submit a water bill, pay another $25 USD and pray to the Google gods that this will not nuke my entire personal Google account with Google Drive and everything.<br>Setting up a closed beta testing#<br>The account survived and I got approved. I am now a Play Store developer!<br>In Apple land, to have a semi-open test that people can sign up for, we have TestFlight: We can submit a private build for a small review to Apple and once approved, the app becomes available for a closed TestFlight test. How this works is:<br>You share the TestFlight link to friends<br>Friends open it and download TestFlight, then accept the invite<br>The app installs on the phone and receives auto updates as new builds get reviewed by Apple<br>Now Google: There is no such TestFlight system. There is:<br>Internal testing: just for you and some manual Google accounts you add, Apple equivalent is, well, also “internal testing”<br>Closed testing: This needs Google to review your app first. Also for you and some google accounts you add manually, but you can also link a Google Group and use that as the list of testers<br>Public testing: Something akin to TestFlight: People can opt-in to receive test builds of your app, but this is only available to apps already on the Play Store , so I can’t use it<br>Closed testing is what I want, so I tried setting it up: I created a new Google Group, linked it to the release and submitted it to Google. Reviewing can take 1-7 days, but in my case it was quite fast and after a day, the build was approved.<br>But just joining a Google Group does not automatically give you access to the app on the Play Store, no. That would be too easy. To actually download a test version you have to:<br>Join the Google Group<br>Click a separate link that asks you to become a tester, which only works if you’re already in the Google Group<br>Wait anywhere between 1-48 hours before the app appears on the Play Store<br>Download the app by clicking on a direct Play Store link (searching in the Play Store won’t surface it)
So to reiterate, I have to tell my users to:<br>Join a Google Group which most have likely never done<br>Then after joining the Google Group, click a separate link that enables them to become a tester<br>Then tell them that even though they are now testers, they still can’t download the app (even through the links that are in the description of the testers page) because they first have to wait 1-24 hours and just “come back later”<br>And this is what one tester saw after following every...