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Amazon App Store

Guide To Submitting Your App To Amazon App Store

App Testing

At Amazon App store, you can submit your android app for testing without being a registered member at the Amazon Developer Portal.
If you have signed up with the Amazon Developer Portal; and then submit your app for testing, you can view the test results within your developer account, and if any tweaks need to be made, you can read about them there also. If no tweaks are required you can directly submit your app to the Amazon App Store to be published.

For testing purposes the app is subject to two distinct test processes: one for app compatibility issues, (like APIs)and the other for performance; things like app crashes, errors, and also if it is compatible with the Amazon Fire tablet.

The Amazon Fire Tablet is Amazon's own brand that uses an android OS. Amazon also has Amazon Fire TV. If you want your app to be compatible with the Fire TV you must adhere to the guidelines for Amazon TV and tweek your app as needed. Amazon Fire Tablet is most similar to Android Tablet and little if any tweaking is required before submmitting your app.


Amazon states that most android apps (70-80%) that are submitted for testing are found to be compatible, and if your app passes the testing, likely it will be compatible with Fire tablets. Amazon states that if not, only minor tweaking is usually required.

The compatibility test takes about 1 minute, the performance test can take up to a half day. The app I submitted took about a half hour for both tests.

Amazon states the app testing time depends on the backlog of apps pending, and also the complexity of the app being tested. You can watch on the screen as the app is being tested.

To begin the test you copy and paste your apk file into the online testing tool at Amazon.

Here you can see images of the app testing tool, and the readouts it displays as your app is being tested.

Create An Amazon Developer Account

Developer Portal Amazon - Create Your Account
To create your developer account provide your email and password at the Amazon Developer Portal. They will send you a confirmation email; follow the directions to enter the code from the email as your login password. Then you can add your own password. Also add your phone, website if you have one.


Next, read and agree to the terms and conditions and then you can browse your account dashboard.

App Submission Guide

The Amazon submission guide is detailed and contains things your app must have or recommended not to have to make your app more compatible across many platforms. Read the guide and tweak your app as needed before you submit it for publishing.

Once your submit your app - If your app does not meet a requirement of submission you will get notified and also how to correct the issue before submitting it again.

This image shows the steps to follow in order to submit your app.

Once you submit your app(APK) you can add the required info at each of the tabs. Once all the tab sections are completed, you can submit your app for publishing.
On this page you can read a summarized guide to preparing your apk for submission and publishing at the Amazon Appstore.



Things to know and add before submitting your app:

Amazon app store accepts Android and HTML5 apps; (no IOS);

App Category - do a search at Amazon App Store for apps similar to yours so you can select an appropriate category for your app;

1 to several days time frame before your app goes live in the App store once you have submitted it; An email is sent to you when your apk has been uploaded successfully. Check you APK Files Tab in your Developer Console to view your apk file.

And, once you have submitted it you can view the submission date and time in your Dashboard; as well as the estimated time your app will go live assuming there are no issues with it. The app I submitted was live in the appstore at about 24 hours from the submitted time.

Do read the detailed Pre Submission Checklist at the Amazon Developer website;

Read Amazon Appstore Pre submission Guide

Version Code and Version Name

App must have a version code and a version name - version code is not shown to users, version name is.

Version name is added to the manifest file - 50 or less characters; Version name usually stays the same

Version code is added to manifest file - you must increment it with each update of your app, example: 1.0, 1.1, 1.2
In AIDE by default it is 1.0 for a new app (apk);

Package name remains the same for the life of the app - does not change with each new update of the app;

Each update of app has same package name but different version code(add it to manifest file);

Each apk updated has same package name, just different version code(add it to manifest file);

If you want to change your app descriptions(long and short descriptions) and app keywords for your app that's already on the Amazon Appstore, you must also change your app version code.

First, click on the app you want to make changes to in our Developer Account. Change your app descriptions and keywords as you want them and click to save the changes.

Next, goto your Build Gradle of the same app, and increment your version code, then build your app and then submit your apk(with the new version code) to replace the app (apk) that is there now in your Developer Account.

If your only updating descriptions and/or keywords, and not the apk code itself the changes usually are updated sooner at the Appstore than an apk update(changing the actual app code).

Supported Devices When Adding Updated APK

For each updated APK you must select the devices your updated APK now supports. Example - If you added new functionality to your app, and changed the API targets, then your app may now support different devices.

To select devices supported for the updated APK, you must first un-select device support for your previous APK. Then, select the devices supported for your updated APK.

For any new Fire devices brought to market, device support is automatically added for you based on your manifest filtering.

For android specific devices: if you have selected support for 'all other android devices' in the non amazon devices, then support for any new to market Android devices is added automatically for you. However if you did not select 'all other android devices', then you must manually select support for any new Android device(s) brought to market.

SDK Targeting

SDK targeting; use 10 as min SDK - good for Android and Amazon Fire tablets
For my app I used min SDK 10 and Target SDK 26.

Preferred app size 100mb or less; but can upload app of 2gb using sftp;

Signing Your App

Amazon removes your app's signing key and adds their own and also wraps it for analytics, metadata, DRM, and to improve its' compatibility;
Every app you submit to the Amazon App store will have the same signing key, you can view the Sha1, MD5, and Sha256 in your developer account at App store Certificate Hashes;
Each app submitted must be optimized - the APK files. Known as zip aligned. This is done automatically in Android Studio.

App Images

For your Appstore listing and for promoting your app in Amazon channels the following images, and screenshots are required:


Images for app: required - one of 114x114, one of 512x512, make them all pngs;
Screenshots of your app pages - at least 3 screen-shots, can have 10, png or jpeg: vertical or horizontal screenshot views; make them png or jpeg.
Examples:
Use any of these for resolution (sizes);
800x480 1024x600 1280x720....
For screenshots take different areas of your app to show users on your appstore listing.

A promo image for horizontal screenshot: size must be 1024x500-1 image only.

A promo video of your app can also be added.

Read about adding app assets (images,screen-shots) at Amazon Developer Portal

Install Location

Especially for Fire tablets and Fire cellphones; Amazon recommends you use the android:location="external" in your manifest file.
Reason: creates a better user experience; meaning if a users internal drive is unable to save the file-the app's apk file- (no drive space left) they may not know they can download it to their external drive if they have one and if they have a SD card for it.

You can also use android:location="internal",
and android:location ="auto".
Internal will ONLY install on internal on the device; while choosing 'auto' will install on internal device space first, and only to external drive if no internal space available.

For my submitted app, I used location="auto". Add this to the manifest file code.

App Features Not Accepted at Amazon App Store:

No themes, wallpapers, screen savers,
No custom onscreen keyboards - use the default
No home screen widgets that manipulate the user interface,
Disable keyguard permissions,

Content Not Accepted at Amazon App Store

Offensive
Porn
Illegal
No gambling apps using money; apps with no money value ok
No celeb pics in apps unless permission given to use

Content Rating

Choose a content category from the selections:

Once you select your app content rating you CANNOT change it again until you upload a new/updated APK.

Read about Amazon Appstore Content Rating

Intellectual Property (IP)

Obtain a license or permission if using the IP of a third party in your app; and provide the documentation to Amazon. DO NOT send them a photo of the documentation required.

App Language Support - Localization

Amazon appstore has support for several languages including German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, English. If you don't select a language English is the default language.

You can also localize your android app (APK) to as many languages as you want.

Localizating your app to support different languages is coded in the app itself. Then, when a user downloads your app the device installs their language based on their cell phone or tablet language selection.

To view our tutorial on localizing your app for language support

To add images for localization, choose the Localize selection in the Images tab. Then you can add images for the language-country your localizing your app for. For example; you made a Spanish Travel app; with words and sentences for people who might travel to Spain. You can then add images (assets) for the Spanish localized version of your app.

Distributing Your App - Countries

When you submit your app, by default it is available in all marketplaces - more than 200 countries. Also, you can have your app available in any country or region you choose. For example; you have a Spanish app and you want it to be available in Spain only. In your developer console, at the Availability and Pricing Tab; you can select the country and regions.

FYI - if you select one or more countries for your apps availability but you DO NOT LIVE in any of the countries you selected, you may not be able to download your app from the Amazon Appstore.

Pricing Your App

You add a price for your app in the Availability and Pricing Tab. You can add different prices for each marketplace. Amazon can do this for you automatically based on the list price for a particular market; however you can change these as you want.

Market Places

Marketplaces are language-specific. For example: the German marketplace is also used for Austria and Switzerland, and the French marketplace is also used for Belgium and Luxembourg. German marketplace is amazon.de
French marketplace is amazon.fr

Descriptions Tab

Display Title - is shown in your app store listing and on devices.

Short description - is shown on tablets and Fire TV devices. You can add to 1200 characters, although only first 200 show on Fire TV. Use important keywords describing your app.

Long description - shown on Amazon Appstore, Can have 4000 characters. This is not shown on Fire tablets nor the Fire TV devices. Use plain text not HTML.

Product feature bullets - can add three to five, one feature per line. Use the Return after each one added. The Amazon system editor will convert each to bullet format.

I also mentioned in my bullets that my app was 'best viewed in vertical mode', with a 7 tablet and 5 smart phone screen sizes.

Keywords - add keywords to describe and relevant to your apps features and functionality. Use commas to separate each keyword. These keywords are searchable at the Amazon Appstore and on Fire TV.

Submit App

After you have successfully entered the required information on all six tabs, the Dev Portal will display green check marks on all tabs and enable the Submit App button. You can now complete the app submission process by clicking Submit App.

App Status

You can then check the status of your app in your developer dashboard. There are several status readouts. When it says LIVE that means it is in the Amazon Appstore.

App submission status

In this next image, is the app YOMU (top left in image) that I submitted to the Amazon Appstore. I put it in the Education category; and I found it by going to that category, and then browsing by New Apps in last 30 days.




When I clicked on my app YOMU it showed this next screen; which is the app listing. It shows your submitted promo app images, and the app's description.
To download the app, you click the Get link.



If you don't have the Amazon Appstore app on your device (tablet or cell) you will be prompted to first download their app and then you can download apps from their appstore. This only took a few minutes to do.

Analytics For Your App

Any downloads of your app is recorded in your Developer Dashboard as an 'App Purchase', and you can view the data on your downloads by date, day, and time slots. Just choose 'Reporting', from the Top menu.

Amazon has two ways you can montetize your app. You can use 'in app purchases', and you can use 'Mobile Ads'.

If you have added or plan to add monetization to your app by using either IAP(in app purchases) or Mobile Ads, you can also view those stats in the same dashboard as the download info.

You can also see your app Reviews from the side menu choices. Reviews are user comments about your app.

Amazon AWS - Pinpoint For Mobile Apps

If you want to have more detailed insights into your app users, you can get 'engagement' data by using Amazon's AWS Pinpoint For Mobile App service. With this service you can get app session data and make your own custom events to collect data about your app user's behaviours.

They have a free tier which includes a number of app 'events' per month. You do need to use a credit card to establish your free account and they charge it a $1.

To use Amazon AWS Pinpoint, you need to signup for that service, which you can do from your Developer Account for your apps.

Just click on the Reporting tab on the Top Menu menu and then choose Engagement data from the Left Menu; and this takes you to the AWS portal where it explains how it works, what is free, and allows you to signup. Once you are logged in, just click on the 'Pinpoint' Menu.

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