Play Store Submission Guide — Word Wheel

End-to-end walkthrough for submitting Word Wheel from “app entry created” to “Production release rolled out”. Designed to be followed in one sitting.

Last updated: 2026-04-30 App package name: com.wheelword.game Target version: 1.7.3 (versionCode 11)

Pre-flight checklist

Before opening Play Console, confirm all of this is in place:

Phase A — Set up the app shell

If you’ve already done these in Play Console, skip to Phase B.

A1. Confirm the app entry

Open https://play.google.com/console
Pick the developer account → click the app Word Wheel in the list
The left sidebar will show: Test and release, Monitor and improve, Grow, Monetize, Policy, Setup

If the app isn’t listed, click Create app and fill:

App name: Word Wheel
Default language: English (United States) – en-US
App or game: Game
Free or paid: Free
Confirm declarations (developer guidelines + US export laws)

Policy → App content → App access → All functionality is available without special access. Save.

A3. Ads declaration

Policy → App content → Ads → No, my app does not contain ads. Save.

A4. Content rating

Policy → App content → Content ratings → Start questionnaire

Email: your developer email Category: Games

Then click through the IARC questionnaire. Use play-store-assets/content-rating.md as the answer key — every answer is No. Submit.

You’ll get rating certificates: ESRB Everyone, PEGI 3, IARC 3+ etc.

A5. Target audience and content

Policy → App content → Target audience and content

Target age groups: tick 13+, 15-17, 18+ (NOT under 13 — keeps you out of the kids-app review track)
Does your app appeal to children? No
Does it contain ads? No

Save. Continue.

A6. News app declaration

Policy → App content → News app → My app is not a news app. Save.

A7. COVID-19 contact tracing

→ My app is not a publicly available COVID-19 contact tracing or status app. Save.

A8. Data safety

Policy → App content → Data safety → Start

This form asks what user data the app collects. Word Wheel collects nothing, so:

Does your app collect or share any of the required user data types? No
Is all of the user data collected by your app encrypted in transit? → Doesn’t apply (no data collected). Pick the equivalent Not collected option.
Do you provide a way for users to request that their data is deleted? → Doesn’t apply.

Click through, save, Submit.

A9. Government apps declaration

→ My app is not a government app. Save.

A10. Financial features

→ No financial features. Save.

A11. Health features

→ No health features. Save.

Phase B — Main store listing

Grow → Store presence → Main store listing

B1. App details

Field	Value	Source
App name	`Word Wheel`	store-listing.md
Short description	(paste from store-listing.md)	store-listing.md §”Short description”
Full description	(paste from store-listing.md)	store-listing.md §”Full description”

B2. Graphics

Upload from play-store-assets/:

Slot	File	Dimensions
App icon	`app-icon-512.png`	512×512
Feature graphic	`feature-graphic-1024x500.png`	1024×500
Phone screenshots	`screenshots/mockup-01-gameplay.png` `screenshots/mockup-02-selection.png` `screenshots/mockup-03-complete.png`	1080×1920 each

(7-inch and 10-inch tablet screenshots are optional — leave empty for first launch.)

B3. Categorisation

Field	Value
App category	Games
Game category	Word
Tags	Word, Puzzle, Brain Games, Casual, Offline (pick 5)

B4. Contact details

Field	Value
Email	your public-facing email
Phone	optional, leave empty
Website	`https://hhariyanto29.github.io/word-wheels/`
Privacy policy URL	`https://hhariyanto29.github.io/word-wheels/privacy-policy/`

B5. External marketing

→ Leave default (opt-in or opt-out, your choice).

Click Save at the top of the page. The listing now shows Active.

Phase C — Upload the AAB to Internal testing

We start with Internal testing because:

Promotion to Production is one click later
Internal testing is reviewed in minutes, not days
You catch any policy/binary errors before the review queue starts

C1. Set up Internal testing track

Test and release → Testing → Internal testing → Create new release

C2. Confirm Play App Signing

If this is your first upload, Play Console will prompt:

Use Play App Signing — Google manages your app signing key. Recommended.

→ Continue / Use Play App Signing (default).

(There’s no need to download a “private key export” or upload an existing app signing key. Just accept the default.)

C3. Upload the AAB

Drag & drop /tmp/aab-prod/app-release.aab into the upload box.

While it processes (~30 seconds):

Play Console verifies the AAB signature
It registers your upload key SHA-1 (57:52:28:8B:DB:86:65:9A:71:F7:A5:17:53:6C:F2:9E:7F:25:5B:49) as the official upload key for this app
It scans the AAB for policy violations (allow-list of permissions, etc.)

You’ll see the AAB appear with version 1.7.3 (11).

C4. Release name and notes

Field	Value
Release name	auto-fills as `1.7.3 (11)` — leave it
Release notes (en-US)	paste from `play-store-assets/release-notes.md` §”v1.7.3”

C5. Save & review the release

Click Next → Save → Review release.

Play Console will show:

Roll-out percentage (Internal testing has no rollout — it’s all-or-nothing for testers)
Any pre-launch warnings (typical: missing translations, permissions list, etc.)

Fix any Errors (red). Warnings (yellow) can usually stay.

C6. Add internal testers (one-time setup)

Test and release → Testing → Internal testing → Testers tab

Click Create email list
Name: Internal testers
Add your own email + 1-2 trusted friends/family
Save

Back in the Release tab, link the email list to the track and Start rollout to Internal testing.

C7. Install on your device

After ~15-30 minutes:

Internal testers receive an opt-in URL via email
Click the link, accept the invitation
Open Play Store on the same Google account
Search “Word Wheel” → install

Confirm the app launches, levels load, sounds play, daily spin works, home screen looks right.

If you find a critical bug → fix in code → push → CI builds new AAB → upload again to Internal track. There is no review delay between internal builds.

Phase D — Promote to Production

Once internal testing passes (give yourself a day, run through 3-4 levels):

D1. Open the Internal release

Test and release → Testing → Internal testing → click on the active release → … → Promote release → Production

This copies the same AAB and release notes to the Production track.

D2. Production rollout setup

Field	Value
Countries	Add countries / regions → click Select all 174 territories
Roll-out percentage	20% (gradual) or 100% (all at once) — see note below
Release notes	already inherited from internal release

Gradual rollout (recommended) — start at 20% so if there’s a critical bug crashing Android 8 devices you only hit 20% of users before halting. Bump to 50%, then 100% over a few days as crash-free rate stays high. For first launch with low download volume, 100% is fine too.

D3. Submit for review

Click Next → Save → Send for review.

Pre-launch tasks Play Console will run:

Bot checks (binary scan, policy scan, age rating consistency) — ~10 min
Human review for first-time apps — typically 3-7 days for first launch, faster for updates

While waiting:

You’ll see status In review then Available on Google Play once approved
Play sends an email to your developer email at each stage

D4. After approval

Listing goes live at:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wheelword.game

Share the URL anywhere — social media, friends, your GitHub README.

Phase E — Future updates (cheat sheet)

Once you’re approved and live, every future update is much faster:

Bump versionCode + versionName in android-native/app/build.gradle.kts
git push origin main
Wait for CI to publish a new AAB artifact (~3 min)
Download AAB from GitHub Actions → Run → Artifacts
Play Console → Production → Create new release → drag AAB
Paste new release notes
Submit for review

Update reviews are usually approved in 4-24 hours.

Troubleshooting

“You uploaded an APK or Android App Bundle that was signed in debug mode”

→ The CI didn’t have signing secrets set, so Gradle fell back to debug keystore. Re-check the four UPLOAD_* GitHub Secrets are present and re-run the workflow.

“Your Android App Bundle is signed with the wrong key”

→ The first AAB you uploaded was signed with a different key. The fix is to submit an upload key reset request: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/contact/key Attach ~/Documents/keystore-backup/upload_certificate.pem.

“Action required: provide a privacy policy URL”

→ Paste https://hhariyanto29.github.io/word-wheels/privacy-policy/ into Main store listing → Privacy policy URL AND Data safety form → Privacy policy URL. The two fields are separate.

Pre-launch report flags 64-bit warnings

→ This shouldn’t happen for our build (Compose pulls in 64-bit deps by default), but if it does, add ndk { abiFilters += listOf("arm64-v8a", "x86_64") } to defaultConfig.

“App not installed as package appears to be invalid”

→ Specifically affects Xiaomi/MIUI, Samsung Secure Folder, older file-manager installers when the AAB is v2/v3 signed but not v1. Our build already enables all three (enableV1Signing = true, etc.) so this should not happen.

Useful links

Purpose	URL
Play Console	https://play.google.com/console
Public listing (after approval)	https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wheelword.game
Privacy policy	https://hhariyanto29.github.io/word-wheels/privacy-policy/
Website	https://hhariyanto29.github.io/word-wheels/
Source repo	https://github.com/hhariyanto29/word-wheels
Upload key reset form	https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/contact/key
Play Store review FAQ	https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9859348