Android app badges

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Both Amazon and Google, the two biggest players in the Android app space, have the ability to show “badges” so you can link people directly to your app.  Maybe it doesn’t surprise you, but Google did it better for the Android Market.

Android Market button

UPDATE:  see the most recent Google Play badge guidelines here.  They change periodically:

https://play.google.com/intl/en_us/badges/

Google went so far as to have a badge generator for you, and to host the images.  That’s pretty handy.  You just enter your package name, select the button size, and you now have a snippet of code to paste into your page.

Overall, Google’s solution is pretty slick.

 Amazon Appstore button Continue reading →

Android app declined payments, refunds, and chargebacks

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Android Payment DeclinedAn unfortunate part of Android app sales is getting declined payments, refunds, and even chargebacks. It can be discouraging when you find that income you could have earned is snatched back from you, so it’s best to arm yourself with knowledge of how the system works.

Each market has different rules for refunds, which can play a big part in how many refunds you get.  Of course, the refund policy can affect how many people choose to buy in the first place, but it’s harder to measure that.

Android Market

I get updates on my Android Market sales, using the Appmonger app.  Since each sale can be refunded within 15 minutes, orders are pending for that period of time.  In addition, if there is a problem with the transaction (such as a declined credit card), the transaction is also cancelled. Continue reading →

Updating Android ad network SDKs

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It has to be done, but it’s sometimes a pain.  Updating the SDK libraries for your ad networks.  As I discussed earlier, sometimes things go awry and can take a little time.  Usually, however, it’s not a big deal and can be resolved with a little tinkering (and maybe some web searching).

A big plus, however, is that there may be bug fixes and more importantly feature updates.  I just integrated 3.0 version of the MobFox SDK, and was pleasantly surprised that they removed another permission, the WiFi state access.

I also updated MobClix to 3.1.1, but I don’t recall any significant changes in this round.

Updating Permissions

Removing permissions is a good thing.  I’d prefer my apps to be as trim as possible, and users do too.  Excess permissions can scare off users, particularly if they don’t know why your app is requesting it.  So, I’m always glad to see ad vendors shed permissions that they don’t really need.

When installing the MobFox 3.0 SDK (which interestingly includes the 1.2 jar), I noted that the instructions don’t require as many permissions any more.  The following were removed from their list of required permissions: Continue reading →

Testing your Android app

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Android App Passed InspectionIt can be very tempting to release your Android app immediately after you finish it.  You want it to be available for download on the Android Market as soon as possible, right?

On the other hand, you don’t want to get a lot of bad reviews because you left in a lot of bugs.  It is much better to find and fix bugs before you release your app than to have your users find them for you.

How should you go about testing, then?  There are several types of testing that you should do.

Testing your basic use cases

First, do some testing in the emulator. Fire up your favorite AVD (or create one if needed – see the Android developer site for detailed instructions). Verify that it indeed looks as you intended.

Your layouts should look correct in the emulator, including any ads you are showing (such as MobFox).  If so, everything is working! It is important to test different resolutions and orientations to verify that it always looks as you expect. Test all activities that you have set up to show ads. Continue reading →

Amazon Appstore marketing promotion – AppStoreHQ

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Amazon Appstore for AndroidAnother quick news item for anyone close to releasing an Android app.  The Amazon Appstore has announced that they’re running a promotion with AppStoreHQ.

Update: AppStoreHQ seems to be defunct, and has disappeared.

They’ll select five apps out of all apps that get released on the Amazon Appstore before July 22nd, 2011.  These apps will get showcased on the AppStoreHQ website, which should get a lot of visibility and traffic for those apps.

I find this interesting, as AppStoreHQ has been a market browser tied to the Android Market.  I suspect that this operation might signal that they are switching over to use the Amazon Appstore instead.  That’s likely good, as there are a number of browsers for the Android Market, but no third party browsers for Amazon.

You actually don’t have to do anything difficult to get into this promotion.  You just need to release a new app.  If you don’t have any apps up there yet, you can read my review of the Amazon Appstore here.