Category: Android

Android Developer Verification on Google Play Console

NG Android, Useful

The purpose of this is to register package names and signing keys for all apps that you distribute for Android. In most cases, Google automatically registers package names and certificates used to sign the package from its developer console. In case where it fails to do it, or in cases where some apps are using different package names or different certificates for different stores, we may need to manually finish the process. The first step is to find out your app’s SHA-256 certificate fingerprint. We will use Keytool utility to retreive this information. Keytool is a built-in Java utility included in the JDK/JRE used to manage cryptographic keys, X.509 certificate chains, and trusted certificates. On windows, this tool (keytool.exe) can be located inside the bin directory of your Java installation. Add this location to the system PATH in widnows so that this tool can be executed from any directory. There[…]

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How to fill out Data Safety section in Samsung Galaxy Store Seller Portal for Admob

NG AdMob, Android, Mobile

If you are using Admob in your Android apps, and have uploaded your apps on Samsung Galaxy Store Sellter Portal, you need to fill Data Safety section while registering your app. Below are the details you need to fill In the country section, select “USA” as Admob data is stored in Google data centers which is an American company. The data is considered both collected as well as shared so fill out same details in shared section of the form.

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Samsung Galaxy Store suspending apps because of “Blocked by Play Protect” popup

NG Android, Issue, Uncategorized

I have multiple apps published in Samsung Galaxy Store and all those apps were also published in Google Play Store. All my apps in Samsung Galaxy store and Google Play Store were using different APKs since I was using Galaxy Store specific features in APKs published in Samsung Galaxy Store. Recently the issue started with app reviews when app review team started suspending my apps from the Galaxy Store because those apps were giving “Blocked by Play Protect” popup when installing from Galaxy Store. Some APKs were using same key for signing and some were using different keys so keeping the same signing key on both stores did not help. After looking for a couple days and trying different things, I finally found the solution which was also suggsted by the Galaxy Store app review team as well as some other developers to go and file an appeal using “Play[…]

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How to use LogCat to capture debug logs from an Android device

NG Android, How to

In order to capture logs from an Android device, the first step is to download and install Android Studio on your computer. Once Android Studio has been downloaded and installed, launch it. You need to create a new project in the Android Studio. Select the most basic template while creating the project. Once the project is created, it will be opened as following Notice the “Logcat” tab at the bottom. This is where we will be seeing logs from our Android device. The next step is to connect the Android device with your computer. Before you connect your Android device with the computer, make sure to enable developer options on your mobile device. In order to enable developer options on your mobile device, you need to go to the settings on your mobile phone and go to the “About phone” screen. You will see the phone’s build number. Tap it[…]

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The submitted icon is not shown AND/OR does not match the branding currently shown on the homepage.

NG Android, Issue, Useful

I recently submitted a Google Play Games Services project for an Android game in order to add leaderboard/achievements capability in the game and my submission for OAuth Consent Screen was rejected for the following issue My app was using the same icon which was uploaded for the Android game in the developer console. I uploaded the same icon a few times thinking that probbaly it’s the issue with icon format and kept getting rejected wih the same message. Finally I asked what do they mean by home page and in reply I received the ico file form my authorized domain website which did not match with the icon uploaded in the OAuth screen. I uploded the same icon image in the OAuth screen which was used in my authorized domain website (also hosting privacy policy) and finally OAuth consent screen was approved by Google.

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Steps to add Play Games Services to HTML5/Cordova App

NG Android, Code, Cordova, How to, JavaScript, Mobile, Plugin, Useful

If you have made an HTML5 game and have compiled the game to an APK using Cordova and now want to add Play Games Services to your app to use Leaderboard and Achievements from Play Games Services, you need to follow a set of steps to make it work. If you want to learn how to use cordova to compile HTML5 game to an APK and publish to the Google Play Store, follow the steps @ https://www.netexl.com/blog/use-cordova-to-compile-html5-games-to-android-app/ Assuming that we have installed all tools for cordova on our system and can compile the game to the APK, we will follow next steps for the Play Games Services integration. First we need to find a cordova plugin which integrates the Play Game Services API and add it to our project. Go to NPM and search for the latest plugin for the Play Game Services integration. If you have not already created[…]

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