1 page.title=Open Distribution 2 @jd:body 3 4 <p>As an open platform, Android offers choice. You 5 distribute your Android apps to users in any way you want, using any 6 distribution approach or combination of approaches that meets your needs. 7 From publishing in an app marketplace to serving your apps from a web site or 8 emailing them directly users, you are never locked into any 9 particular distribution platform.</p> 10 11 <p>The process for building and packaging your app for distribution is the same, 12 regardless of how you will distribute your app. This saves you time and lets you 13 automate parts of the process as needed. You can read <a 14 href="{@docRoot}tools/publishing/preparing.html">Preparing 15 for Release</a> for more information.</p> 16 17 <p>The sections below highlight some of the alternatives for distributing 18 your apps to users.</p> 19 20 <h2 id="publishing-marketplace">Distributing through an App Marketplace</h2> 21 22 <p>Usually, to reach the broadest possible audience, you would distribute your 23 apps through a marketplace, such as Google Play.</p> 24 25 <p>Google Play is the premier marketplace for Android apps and is particularly 26 useful if you want to distribute your applications to a large global audience. 27 However, you can distribute your apps through any app marketplace you want or 28 you can use multiple marketplaces.</p> 29 30 <h2 id="publishing-email">Distributing your application through email</h2> 31 32 <div class="figure" style="width:246px"> 33 <img src="{@docRoot}images/publishing/publishing_via_email.png" 34 alt="Screenshot showing the graphical user interface users see when you send them an app" 35 style="width:240px;" /> 36 <p class="img-caption"> 37 <strong>Figure 1.</strong> Users can simply click <strong>Install</strong> when you send them 38 an application via email. 39 </p> 40 </div> 41 42 <p>The easiest and quickest way to release your application is to send it to users through 43 email. To do this, you prepare your application for release and then attach it to an email 44 and send it to a user. When users open your email message on their Android-powered device, 45 the Android system will recognize the APK and display an <strong>Install Now</strong> 46 button in the email message (see figure 1). Users can install your application by touching the 47 button.</p> 48 49 <p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> The <strong>Install Now</strong> button 50 shown in Figure 1 appears only if users have configured their device to allow 51 installation from <a href="#unknown-sources">unknown sources</a> and have opened your 52 email with the native Gmail application.</p> 53 54 <p>Distributing applications through email is convenient if you are sending your application to 55 only a few trusted users, but it provides few protections from piracy and unauthorized 56 distribution; that is, anyone you send your application to can simply forward it to someone else.</p> 57 58 <h2 id="publishing-website">Distributing through a web site</h2> 59 60 <p>If you do not want to release your app on a marketplace like Google Play, you 61 can make the app available for download on your own website or server, including 62 on a private or enterprise server. To do this, you must first prepare your 63 application for release in the normal way. Then all you need to do is host the 64 release-ready APK file on your website and provide a download link to users. 65 </p> 66 67 <p>When users browse to the download link from their Android-powered devices, 68 the file is downloaded and Android system automatically starts installing it on 69 the device. However, the installation process will start automatically only if 70 users have configured their Settings to allow the installation of apps from 71 <a href="#unknown-sources">unknown sources</a>.</p> 72 73 <p>Although it is relatively easy to release your application on your own 74 website, it can be inefficient. For example, if you want to monetize your 75 application you will have to process and track all financial transactions 76 yourself and you will not be able to use Google Play's <a 77 href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/index.html">In-app Billing service</a> 78 to sell in-app products. In addition, you will not be able to use the <a 79 href="{@docRoot}google/play/licensing/index.html">Licensing service</a> to 80 help prevent unauthorized installation and use of your application.</p> 81 82 83 <h2 id="unknown-sources">User Opt-In for Apps from Unknown Sources</h2> 84 85 <div class="figure" style="width:246px;margin-top:0;"> 86 <img src="{@docRoot}images/publishing/publishing_unknown_sources_sm.png" 87 alt="Screenshot showing the setting for accepting download and install of 88 apps from unknown sources." style="width:240px;" /> 89 <p class="img-caption"> 90 <strong>Figure 2.</strong> Users must enable the <strong>Unknown sources</strong> 91 setting before they can install apps not downloaded from Google Play. 92 </p> 93 </div> 94 95 <p>Android protects users from inadvertent download and install of apps from 96 locations other than Google Play (which is trusted). It blocks such installs 97 until the user opts-in <strong>Unknown sources</strong> in 98 Settings <strong>></strong> Security, shown in Figure 2. To allow 99 the installation of applications from other sources, users need to enable the 100 Unknown sources setting on their devices, and they need to make this 101 configuration change <em>before</em> they download your application to their 102 devices.</p> 103 104 <p class="note">Note that some network providers do not allow users to install 105 applications from unknown sources.</p> 106 107 108
