Submitting a new app

Creating an account

To submit an app to Accrescent, you first need to create an account on the developer console. Currently login with GitHub is the only supported login method.

Sign-up is not yet available to the general public and is only permitted for allowlisted GitHub accounts. This choice was made to ensure that all developers on Accrescent are willing to tolerate the lackluster user experience, console bugs, and frequent policy changes resultant of Accrescent being in its early stages. If you are not allowlisted and are still interested in publishing on Accrescent, you may contact us at contact@accrescent.app to request being allowlisted.

Submission process

To upload a new app, click the "New app" button on your dashboard. You will be presented with an upload form. Upload the APK set (.apks file) you generated earlier as well as an app icon. The APK set must be less or equal to 150 MiB in size and the icon must be a 512 x 512 PNG. If you already have a Play Store icon, you can use it here. If you don't have an icon, you can generate one in Android Studio (make sure "Play Store icon" is selected).

Click "Upload" after you've selected the correct files. Once your files are finished uploading, you'll be presented with an autofilled form with basic information about your app. You may edit the display name if you wish. This is the name that will appear to users in the store. Once you're satisfied that your app's information is correct, click "Submit" to begin the review process.

If some or all of your app's functionality requires authentication to access, please provide test account credentials for the review process. This is currently not possible within the developer console, so you will need to contact the Accrescent team directly to provide them.

Domain verification

To verify developer ownership of the apps they publish, we are phasing in a requirement for all newly submitted apps to verify ownership of the domain associated with their app ID. For example, if your app's ID is com.example.securechat.android, we require proof that you control the example.com domain.

This is currently a manual process, but we plan to automate it more in the future. The verification process is as follows:

  1. For each app you submit to review, we will email you:
    • A link to these instructions
    • The domain you need to verify (e.g. example.com)
    • A unique verification code (e.g. 95b9061653be1d2a904408f8297bc294)
  2. Go to your domain registrar's website and add a DNS record with the following information, replacing <your-domain> with your domain and <your-verification-code> with your verification code (excluding the angle brackets):
    • Record type: TXT
    • Host/name: _accverify.<your-domain> (or _accverify with some DNS managers)
    • Value/data/content: <your-verification-code>
  3. We will periodically check your domain verification status (or you can email us to let us know when you have completed step 2). Once verified, the app will proceed with review.

After you submit

A reviewer will be assigned to your app after you submit it. To increase its chances of being accepted, please review the app requirements later in this guide before submitting.

If the app is accepted, it will be passed on to have its metadata cryptographically signed into the store. This process ensures Accrescent's security even if one of its servers is compromised. You don't need to do anything at this point. Once your app is published, you will be notified and it will show up under "My apps" in the developer console