Amazon Fire TV- Submitting an app to the store

Submitting an Amazon Fire TV App to the Amazon App Store

- Guidance Note

Introduction

This document does not replace the full Amazon guidelines for app submission, rather it identifies the necessary steps that are split across a number pages in Amazon’s developer documentation and where to find the detailed information.

Introductory reading

How to publish, manage, and distribute your app	https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/understanding-submission.html
App pre-submission checklist	https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/presubmission-checklist.html
Amazon Developer Console	https://developer.amazon.com/home.html

 

Basic Preparation

There are 3 key things to have in place for Amazon App Store submission

1. A signed .apk file of the application
2. Additional graphical assets for the app store that are not part of the actual app .apk
3. Amazon Developer Console set up to manage the app submission and lifcycle

APK preparation

For managed customers: -  Final customer approved .apk file is provided and signed by Applicaster.

For platform customers - Final approved .apk file is provided and signed by the customer.

The final customer approved .apk file needs to be signed by creating a Keystore File, Keystore Password, Key Alias, and Key Password. Applicaster can provide this if they have built the apps or it can be created by the customer.  Do not lose the provided key or it will not be possible to update apps.

To create these,  in the Terminal type:

keytool -genkey -v -keystore NameOfFile.keystore -storepass KeyStorePassword -alias KeyStoreAlias -keypass KeyPassword-keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000

Change words marked in blue with passwords and names to fit your app. Answer the questions in Terminal on running the command. Once completed the Key Store File will be on your computer.

When running your release build you just need to enter the credentials with which you created the file. 

 

Amazon Apps Store Asset Requirements

1	Include all the graphical assets for the Amazon app store listing.  Need to be provided by customer. https://developer.amazon.com/docs/ap p-submission/asset-guidelines.html	App Icon	1280px x 720px  PNG No transparency
		Screenshots 3 Minimum, 10 maximum	1920px x 1280px landscape 24bit PNG or JPEG No Transparency
		Background Image when users scroll over your app. Appears in top right ¼ of the screen	1920px x 1280px Landscape 24bit PNG or JPEG No Transparency
		Feature rotator. Similar to top-shelf on Apple TV. Consists of background image, text overlay and optional video trailer and Alexa speach command bubble	Background: Dimensions 1920 x 720px,  Aspect Ratio 8:3, Color Space RGB, Format JPEG, Maximum File Size 450KB. Logo overlay: Dimensions 640 x 260px, Color Space RGB,Format PNG (with transparency), Alignment Left-aligned, vertically centered Maximum File Size 450KB Logo Size Less than 145 x 55 px Trademark symbols None allowed Includes Simple Call-to-Action Less than 14 characters Video trailer if required: Dimensions 16:9 (1920 x 1080px), Resolution 1080p, Bitrate 2800 kbps, Video Code H.264, Format MP4, Loudness Level -24 LKFS +/- 2dB, True Peak Level - 2dB, Maximum Video File Size 6MB, Duration 15-18 seconds

Amazon Developer Console, App Release and Management

Step	Action	Further detail	Note
1	Sign up / login at the developer console https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/publish-app-login-and-add-app.html	Unlike Google, Amazon is free
	Add an Android app to the console https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/publish-app-login-and-add-app.html
	Multiple users can be added to the account https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/manage-account-and-permissions.html#add_other_users	Admin, Marketer, analyst, Developer
2	Set up the basic information for the app https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/publish-app-general-information.html	Title, SKU, Category, API Developer Keys, Customer support contact	SKU (like the Package name in Android) is provided by the  Applicaster app creation process
3	Set availability and pricing https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/publish-app-availability-pricing.html	Countries, Regions, Pricing, App Publishing Schedule
4	Add descriptions for the app store https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/publish-app-descriptions.html	Title, Long Description, Short Description, Release Notes, etc.
5	Insert the graphical assets https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/asset-guidelines.html	See above description
6	Rate the content for subject matter and other information about content https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/publish-app-content-rating.html	Includes privacy policy
7	Add the .apk file https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/publish-app-upload-apk-files.html	App is signed by Applicaster Supported devices is automatic from the app manifest file but should be checked for only Amazon TV devices
8	Submit App https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/viewing-app-submission-status.html	Will flag if there are any submission errors and if all OK the app will go through Amazon’s App approval process