Ship Your First Android App: From Empty Project to Google Play: Android Studio, Kotlin, Signing, Testing Tracks and Your First Release

Ship Your First Android App takes you from an empty Android Studio project to a real app live on Google Play, one step at a time and with nothing skipped. You set up Android Studio properly (SDK 36, the JDK question settled, an emulator that has Google Play, a real phone over USB), learn what every file in a new Compose project does, and build Torchlight, a small but real flashlight app in Kotlin and Jetpack Compose. Then comes the part most tutorials stop short of: an application ID you can live with forever, an adaptive icon, compileSdk, targetSdk and minSdk explained, versionCode done right, an R8-optimized release build signed with an upload key that never goes near Git, Play App Signing, the App Bundle, a Play Console account (personal or organization, the US$25 registration fee, developer verification), the closed test with at least 12 testers for 14 days that new personal accounts must pass before production, and a store listing that fits Google's limits. Every version number, limit and deadline was checked against Google's official pages in October 2026: Android Studio 2026.2.1, AGP 9.4.0, Kotlin 2.4.21, Compose BOM 2026.09.00, target API 36.

What you get

• A clean setup: Android Studio, SDK platform 36, the right JDK, an emulator with Google Play and a real phone, checked in two minutes
• A new Compose project explained file by file: settings.gradle.kts, the libs.versions.toml version catalog, both build files, the manifest, MainActivity
• A tiny real app built step by step: Torchlight, with a class that owns the flash, a Compose screen, a preview and a device test table
• The decisions you can't undo: the application ID, the name under the icon, an adaptive icon, SDK levels and versionCode
• A release build that holds up: R8 on, the upload key vs the app signing key, keystore.properties kept out of Git, the App Bundle, testing the release itself
• Play Console without surprises: personal or organization, the sign-up step by step, Android developer verification, the "set up your app" tasks
• Testing tracks and the 12-tester rule: internal, closed, open and production, a 14-day closed test, a tester message, and how to answer the production access application
• Your first release: the 30/80/4000-character text limits, exact graphic sizes, the production release, and what to watch in the first weeks

62 pages, 23 diagrams plus a chapter-opener graphic for every chapter, a checklist and a cheat sheet. PDF and EPUB. Android the Right Way, Book 1.

Not sure yet? Read the free sample first: the cover, the full table of contents and all of Chapter 7, "Testing Tracks and the 12-Tester Rule" (the four tracks, an internal test for yourself, the closed test that unlocks production, recruiting and keeping 12+ testers, the production access application and the whole timeline on one page), at https://payhip.com/b/mIYh9

Also in a bundle: Everything Bundle: all 11 ebooks, $89 · Android Bundle: 5 ebooks, $49. Code RIGHTWAY20 = 20% off any order through Oct 31.