You’ve made it! You’ve completed the hard work of designing and building your app. Now it’s time to bring it to the Amazon Appstore.
Amazon is committed to app quality and security, for the sake of both developers and users. When your apps adhere to the Amazon Appstore’s compliance requirements, you’ll enhance app visibility and trustworthiness—and you’ll steer clear of any chance that your app or your account runs into policy issues.
Follow these steps to submit your app. This guide provides practical steps to help you meet Amazon’s standards and avoid typical missteps.
Add a new app by navigating to the Developer Console. Under Apps & Services, add a new app. Add a title, choose a category for your app, and provide customer support information.
Now, you’re all ready to upload your app file, provide details about your app, and test it in preparation for review and deployment.
Before uploading, ensure your app meets Amazon Appstore’s standards. Amazon provides you with the Amazon Appstore Presubmission Checklist to help you validate your app in preparation for submission. This begins by ensuring your app has been thoroughly tested according to the Test Criteria for Amazon Appstore Apps.
You should test your app to validate that it presents a well-designed user experience. It should be free of bugs and any other cosmetic issues. Review the full list of general qualifications that your app should meet. In addition, the apps for Fire tablets should have a UI that considers both the notification bar and the dynamic soft key menu.
Ensure your app does not use capabilities which are not present on an Amazon device. This means not using any of the permissions found here.
Finally, walk through each of the following lists of test criteria to validate your app:
The test criteria lists may seem long, but they’re worth going through. Validating your apps according to these test criteria will help you and the Amazon Appstore ensure that published apps maintain high standards of quality and usability.
In addition, you can use Amazon’s app testing tools to verify their readiness for the Amazon Appstore platform. Test services include:
When you’re ready, click Upload your app file. Your file(s) will be uploaded and validated.
Next, provide details regarding your app’s target devices and geographical availability.
In this step, you will specify which devices your app was designed to accommodate. These target devices are already pre-selected for you based on the app files you uploaded, but you can edit the list if necessary . Note that Amazon will run its own compatibility tests to confirm that your app actually works with all the devices you've targeted, once you’ve submitted your app.
Next, specify where your app should be made available.
Set the target audience for your app. Take special note of Amazon’s Child-Directed App Policy, especially if your app targets children under the age of 13 (or under the age of 16 in the European Union, Australia, or Japan). This will require compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) as well as impact app content and the use of advertising in your app.
Lastly, fill out the 13-field questionnaire so that the Amazon Appstore can determine your app’s content rating.
As an Amazon app developer, it’s important for you to be familiar with the Appstore’s content policies. These policies will guide your development for all future apps.
Review the Amazon Appstore Content Policy page and its associated pages to gain familiarity with the policies. At first glance, the list may seem complex. We’ll simplify it here by breaking down the key takeaways for you.
The Amazon Appstore is a family-friendly environment with a diverse, global audience. If your app contains content that would not be considered "family-friendly" and does not have adequate safeguards in place for our young customers, it will be rejected or suppressed from the Amazon Appstore.
Avoid infringing on privacy, intellectual property, or individual rights, ensuring that your app adheres to ethical practices and respects users' trust.
Uphold the quality, security, and functionality standards expected on the Amazon Appstore by avoiding deceptive behaviors, prohibited content, and violations of privacy or security policies.
The policy guidelines apply not only to in-app content, but also to app metadata—such as app title, descriptions, images, and keywords. Apply these guidelines consistently to maintain a compliant and trustworthy presence.
To ensure compliance upon app submission and maintain compliance with every app update, you should review your app content thoroughly for policy alignment. This will help simplify and speed up your app submission and review process.
Completing the content rating questionnaire is required for app submission.
Privacy labels let your app users know what data your app collects and how it is used. In the User data privacy section of this app submission step, you will be asked whether your app collects user data or transfers user data to third parties. If you answer “Yes,” then you will need to complete the User Data Privacy Questionnaire, which the Amazon Appstore will use to generate the appropriate privacy labels to display with your app.
Go through each section of the User Data Privacy Questionnaire to detail the types of data your app collects or transfers to a third party.
To foster customer trust, state exactly what your app does (and doesn’t do) regarding data collection or transfers. Learn more about how to work with privacy labels during app submission. It might be tempting to rush through this section and click all or nothing, but that can break user trust and result in your app being rejected or suppressed.
If your app includes in-app purchasing (IAP), you will also need to create and submit the in-app items before you can submit your app. The In-App Purchasing Overview provides a detailed explanation of how IAP works. If your app has in-app content for purchase, you must use the Amazon IAP API.
There are various reasons why an app submission may be rejected. These are three of the most common causes for rejection.
Amazon’s content policy for intellectual property (IP) and copyright states:
Your apps, including app metadata, must not infringe on the intellectual property rights (including copyright, trademark and publicity rights) of a third party.
To use third-party copyrighted content, trademarked content, or content that incorporates the name, image, or likeness of a celebrity, you must have their permission. Ultimately, you are responsible for ensuring you have the proper rights for any content in your app.
To avoid IP violations, ensure that all your app assets (such as images or music) are properly licensed or original.
If any digital content in your app is made available for purchase, the content policy for monetization and advertising requires you to use the IAP API through the Appstore SDK (or the Appstore Billing Compatibility SDK if you are porting your app from Google Play). If your app makes purchasing of content available outside of Amazon’s IAP framework, then it will be rejected.
The Appstore policy on restricted content provides a list of types of content which are in violation of its family-friendly content requirements. This includes sexually explicit content, hateful or harassing content, user-generated content without adequate safeguards, content that promotes terrorism or violent extremism, and more.
However, even an app without restricted content can be rejected if its content does not match the ratings established through the content rating questionnaire. Amazon’s guidelines state:
Based on your selections here, Amazon assigns a summary maturity rating to your app and then displays that rating on the app detail page in the Appstore. Amazon reserves the right to assign maturity ratings for your app at its discretion.
If it’s determined that the content in your app does not match what you stated in the questionnaire, your app submission will be rejected.
No. The Amazon Developer Services Agreement states: “Other than through our In-App Purchasing API or other methods we make available to you, your Mobile App may not facilitate, or direct customers to use, any other method of paying for Content intended to be used within your Mobile App.”
If your app has been made unavailable because of a policy violation, and you want to contest it or ask for clarification, use the Contact Us form to inquire.
To appeal an availability restriction or reported violation for your app, use the Contact Us form.
Submitting your app to the Amazon Appstore requires careful attention to policy, quality, and user experience. Each step in this guide helps you set up your app for success. Avoiding pitfalls like intellectual property violations and mismatched content ratings ensures a smoother submission process. If you follow all of these steps, you'll have a much better chance of getting your app accepted the first time, avoiding having to resubmit.
The security checks and submission guidelines from the Amazon Appstore play a crucial role in maintaining trust with both developers and users. By meeting these standards, you will not only prevent submission delays or rejections, but you’ll also improve the quality of your apps and the Fire device ecosystem.