Since we launched, we’ve been seeing an influx of developers submitting their app(s) to the Amazon Appstore for Android – which is great!  After apps are submitted, before they can be published in the store, we run the app through technical and content-focused testing.  The vast majority of apps pass testing quickly and with no issues…to maximize the chances that your app will similarly move through our validation process quickly, we will be posting some best practices for helping your app fly through testing. 

 Let’s take a quick look at the most frequent reasons why apps don’t make it through:

1. Functionality - The app contains general usability issues that make it difficult to use or prohibits the intended functionality
2. Interrupts - The app has difficulty handling interruptions, like an incoming phone call, changing the orientation, or random input 
3. Incorrect Linking - The app links to a store other than the Amazon Appstore for Android
4. Stability - The app has a memory leak, pegs the CPU, or otherwise Force Closes with frequency
5. Security - The app requires access to sensitive information, or takes too many liberties with the requested permission set
6. GUI Issues - The app has a less than ideal user experience; perhaps it does not properly scale to different resolutions or other UI elements do not display properly when interacted with

Because many developers have their Android apps published in other stores and are simply re-using their existing apk, incorrect linking can be an area of confusion.  Apps submitted to the Amazon Appstore must have links pointing to the Amazon Appstore (vs. other Android storefronts).  To help your app(s) fly through testing, incorrect linking is an area you can validate and fix quickly before submitting.

Now, how do you ensure your links point to the Amazon Appstore?  Easy, just follow these simple rules:

• Identify any intents that open an application’s details page in another app store, such as the following snipper that opens a page in the Android Market

• Then simply change the URI as specified in the intent.setData call to point to the Amazon Appstore.  Note, this format is useful if you are not sure the user has the Amazon Appstore installed on their device

• Alternatively, you can use the Amazon Appstore intent and link that way.  This is a more convenient format for developers.

Doing a quick check through your code before you submit your app will ensure you don’t get delayed.  In addition, there are a number of ways you can replace the actual String in the URI call so that you can keep one code base and not have to maintain separate code structures for each store you choose to sell your app in.

We hope you keep the scenarios above in mind as you code, and look forward to even more great apps being submitted.