The 2026 Play Store Launch Checklist

You can finish the app and still not be allowed to publish it. New personal developer accounts need twelve testers running a closed test for fourteen consecutive days, and production access review adds up to seven more. That is three weeks between finished code and a live app, and none of it is coding. This covers that rule, the API 36 deadline, and the forms that cause rejections.

What's included

• The 12 testers and 14 days rule, including the four traps in it
• The 31 August 2026 API 36 deadline and the extension route
• Privacy policy, Data Safety, account deletion and permissions
• A do-this-when table so the slow items run during the build
• A pre-publish checkbox list