Use a release audience restriction to limit your app's distribution
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You can greatly reduce the chances of accidentally distributing a version of
your app that isn't ready yet by using a release audience restriction in your
app bundle or APK. You can use this to prevent a build from being released to
production users through Play Console, or even from being distributed through
Play Console at all.
Release audience restrictions usage
To use a release audience restriction, you must add a <meta-data> element to
the <application> element in your AndroidManifest.xml file. This element
controls how far the distribution of the build can progress.
The <meta-data> tag must have its android:value attribute set to the empty
string, and the android:name attribute must be one of the following values:
The app bundle or APK can be uploaded to Play Console and distributed to
users through Internal App Sharing or any testing track, including open
testing. It cannot be included in a release on the
Production track.
This is intended to prevent accidental release
of test versions of apps to production users.
The app bundle or APK can be uploaded to Play Console and distributed to
users through Internal App Sharing or any closed testing track. It
cannot be included in a release on the Production or
Open Testing tracks.
This is intended to prevent accidental
release of test versions of apps to a large number of users.
The app bundle or APK can be uploaded to Play Console and distributed to
users through Internal App Sharing or the Internal Test Track. It
cannot be included in a release on the Production,
Open Testing, or Closed Testing tracks.
This is intended to
prevent accidental release of test versions of apps outside your
immediate team.
The app bundle or APK cannot be uploaded to or distributed through Play
Console.
This is intended to prevent releasing development-only
versions of apps to any users. For example, a build which has key
security features disabled for easier debugging.
For example, to prevent a build being released to production users, update your
AndroidManifest.xml file as follows:
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Last updated 2025-07-21 UTC.
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