What are Android Package names and how do they work?

Question

I want to make an app which i want to publish to the play store.

While creating the app it requires a package name which is something like com.example.myapp

On doing some research i came to know that it specifies a domain name and is used to uniquely identify our app on play store.

I wanted to know how these packages name work and how do i get the assurity that no other app on play store wont have the same package name as mine.

Also usually when we start android studio it gives a package name com.example.mpapplication. What happens if i try to publish the app with this package name?

use can use your gmail account username like **com.ankitdubey123.myfirstapp** — Ankit Dubey, May 11 '19 at 05:29
@AnkitDubey if i keep it same as com.example.app then is it ok to publish? — Talha Israr, May 11 '19 at 05:30
i think playstore will not allow. And even if it allows, you shouldn't do this, because you search your app by complete package name. Also if you are publishing an app, then it should reflect your identity. — Ankit Dubey, May 11 '19 at 05:33
@AnkitDubey thanks for your reply . Also is there any limit or minimum requirement for words in package name like com.hello.world.talha.israr — Talha Israr, May 11 '19 at 05:35
I've not tried with so many inner packages. however it should work — Ankit Dubey, May 11 '19 at 05:36

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 11 '19 at 05:32

Package name uses a “reverse DNS” convention in which the domain name is reversed and suffixed with further identifiers. This convention keeps package names unique and distinguishes applications from each other on a device and on Google Play.

You don't need to own a .com domain in order to release apps on Play store. It is just a standard. So, Pick some unique name and suffix it with "com. "

If you want to check whether the name you picked is unique or not, simply add it to the following url : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vspinsight.appik.mehangai

Here id=" " is the package name of my app. If the url takes you to an app, that means the package name is already taken.

What are Android Package names and how do they work?

1 Answers1