The app was finished. It had an icon. It had a name. Inside the emulator, it ran properly.
“Right, all that’s left is to register it on Google Play and publish it.” That was genuinely what I thought: pay the registration fee of around $25, and people all over the world could download my app.
But as I worked through the registration with my AI partner Kuro (Claude), one unexpected wall after another appeared. Anyone who builds an app will probably hit these, so I hope this gives you some mental preparation.
Wall 1: Your address gets published to the entire world
The first thing Kuro told me made me doubt my ears.
If you release a monetized app on Google Play, the developer’s name and address are published on the app’s page.
And not a vague address either — down to the street number, visible to anyone who scrolls down the app’s page.
My app is being built with the intention of monetizing it eventually, so it falls squarely into the “app that earns money” category. My home address would be out there, worldwide.
“In this day and age, can that really be true?” I was only half convinced, so I asked Kuro to check it properly. It was written plainly in Google’s official help: for consumer protection, apps that earn revenue have to display a complete address. Kuro also found a first-hand account from an individual developer shocked to see their address published right down to the street number.
Assuming “surely it won’t actually be shown” is natural, but in reality the street number does get published. Google prioritizes consumer protection — so buyers can confirm who is selling the app — and deliberately makes it public.
This was careless of me. Left in ignorance, I would have put my house, where I live, on show to the whole world down to the street number. Close call.
Wall 2: As an individual, you need twenty testers
So how do you keep your address hidden? This is where the type of account comes in. A Google Play developer account comes in two kinds: personal and organization. Apparently personal accounts created in recent years come with a high hurdle: before you can publish, around twenty testers have to use the app for a set period. For an individual developer, that is a serious wall.
But if you register as an organization — a sole proprietor or a company — that twenty-tester requirement is waived, and you can use a trade name as the developer name instead of your real name.
I was fortunate here. I have already filed as a sole proprietor and I have a trade name, so I chose the organization route without hesitating: no twenty-tester test, and my real name stays hidden. Between blogging and affiliate work I am already properly running a business, so it was a natural choice.
Wall 3: A virtual office as the solution
A trade name hides my real name. But what about the address? Even with an organization account, the business address is published, and using my house was out of the question.
This is where a virtual office comes in — a service that rents you a business address for around a thousand yen a month. What gets published is that address, completely separate from my home. A lot of individual developers protect their homes this way.
I will be honest: I had a quiet negotiation with my wallet. “Thirteen thousand yen a year, huh… that feels like a waste.”
But as I talked it through with Kuro, my view changed. This is not a wasteful expense; it is necessary insurance against my home address going out to the entire world. And I intend to release several apps, so this address is not for one app — it is shared infrastructure for all of them. Far better to set it up properly at the start than to expose my house on app number one.
One more thing pleased me: the virtual office also happens to be an affiliate offer. Signing up myself brings some of the cost back as a self-back reward, and writing up the experience helps the next person who hits the same wall. A necessary expense turns into both revenue and content. Fishing, blogging, apps, monetization — it feels good when the things I do quietly join up like that.
Wall 4: The D-U-N-S number, and the waiting
And then the last big one. To create an organization account you need a D-U-N-S number: nine digits used worldwide to prove that a business actually exists — something like a My Number, Japan’s national ID system, but for businesses. Google does not want people who merely call themselves sole proprietors; it wants businesses whose existence has been confirmed by a third party, and this number plays that confirming role.
You can get one for free, but issuing takes anywhere from a few days to about two weeks, and apparently you can pay to speed it up. Either way, it is not something you receive the day you apply. There is no avoiding a stretch of waiting here.
The app was done, but publishing turned out to be paperwork
In order, my road to publishing looks like this. Sign a virtual office contract and secure a business address. Apply for a D-U-N-S number with that address and wait. Once the number arrives, register an organization account in the Google Play Console and pay the $25. Then review, and finally publication. Like dominoes, each step is the precondition for the next.
As of today I have finished the virtual office application and the identity verification. What is left is the payment, and the D-U-N-S application after that. (There was a bit of trouble with the payment, but that is a story for another day.)
For someone who cannot program, building an app with AI was surprisingly smooth. But between there and putting it out into the world sat a completely different set of obstacles from code: addresses, documents, numbers — plain, practical paperwork.
More than once I wondered, “am I actually going to reach the release?” Each time, Kuro laid out where I was standing and what to do next, so I never got lost. On my own, I would not have noticed the address-disclosure trap, and the twenty-tester wall would have broken my spirit.
So: building an app and publishing it are two separate mountains. But both can be climbed with a guide. I am still partway up, and the summit is in sight. When I get it published safely, I will report back.
If you are earlier in the process, see how I designed my app icon with AI, or how I asked AI whether the app would make any money.
