Publish an app (Step I) — The 12 Testers Saga

Fitness Hub is my first attempt at creating a secondary income stream — a free fitness tracking app that I plan to monetize later with premium features and subscriptions. For now, it’s completely free and functional enough that I use it daily.

From Idea to MVP

After months of juggling full-time work as a software developer, earning my driver’s license, training for a natural bodybuilding competition, and managing personal life, I finally shipped a stable MVP.

It’s not perfect — a few UX quirks remain — but it’s clean, simple, and solid enough to be my daily driver.

Getting the Developer Account

Setting up the Google Play developer account was painless: €25 fee, identity verification, and a dedicated email (which I’ll probably replace with a single master account for all my apps).

The Play Console questionnaire was easy for Fitness Hub: no ads, no purchases, no sensitive data leaving the device. I just had to add contact details, a website, and a privacy policy.

Building the Store Page

Designing the store listing was another story. I’m a coder, not a designer. My “workflow” was a mix of Canva/Figma templates, device mockups, and GIMP edits — none satisfying.

Then I found Previewed, a web app for generating store-ready images. It’s buggy as hell (refresh after almost every click), but after a few hours I had a decent carousel. Descriptions were easier — ChatGPT already knew the app’s strengths and helped me write SEO-friendly copy in English and Spanish.

The 12 Testers Problem

Here’s the catch: Google Play won’t let you publish without 12 testers using your app for 14 consecutive days. For solo devs, that’s brutal.

I discovered Tester Community, a platform where devs test each other’s apps. My first attempt flopped (I skipped some instructions), but the second time worked — and I even tested a few interesting apps myself.

Still, progress was slow. I dug up two old phones — only the Realme worked, becoming my first official tester. That left me with 11 to go.

Then I tried virtual machines. ChatGPT warned it wouldn’t work… but it did. Using Android Studio, I spun up three emulators with separate Google accounts. By the fourth, Google asked for a phone number, so I was stuck. Luckily, more testers from Tester Community started joining in.

Between them, the emulators, and my physical devices, I hit the magic number: 12 testers. The 14-day countdown began — and the release was finally in sight.