Creating a developer account for personal use
When creating a personal account, you must provide the following information:
- Developer name; can be different from your legal name
- Legal name
- Legal address
- Contact email address
- Contact phone number
- Developer email address
- Developer website
Your developer name will appear on Google Play and can be changed at any time.
Your legal name and address will be taken from the Google payments profile that you linked to your developer account during account creation. You will need to verify these identity details before publishing on Google Play. Learn more about verifying your developer identity information.
Google will display your legal name, your country (as per your legal address) and developer email address on Google Play. If you decide to monetise on Google Play, then Google will display your full address.
Your contact email address, contact phone number and developer email address must be verified using a one-time password and remain operational for the duration of your developer account. Go to the best practices section below to find out more.
Creating a developer account for an organisation
When creating an organisation account, you must provide the following information:
- Developer name; can be different from your legal name
- As per your linked Google payments profile:
- DUNS number
- Organisation name
- Organisation address
- Organisation phone number
- Organisation website
- Contact name
- Contact email address
- Contact phone number
- Developer email address
- Developer phone number
Your developer name will appear on Google Play and can be changed at any time.
Your organisation name and address is taken from the Google payments profile that you linked to your developer account during account creation. You will need to verify these identity details before publishing on Google Play. Learn more about verifying your developer identity information.
To help improve transparency and user safety on Google Play, Google will display your legal name, legal address, developer email address and developer phone number on Google Play.
Your contact email address, contact phone number, developer email address and developer phone number must be verified using a one-time password and remain operational for the duration of your developer account. Go to the best practices section below to find out more.
What is a DUNS number and how can I get one?Assigned to organisations by Dun & Bradstreet, a DUNS number is a unique nine-digit identifier that is widely used to verify businesses. Organisations can use Dun & Bradstreet to see if they already have a D-U-N-S number, or request one for free. Many organisations already have a DUNS number as part of doing business. You should check whether your organisation has one before applying for a new one. You can do this by searching the official Dun & Bradstreet website. You can learn more about DUNS numbers by expanding the sections below.
Large organisations may have multiple DUNS numbers for the different entities that make up the organisation, so you must make sure that the one that you use to create your developer account contains the organisation details that you’d like to be associated with your developer account.
If you do not have a DUNS number then you can apply for one from Dun & Bradstreet. This process can take up to 30 days so you should plan ahead. You will not be able to create a developer account for an organisation without one.
If you’re in one of the regions that Dun and Bradstreet does not support, then you can apply to our support team for an alternative way to verify your organisation.
Only organisations that are unable to obtain a DUNS number will be given the option to onboard using an alternative method. Requests containing incomplete answers will not be considered. We will not accommodate any exemptions or provide extensions for any organisation accounts that fail to provide a DUNS number; you should prepare for this requirement before creating your developer account.
Tip: If you need to onboard without a DUNS number, contact support before you create your Google Play Developer account.
Linked Google payments profile
Your Play Console developer account is linked to a Google payments profile at the point of account creation, which represents your developer real-world identity. This payment profile, holding your legal name and address, must be kept up to date to keep your developer account in good standing.
If you decide to monetise on Google Play, you will need to create a merchant account. To receive payments, you must configure a payments profile, which can either be the same one that you used to create your developer account or a different one if you prefer.
Learn more about developer verifications.
Contact information requirements for developer accounts
All new Play Console developer accounts must have verified contact details. Google Play collects and verifies two sets of contact information from new developers:
- Contact phone number and email address that Google uses to contact you about your developer account. These are NOT shown to users on Google Play
- Developer contact information, dependent on account type, that Google displays on Google Play to help users contact developers about their products and services.
The developer contact information collected and shown on Google Play depends on the type of developer account being created. Personal developer accounts are required to provide and verify a developer email address, whereas organisations must provide and verify a developer email address and phone number. All contact details are verified using a one-time password during the developer account registration flow. These verification steps ensure that the contact information that we hold is accurate and up to date.
In addition to the contact details and developer contact information that Google Play collects, we also ask for your organisation's phone number. This should be the phone number that a user might be expected to find when looking up your organisation on the web or a public registry, like Dun & Bradstreet, and therefore might be different to the contact information that you set up for your Google Play Developer account. This is used to verify your developer identity details.
Contact information best practices
Learn best practices for managing your contact information (which is not shown to users on Google Play) and your developer contact information (which is shown to users in Google Play) by expanding the sections below.
Contact information best practices (not shown on Google Play)- Make sure that you keep your contact details up to date as this is how Google will communicate key information about your developer account. Similarly, ensure that your developer contact details are correct so that users can contact you.
- We may occasionally check if your account is active by emailing or calling the account owner using the details that you provided, so it is important that these details are accurate.
- Consider using a contact email address that is different from the one that you used when creating your developer account, especially if your developer account has multiple users or is created for an organisation or business. You might want to consider setting up a dedicated shared inbox for this purpose so that the right set of people within your team or organisation can access these important messages.
- The contact email address for an organisation or business account should not be generic or a personal email address. Make sure that you use an email address associated with your organisation.
- If you have an organisation account, make sure that you provide a developer email address and developer phone number that you or someone in your organisation can use to respond to queries from users. Make sure that you use an email address associated with your organisation. Google may remove your apps from Google Play if users cannot contact you.
- The developer email address for an organisation should not be a generic or personal email address.
Related content
- Keeping your developer account information up to date
- Choose a developer account type
- View our Play Console Requirements policy
- Learn more on the Android Developers Blog