The Android handover
What Google Play moves when you sell an Android app
Google Play moves an Android app to the buyer's developer account with its users, its ratings and its subscriptions. The orders it took before the move stay in the seller's account.
What goes, what stays
What changes hands when an app goes from the seller's developer account to the buyer's, as Google lists it.
Moves with the app
- Users, download statistics and data
- Ratings and reviews
- Subscriptions
- Store listing and content ratings
- Policy declarations from the App content page
- Package names and keys registered for Android developer verification
Stays with the seller
- Orders placed before the transferrefunds go through the old account or the API
- Earnings, payout and bulk export reports
- Promotions, though issued promo codes still work
- Test groups, which the buyer sets up again
- Links to Firebase, Analytics and other integrated services
Before the request
A transfer request can be submitted only once both developer accounts are registered and active. A buyer who opens a new account pays the US$25 registration fee, and Google can refund the seller's fee if the old account is closed after the transfer. The request itself needs the registration transaction IDs of both accounts, found in the receipts for the developer registration fee.
Earnings, payout and bulk export reports stay in the old account, and Google suggests downloading the ones you will need later. A paid app, or one with in-app products, also needs an active payments profile on the buyer's side.
Google, Play Console Help, "Transfer apps to a different developer account". Checked 24 September 2026.
After the transfer
Integrations do not follow the app on their own. Firebase projects are unlinked from the old Play Console and linked to the new one, the buyer's account gets permissions in Google Analytics, and it is added as an owner of the Google Developers Console projects.
Ad SDKs such as AdMob are updated in the app itself, so that ad traffic is credited to the buyer's account.
With Play App Signing, the same upload key and app signing key serve the app before and after the transfer. If either side is uneasy about that, the buyer can request a new upload key, or a new app signing key for new installs through a key upgrade.
The buyer approves the request, and Google's support team replies within two business days. For developers in the 15% service fee tier, an app moved between account groups counts that year's earnings in both groups' totals toward the first $1M.
Deals Tonic sells apps and SaaS from $20K a month off-market, Android and iOS alike. The transfer is planned before signing, including which reports the seller keeps and when the ad SDK switch ships.
Source: Google, Play Console Help, "Transfer apps to a different developer account". Checked 24 September 2026.
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Andrew Levenko
I run off-market M&A for online businesses: fintech, martech and consumer apps. Operator before that, scaled payments to $50M GMV. Based in the UAE.