Understanding Amazon Underground - Amazon Apps & Services Developer Portal

Understanding Amazon Underground

The Amazon Underground Schedule describes the program eligibility requirements in detail. As you consider submitting your app to the Amazon Underground program, make sure that it adheres to the following general requirements for the program:

• Your mobile app must be available for download from at least one other app store, such as Google Play, and be monetized in at least one of the following ways:
  • The app is available for purchase for a fee in all other app stores where it is sold.
  • The app contains in-app items that are available for purchase for a fee.
• Your mobile app must not contain any subscription in-app items.
• The features and gameplay of the Amazon Underground version of your app must be substantially similar to or better than the non-Underground version.
• When you submit your app to the Amazon Appstore, you must make your app available for distribution on at least one non-Amazon mobile device.

Use this calculator and your own data to predict the per-user revenue that you could be paid by submitting your app to Amazon Underground. You can compare these numbers with your current per-user revenue earned via downloads and/or IAP. See Monetizing Your App with Amazon Underground to learn more about revenue forecasting and monetization with Amazon Underground.

Re-Balancing Your App for Amazon Underground

Developing an Exclusive App for Amazon Underground

While many of Amazon Underground's eligibility requirements focus on apps that are available on other platforms, Amazon will also consider admitting apps that provide a fun and engaging premium user experience and are available exclusively to Amazon Underground users. These apps will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Developing an exclusive app for Amazon Underground could be a good choice if you want to focus on creating a fun and engaging experience for users, without having to figure out how to monetize your app or implement IAP.

If you are interested in developing a premium, exclusive app for Amazon Underground, submit your interest using the Amazon Underground Submission Form. 

• Amazon Fire tablets (Gen 3 and later)
• Non-Amazon Android devices with the Amazon Underground app installed. See http://www.amazon.com/getappstore.
• BlackBerry 10 devices with the Amazon Underground app installed

See Device and Feature Specifications for more details on how Fire tablets are categorized by generation.

Supported Locales

The Amazon Underground program is currently available in the US, UK, Germany, and France.

1. Review the eligibility requirements on this page and in the Amazon Underground Schedule to verify that your app meets the program qualifications.
2. Make the necessary code changes, branding changes, and re-build your app with a new package name as instructed in Migrating Your App to Amazon Underground.
3. Prepare to migrate any user data, such as game levels achieved or user communities, as described in Migrating Users' Progress Between App Versions.
4. Verify that you have performed the preparation steps outlined in the Amazon Underground Eligibility and Submission Checklist.
5. Submit your app to Amazon Underground, following the instructions in Getting Started with Amazon Underground.

Note: Whether or not you have an existing app in the Amazon Appstore, you will need to submit a new APK with a unique Android package name as a new app for Amazon Underground. With separate app entries in the Amazon Appstore, you can maintain both an Amazon Underground and non-Underground version of your app for the appropriate marketplaces and sales platforms. These steps are detailed in Migrating Your App to Amazon Underground.

Amazon Underground introduces a new form of app monetization where you will be paid for the usage time of your app rather than by individual downloads and purchases. This section provides an introduction to how payments work with Amazon Underground. For more details on payment with the program, see Monetizing Your App with Amazon Underground.

Calculating Usage Time

As part of Amazon Underground, you will be paid for the number of minutes that customers have used your app. To determine usage time, at the end of a reporting period (usually 24 hours), Amazon calculates the total time aggregated (in milliseconds) and rounds this number to the smallest unit of currency for your marketplace. For example, in the US, this number is rounded to the nearest cent. For more details on calculating usage time see Monetizing Your App with Amazon Underground.

Amazon Underground Payments

For your apps that are enrolled in Amazon Underground, you will be paid based on the amount of time that customers spend using your app. You can review your Amazon Underground payments on the Reporting tab of your account in the Amazon Apps & Games Developer Portal. Please review the Amazon Underground Schedule for complete program terms.

Payment Rates

Amazon Underground offers the following payment rates, based on your marketplace:

These rates are subject to change, based on the terms described in the Amazon Underground Schedule.

Review the Amazon Underground Schedule to learn the procedure for removing your app from the Amazon Underground program. If you do remove your app from Amazon Underground, keep the following things in mind:

• If you remove your app from Amazon Underground but want to keep a non-Underground version of your app in the Amazon Appstore, you must submit the non-Underground version as a new, separate app if you did not already have a non-Underground version in the Amazon Appstore. See Getting Started with Amazon Underground.
• Amazon recommends performing a reverse migration of users' progress for users moving from the Amazon Underground version to the non-Underground version once the Underground version is no longer supported. See Migrating Users' Progress Between App Versions for recommendations on how to address this situation.