# Publish AR apps in the Google Play Store

![](https://developers.google.com/static/ar/images/distribute-hero.jpg)

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **Key Point:** Your app must comply with ARCore's [User Privacy Requirements](https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/privacy-requirements).

Before publishing your app on the Google Play Store, you must decide whether
it's **AR Required** or **AR Optional**.

- **AR Required** means that your app is not usable without AR, and makes your
  app available only on [devices that support ARCore](https://developers.google.com/ar/discover/supported-devices).

- **AR Optional** means that your app includes one or more AR features that
  are activated only if the device supports ARCore, but the app can be
  installed and run on devices that don't support ARCore.

This classification (whether an app is AR Required or AR Optional) affects the
user's Play Store experience in the following ways:

- AR Required apps are not shown on unsupported devices.

- When a user installs or updates an AR Required app, the Google Play Store
  indicates that Google Play Services for AR is required, and automatically
  either installs it if it's not installed or updates it if it's out of date.

  > [!NOTE]
  > **Note:** Because Google Play Services for AR may have been manually uninstalled or could be an old version, AR Required apps must still [check whether it is installed](https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/java/enable-arcore#check_installed) at runtime.

- When a user installs or updates an AR Optional app, Google Play Services for
  AR is not automatically installed or updated. AR Optional apps must
  implement two runtime checks:

  - When launched, the app must [check whether the device supports ARCore](https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/java/enable-arcore#check_supported), and, if so, enable AR features in the app.
  - When the user launches a feature that uses AR, it must [check whether Google Play Services for AR is installed and up to date](https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/java/enable-arcore#check_installed), and, if not, prompt the user (shown below).  

## Next steps

Learn how to add ARCore functionality to your apps:

- [Enable ARCore - Android Studio](https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/java/enable-arcore)
- [Enable ARCore - ARCore Extensions for Unity](https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/unity-arf/enable-arcore)
- [Enable ARCore - Unreal](https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/unreal/enable-arcore)
- [Enable ARCore - Android NDK](https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/c/enable-arcore)
- [Add user privacy notices](https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/privacy-requirements)