App not indexable by google search warning in AndroidManifest.xml

Question

In android projects in AndroidManifest.xml it gives the warning-- App is not Indexable by google search!

so,

1: What does this mean?

2: Why this is happening and how to fix it?

I already tried a few(like adding URL) things but was not able to properly do those as I don't fully understand what this means.

version of Android Studio i am using is 3.4.1

Answer 1

It's to expose your app page to Google and make it crawl your app content, so users can search on google and see your app as part of the result.

I dismissed this warning by adding this to one of my activities, although the best practice is to build a website for your app and give it's url as host:

<intent-filter>
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />

    <data android:host="play.google.com"
        android:pathPrefix="/store/apps/details?id=<app.package.name>"
        android:scheme="https" />
</intent-filter>

For more see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35OSHlTNwA