Publishing a Health Connect App on Google Play: What's Required

What Google requires before a Health Connect app ships#

Google's "Publish your health app on Google Play" guide (page last updated March 10, 2026, read October 3, 2026) states the requirement directly: "To get your health app published on Google Play, you must complete a few required steps in the Play Console." It lists three:

1. Review the Google Play policies (User Data, and Permissions and APIs that access sensitive information, "including additional requirements for Health Connect").
2. Fill out the Data safety section in the Play Console.
3. Fill out the Health apps declaration form in the Play Console.

About the policy pages. The guide links the actual policy text on support.google.com, which we can't reach from our verification environment. We couldn't verify the policy pages themselves. Everything below comes from the developer.android.com guides. For Google Play's data-use rules (no ads, no sale and so on), see our separate Google Play health data policy page, and check its claims against the live policy in the Play Console.

The Health apps declaration#

Google says the declaration "must be completed for all publishing requests, both for a new app that has not been published yet, or when updating an existing, already published app that now uses a different set of data types."

Step one: pick your health features. On the Play Console's App content page, the Health apps form asks which health features your app supports. Google lists them, including Activity and fitness, Nutrition and weight management, Sleep management, Medical device apps and Human subjects research. If the app touches no health data, Google says to select "My app does not have any health features".

Step two: justify each data type. The data types are grouped into Activity and fitness, Body composition, Energy, Nutrition, Reproductive and sexual health, Respiratory system and Sleep management. Google's guidance for the justifications:

For each permission requested, provide a clear and detailed justification explaining how your app uses the data to benefit the user.

If your app does not require access to specific data types, you must not request access to them.

Request the minimum data types needed and provide a valid use case for each request.

Privacy policy. Post your privacy policy on the Play store page. Google says "This must be the same privacy policy that is displayed to users when they click the privacy policy link in Health Connect".

What the app itself must contain#

Google's Health Connect get-started guide (last updated September 8, 2026) sets two build-time requirements that tie into the declaration:

• Manifest permissions. Declare read and write permissions as uses-permission entries in AndroidManifest.xml, "which should match the ones you declared access to in the Play Console".
• A privacy-policy rationale screen. "Your Android manifest needs to have an Activity that displays your app's privacy policy, which is your app's rationale of the requested permissions, describing how the user's data is used and handled." It handles the ACTION_SHOW_PERMISSIONS_RATIONALE intent. Google's sample adds an activity alias for VIEW_PERMISSION_USAGE with the HEALTH_PERMISSIONS category for Android 14 and later. Google adds: "The activity must display the same privacy policy you provide for your app in the Google Play Console".

Updates, re-review and what happens if you skip it#

• Changing data types means refiling. Google says to include existing and new health features, exclude ones you no longer need, and "Make sure you justify every requested access."
• A new version alone doesn't need a new request. "The data type accesses are allow-listed for a package name regardless of app version." Google also notes: "When you submit a new app version, your app's declaration may be reviewed again."
• Skipping the declaration. If a published app never requested data type access, Google says end users get a dialog when they try to link with Health Connect, under the heading "Unable to access Health Connect".
• Old request form. Developers who used the earlier Google Health Connect API Request form had to declare those data types in the Play Console by January 22, 2025, according to the guide.

Checklist before you submit#

1. Cut the requested data types to what shipped features use. Compare your Health Connect permission list against user-facing features. Google's publishing guide says to request only permissions that support the specific health features you offer, and not to request data types you don't need.
2. Make the manifest match the declaration. Declare Health Connect read and write permissions in AndroidManifest.xml for exactly the data types you will declare in the Play Console. Google's get-started guide says they should match.
3. Add the permissions-rationale activity. Add an activity that shows your privacy policy for the ACTION_SHOW_PERMISSIONS_RATIONALE intent, and an activity alias for VIEW_PERMISSION_USAGE with the HEALTH_PERMISSIONS category on Android 14 and later, as Google's get-started guide shows.
4. Use one privacy policy everywhere. The policy on your Play listing must be the same one Health Connect shows when users tap your privacy-policy link, and the one the rationale activity displays.
5. Complete the Data safety section. Fill in Play's Data safety section for the health data you collect and share. Google's guide makes it one of the three required publishing steps.
6. File the Health apps declaration with a justification per data type. On the App content page, choose the health features your app supports, then explain how the app uses each Health Connect data type to benefit the user. Be as detailed as you can, and request the minimum.
7. Refile when your data types change. If you add or drop a data type, submit the declaration again. Include every health feature you still use and the new ones, leave out the ones you've dropped, and justify each access.

Related#

• For the code side (permissions, client setup, reads and writes), see the Health Connect integration guide. If reads come back empty after approval, see Health Connect returns no data.
• Shipping on iOS too? Apple's equivalent rules are covered in the App Store health data rules overview and in guideline pages such as 5.1.3: Health and Health Research.

A note on limits#

This page reflects Google's developer.android.com guides as read on October 3, 2026. The Play policies they link (User Data, Permissions, Data safety, the Health apps declaration help page) are on support.google.com, and we couldn't verify them. Google also says "Further questions" go to Health Connect Developer Support on its issue tracker. This page is general guidance, not legal advice.