What is managed publishing on Google Play?

By default, Google publishes a change to your app automatically as soon as it is reviewed and approved. With managed publishing turned on, approved changes wait in Play Console instead, and nothing goes live until you publish it. Google suggests it for releasing at a set time, for example alongside a launch event, an ad campaign or a store listing change, and for apps whose reviews tend to take longer, such as those from new developer accounts.

It lives on the Publishing overview page in Play Console. Turn it on under Managed publishing status; from then on you make releases as usual, approved ones show as ready to publish, and Publish changes sends them live. It can’t be used for an app’s very first release, and turning it on or off takes a release or store management permission (or Admin).

Managed publishing is about when approved changes go live. Whether a change is sent for review in the first place is a separate setting, changes not sent for review.

In VibeView. VibeView doesn’t turn managed publishing on or off, and it doesn’t publish for you. If it is on for your app, a release VibeView uploads goes live only after you publish it in Play Console (Publishing overview). Everything else about the upload is the same: the track, the release type and the notes you chose. See After the upload: Google Play.