Can someone else use the same package name prefix?

Question

1. I'm thinking of taking the package name com.mangoapps.appname, but my question is, can someone else also use the prefix "com.mangoapps"? Since I want to create a series of apps, I want a unique prefix "com.mangoapps".

2. And another question, how do I know if someone else is already using this package name as prefix?

3. Is there need of any relation between package name and developer's name?

Answer 1

There is no way to guarantee uniqueness. Anyone can do the same as you, that is just type in the name as packagename.

Things you can do to insure people wont do that, is to take (the reverse) of a domain you own. So if mangoapps.com is yours, there will probably be no one taking that packagename. And if you don't own the domain, you probably don't want to pick the name, as the owner might use it as default.

Because of this, there is also no way to know if someone uses that packagename. There might be a theoretical way to, for instance, check it for one place (e.g. some store, some collection of programs, etc), but I know of no such method for the play store.

There is no need for a relation between your name and the package name. The relation, if any, is with the name and a domain name, although it is not mandatory.