Google Play Store

The Google Play destination allows you to upload your finished binaries to the store for Android.

Add Destination

note

The first upload for a new Android app must be uploaded from the Google Play Console.

• Track
  • Which track on the Google Play Store the app will be uploaded into.
• Package name
  • in reverse domain name format.
    • e.g. com.yourdomain.yourappname
• Publishing Format
  • The type of Android build artifact you would like to deploy to Google Play.
    • Android App Bundles (AAB)
    • APK

note

As of August 2021, new apps are required to publish with the Android App Bundle (AAB) on Google Play.

To upload Android App Bundles (AAB), additional configuration is needed in the Google Play Console for the app. In particular, you will need to enroll for Play App Signing, otherwise, you cannot upload your app bundle to the Play Console.

For further information please see the Android Docs

• JSON key
  • To upload to the Google Play Store you will need to create a service account and download the JSON file containing security info for the service account.
    1. Go to Google Play Console
    2. Navigate to Setup and then API access
    3. Press the Create new service account button.
    4. Open the Google Cloud Platform link in the dialog, which opens a new tab/window:
    5. Press the CREATE SERVICE ACCOUNT button at the top of the Google Cloud Platform
    6. Under the Service account details section, enter a service account name and press the CREATE AND CONTINUE button.
    7. Under the Select a role drop down in the Grant this service account access to project section, select Service Accounts > Service Account User and press the CONTINUE button.
    8. Skip the Grant users access to this service account section and press the DONE button. This will create the service account which will appear as an item in the service account table.
    9. Find the newly created service account in this table and select the Manage Keys option under the Actions column of the table.
    10. Under the Keys section, select the Create new key option under the ADD KEY drop-down.
    11. Select the JSON key type option in the pop up that appears and then press the CREATE button. This will create a .json file containing a private key that will be automatically downloaded to your computer.
    12. Open the browser tab/window containing the Google Play Console and press the DONE button to close the dialog
    13. Press the Grant Permissions button for the newly added service account
    14. Select the Account Permissions subsection under the Permissions section
    15. Verify that all permissions are checked under the Release section
    16. Verify that the View app information and download bulk reports (read-only) permission is checked under the App Access section.

Play App Signing Key

Play App Signing by Google Play is required to publish .aab files to the Play Store. To use Play App Signing with Appflow, additional configuration is needed for your app signing key. Follow the instructions here to configure the app signing key in Google Play.