Publishing An App on the Google Play Console

The page Create a service account opens.

Publish on Google Play Store

Post an update on Google Play Store, including alpha and beta tracks from App Center.

Prerequisite

• Google requires that the first version of your Google Play application be published in production via the Google console.
• A Google Play developer account. If you don’t have one, you can register on the Google developer accounts portal.
• Make sure you have an API project and a service account for App Center in order to create a Google Store connection and access Google APIs on your behalf.
• Review the prerequisites for beta and alpha for more information on these tracks.
• Configure the application signature by Google to publish application bundles files .AAB Android.

Liaison of your API project

To access the Google API, link your Google Play console to a Google API project. In most cases, we recommend that you create an API project, although current API users can create a link to an existing API project. Remember that each API project can only be linked to a single Google Play console account.

Creation of an API project

• Access the Google API Access page on the Google Play console.
• Accept the conditions of use.
• Click on Create New Project (Create a project).
• An API project is generated automatically and linked to your Google Play console.

Use of an existing API project

• If you are already a user of the Google Play developer API, you can create a link to your existing API project by following these steps. If the API -to -link project is not listed, check that your Google Play console account is designated as owner and the Google Play developer API is activated.
• Access the Google API Access page on the Google Play console.
• Accept the conditions of use of the API.
• Choose the project you want to link.
• Click on Link.

API access customers configuration

One of the additional advantages of creating a Google service account is access to the API from a build server without providing your personal user identification information. Here is a step -by -step guide on the configuration of the Google service account:

Access the Google API Access page on the Google Play console.

Below Service accounts, Click on the button Create a service account To start the process.

In instructions, click on the link to the Google Api console.

Click on the button Create Service Account (Create a service account ) on the page that has just been opened.

The page Create a service account opens.

Choose a name for the new service account, then click on Create.

Select Json , then click on CREATE so that a file with the extension .JSON be downloaded from your system . This file will be used in App Center to establish the connection to Google Play.

Once you have created the service account on the Google Developers console, click on Finished. The API Access page is automatically studied and your service account will be listed.

Close the window and the new service account is displayed on the original page. Click on the button Grant To finish the process. In the next section, you will learn to connect App Center to Google Play.

Configure the application signature by Google

1. Select your application in the Google Play development console
2. Select Application connection In the left menu
3. You can choose between three options:
   1. Load an exported key from Android Studio
   2. Export and load a key from a Java key store
   3. Export and load a key (without using a Java key store)
   4. Application signature by Google Play (recommended)

   Create a Google Play connection in App Center

   1. Click on Stores under distribute in the left menu.
   2. In the middle of the page, click the button Connect to the Windows Store .
   3. Select Google Play Blind.
   4. Click on Following.
   5. Load the file Private key that you downloaded when creating the service account. If the JSON fields are modified into incorrect values, the creation of the store can fail. Check that the service account is linked to your Google Play Developer console in accordance with the section relating to the prerequisites above above.
   6. Once the file is loaded, click on To log in.
   7. A Google Play connection must now be visible with the three tracks, production, alpha and beta on the home page some stores . The configuration of this connection is a unique process for an application in App Center.

   Publish your AAB on Google Play Store

   1. On the page Home Stores , Select one of the tracks created above.
   2. Click on Publish On the button in the upper right corner.
   3. Load the application package. Some points to note:
      • The application must be prepared for production and signed with a valid key store before loading.
      • Google Play Store supports the group offers for Android applications up to a maximum of 2 GB. .APK files generated from not .AAB can not exceed 150 MB. To find out more about your options, see Google’s documentation for AAB.
      • The version of .AAB must be strictly greater than the current production version.
      • If you have application versions in other tracks like Alpha and Beta, your publication version must be strictly lower than that of versions in the Alpha and Beta tracking versions.
      • App Center does not support the promotion of one track to the other to another. You cannot promote an alpha version to the beta or beta version to production.
      • If you have a draft publication in the track on which you will publish, this draft will disappear in favor of the new version you publish.
   4. After loading your package, you can see some details of the application. Click on Following.
   5. Click on Publish To send the application to Google Play Store. The state of this version on the Distribute Store Details page is displayed as Submitted.
   6. Once App Center has completed the application of the application to Google, the state of the application passes to Published. Google could take up to 24 hours to display the application in the Play Store.
   7. In the event of the failure of the publication by Google, the owner of the application receives a notification to the Google mail registered.

   Publish your APK on the Google Play Store

   1. On the page Home Stores , Select one of the tracks created above.
   2. Click on Publish In the button store in the upper right corner.
   3. Load the application package. Here are some points to note:
      • The application must be prepared for production and signed with a valid key store before loading.
      • Google Play Store supports application packages up to a maximum of 100 MB. Load extension files directly on the Google Play console if the application exceeds 100 MB. Read Google’s documentation on extension files to configure it.
      • THE .APK must be aligned with zip during the application creation process.
      • The version of must .Apk be strictly greater than the current production version.
      • If you have application versions in other tracks like Alpha and Beta, your publication version must be strictly lower than versions in the Alpha and Beta Track versions.
      • App Center does not support the promotion of one track to the other to another. You cannot promote an alpha version to a beta or beta version in production.
      • If you have a preliminary version in the track on which you will publish, it will be replaced by the new version.
   4. After loading your package, you can see some details of the application. Click on Following.
   5. Click on Publish To send the application to Google Play Store. The state of this version in the details of the distribution store is displayed as Submitted.
   6. Once App Center has completed the transfer of the application to Google, the state of the application goes to Published. Google can take up to 24 hours to display the application in the Play Store.
   7. In the event of the failure of the publication by Google, the owner of the application receives a notification at the registered Google address.

   Publication via the ACI interface

   You need App Center CLI 2.7 or later to use this feature.

   The use of the CLI interface is a simple way to join the connection to the App Center store as part of your CI/CD configuration, like Jenkins or Go Ci.

   Before you can use the CLI interface, you must establish a connection to a destination, that is to say Google Play, App Store or intune in the App Center. And compile a binary file that works with your destination.

   You can list your stores using the List command as follows:

   APPLY DISTRIBUTE STORES LIST \ --PP / \ --Output JSON 

   You will get a result similar to it:

   [["Alpha", "googleplay", "alpha"], ["beta", "googleplay", "beta"], ["production", "googleplay", "production"] 

   And this is the store column that we are going to use in the final stage.

   The last step is to publish your application by executing:

   Applier Distributes FUBLISH STORES \ -File/path/to/file.AAB \-Store Production \-App / \-RELEASE-NOTES "SOME NOTE."" 

   You must fill the spaces such as the list command. Instead of having a static publication note, it is possible to use instead. –Release-Note-File A publication notes file is a raw text file encoded with UTF-8.

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   Your app is ready. You are about to show your company what the app look like. Your CEO has an Android Phone, so you create a closed testing on the google play console to provide him with an alpha version of your app. Of Race, you don’t want to publish to the World Your App Before Your Boss IT. But then, when you want to publish your app for closed testing, this pop-up appears! ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ Wait What? All Changes will be visible to users? What is happening? TLDR: All the steps to publish your app to the store.

   Managed Publishing

   What’s the Managed Publishing?

   

   The Managed Publishing on the Googleplay Console is an option to “Control exactly when changes to your app are published”. On the googleplay console, the modifications to an existing app must first be approved by google before before IMMIDATELY On the Stores. The Managed Publishing is the option you want to activate to stop this immediate publication and be able to publish it yourself when you want it. This Prevents Your App from Being Published Without Your Knowledge and your Consent On A Friday Night Just after A Script from Google Finishes. To activate it, you need to go to Publishing Overview and then turn on managed publishing.

   Why are we talking about the managed publishing?

   

   Because the scary pop-up about the publication of the update doesn’t change. Notebly, when you want to make an alpha release, you will still see the are scary popup.

   An alpha release in the googleplay store

   

   To Better Understand How It Works, Let’s Take The Example of An Alpha Release and Look at It Step by Step. And as I Said before, you will see the scary popup, Talking about All The Users, Even if it is an alpha release.

   Step 1: In Review

   

   After you Upload Your Build (here version 7.8.0) for an alpha release, you will see it in the closed testing section:

   Step 2: Changes Ready to Publish

   Once the review by Google is done, since we have the managed publishing, the build is not automatic published. We are in the phase “Ready to publish». There you can see the different modifications that have been made. You can see that you have modified an element in “closed testing – alpha” and that you have version 7.8.0 of the app. Notes: The scary phrase in “Description”: Full Rollout Started doesn’t mean the Full Rollout has Started. As Always, It’s Confusing (otherwise, i would be writing this article). Ok, all Seems good, we just need to click on “publish changes”: What Could Possible Go Wrong? ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ What do you mean “All Changes will be visible to users”.

   Step 3: The Scary Popup

   • The Alpha Users will see the Modification with the Newst version (7.8.0) Of The App.
   • Every Normal User Will See the Modification of the App in Production. But since there are none, they won’t see anything.

   So Again it is stressful and scary, but it describes Well What Will Happen: Every User Will See the Modifications for Their App. If they have the alpha app, they will the alpha update, if they have the production app, they will see the production app update (if there is one).

   So you can relax and click on “publish” and Everything will be fine: the concerned users will see the modifications. And the rest of the users won’t see anything.

   Step 4: The app is deployed on the stores

   And the right people will have access to the right app. Most people won’t have the access, However, the alpha testers will be able to access it.

   One Button But Many Changes

   Another Thing to Keep in mind, is that there is only one button Publish Changes. However, you may have to do multiple modifications and therefore have multiple changes Ready to publish.

   It can Easily be the case if you modify the Main Store Listing:

   

   Sale there is onely one button: “Publish Changes”, Every Modification Will Be Published at the same time. You can’t do it any other way way.

   So you must be careful not to prepare multiple modifications that you don’t want to publish at the same time!

   CONCLUSION

   Publishing an app is always a bit scary and clearly the wording on the google play console doesn’t help: even after you publish a bunch of app, you may still be triggered by this scary popup. So I Hope this article will reassure you the next time you will see this scary popup and good luck with the not-very explicit and very scary google console console console console console console console!