You no longer need to have a GCP project associated with your Google Play Developer Account to access Google Play APIs

To access Google Play APIs, such as the Google Play Developer API required for subscription management from a backend, you need to use either a service account or an OAuth client. In most cases, using a service account is recommended. [1].

In the past, for the access to work, the used service account needed to belong to a GCP project, and that project had to be linked to your ‘Google Play Developer Account’ through the ‘API Access’ page in the Google Play Developer Console. This configuration used to be a problem, especially for accounts with multiple apps, as each app typically has its own GCP project, while only a single project could be linked to the Google Play Developer Account. Besides being a conceptual issue, since it required a single project to access data from all others through the API, it often resulted in the need for workarounds so that the unlinked app project could access its data from another project — the one associated with the account.

Recently, Google removed the need for this association. When accessing the ‘API Access’ page now — which is no longer displayed for all accounts — we find the following image::

In this way, it is no longer necessary to establish the link, as now any service account with the proper user permissions in the Google Play Developer Account can access the necessary data through the API. [2]. The same also applies to the Google Play Reporting API [3]. The official documentation for both APIs now displays the following message:

Interestingly, the message does not appear for all languages! In Portuguese, for example, there is no indication of this change.

This change is very welcome, as it solves the problem of needing a single GCP project linked to the account. Now, the GCP project of each app in the account can use its own service account to access API data — as well as manage subscriptions.”

Transferring apps between two Google Play Developer Accounts has become simpler

The situation also resolves an issue that existed when migrating apps from one Google Play Developer Account to another, which is common when an app is sold from one company to another or donated, for example. In the past, when performing a transfer, it was common for permission issues to occur when the app was migrated to the new account. The destination account sometimes already had a GCP project associated with its Google Play Developer Account, which was distinct from the project linked to the source account. This caused access to Google Play Developer API data (including subscription status) to be interrupted after migration — since it was done from the project associated with the source account, which did not have permission in the destination account. To resolve this, it was common to need to change the service account used to access this data — switching to using a service account from the project linked to the destination account. This change was not always straightforward, sometimes resulting in downtime, errors in subscription creation and renewal after migration, as well as loss of access to important analytics data.

However, with the changes, app migration between accounts has become much simpler. You just need to provide the necessary permissions to the service account already in use in the source account to access the mentioned APIs in the destination Google Play Developer Account console. This way, a smoother and problem-free migration can be achieved.

Although Google has not made any official announcement about the change, it seems to have been implemented in the second half of 2023. Questions about the subject started arising from October 2023, including a contact to Google Play support confirming the change by the user jojeyh on StackOverflow [4].

References

[1] Google. Configure OAuth and Service Accounts. https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/getting_started#configure, 2023. Accessed: December 7, 2023.

[2] Google. Getting Started | Google Play Developer API https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/getting_started, 2023. Accessed: December 7, 2023.

[3] Google. Getting Started | Play Developer Reporting API https://developers.google.com/play/developer/reporting/overview, 2023. Accessed: December 7, 2023.

[4] StackOverflow. Google Play Console access api section not loading https://stackoverflow.com/questions/77247376/google-play-console-access-api-section-not-loading#comment136224622_77270757, 2023. Accessed: December 7, 2023.