Generating APK — React Native

We will be using React Native CLI for generating an apk.

First, we need to make sure that the project is running successfully without any errors. Then, generate a private signing key to generate an apk for an React Native app.

Step-1:

We can generate a private signing key using keytool on our project directory as :

sudo keytool -genkey -v -keystore my-upload-key.keystore -alias my-key-alias -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000

We can change your_key_name with any name we want, as well as your_key_alias. This command prompts us through the following :

Enter your keystore password: 12345
Re-enter new password: 12345
What is your first and last name? [unknown]: Samir Khanal
What is the name of your organizational unit? [unknown]: XYZ
What is the name of your organization? [unknown]: XYZ
What is the name of your city or Locality? [unknown]: XYZ
What is the name of your State or Province? [unknown]: XYZ
What is the two-letter country code for this unit? [unknown]: XX

It generates a file named my-release-key.keystore with above credentials.

Step-2:

Now, Let us copy the above generated file(my-release-key.keystore) to android/app directory in our Project folder.

Step-3:

We should edit the file android/gradle.properties and add the followings:

MYAPP_UPLOAD_STORE_FILE=my-upload-key.keystore
MYAPP_UPLOAD_KEY_ALIAS=my-key-alias
MYAPP_UPLOAD_STORE_PASSWORD=*****
MYAPP_UPLOAD_KEY_PASSWORD=*****

We should replace ***** with the correct keystore password that we have set before.

Step-4:

Now, We should edit the android/app/build.gradle file in our project folder, and add the signingConfigs just after the defaultConfig{ … } and ‘signingConfig signingConfigs.release’ line at the last of release in buildTypes as shown below.

...
android {
 ...
  defaultConfig { ... }
  signingConfigs {
    release {
      if (project.hasProperty('MYAPP_UPLOAD_STORE_FILE')) {
      storeFile file(MYAPP_UPLOAD_STORE_FILE)
      storePassword MYAPP_UPLOAD_STORE_PASSWORD
      keyAlias MYAPP_UPLOAD_KEY_ALIAS
      keyPassword MYAPP_UPLOAD_KEY_PASSWORD
      }
    }
  }
 buildTypes {
   release {
      ...
      signingConfig signingConfigs.release
      }
   }
}
...

Now, go to android/ directory of our project and run,

./gradlew assembleRelease

This will generate an apk file at android/app/build/outputs/apk/release/ directory.

By this, we get an apk file of our React Native project which we can publish in google play-store or share with others.

References:

https://reactnative.dev/docs/signed-apk-android