Set up a release for app on Google Play console and publish to Internal track
Part II — Publishing app manually to Google Play store | Story 3 — Setting up a Release for app on Google Play console
In the previous posts of this Part II of the series, we registered for our app on Google Play Console, created upload key and bundled our app to .aab file. We are now ready to publish the app.
For publishing, we need to configure a release of our app. Google Play console allows to create releases for the app in 4 tracks -I Internal Test track, Alpha Track, Beta and Production.
We will create our first app release in internal test track for testing.
TL;DR: Configuring the first release of on Google Play console is a bit long process.
Creating app release on Google Play Console
Select the application from the Play Console to go to the it’s Dashboard.
Select App releases from the left-side menu on the Dashboard 👇. (If you are not seeing this option in the left-side menu, make sure you have permission to manage releases.)
On the App Releases, you can manage the releases for Production, Alpha, Beta or Internal Test releases.
We will start with Internal Test release for our app.
(Read more about Internal Release Track for testing app)
Click on “Manage’ link next to the Internal Test option. 👇
Click ‘Create Release’ button on the following screen 👇
Opt for Google Play Managed App Signing key
In the following screen, you would be asked to opt for Google Play Managed App Signing key (App signing by Google Play) option, or use the key of another app or export/upload your own key and certificate.
By default, the App signing by Google Play option would be selected. This is recommended option and our preferred option too.
So keeping the default selected option, click ‘Continue’ button 👇
Uploading the app bundle (.aab) file to Play Console app’s release
Next, you will be asked to upload you bundle .aab or .apk file.
Click on ‘Browse Files’ to select our app’s .aab bundle file we created in the previous post.
Once you select the file, Play console will start uploading and processing the file 👇
Once the file upload is complete, the details of the uploaded AAB file would be listed in the Android App Bundles and APK section.
Also, you would notice the Release name would automatically set to the release version with which we generated the app release bundle above.
Edit the release notes as you want and click ‘Save’ button 👇
When you’ve finished preparing your release, select Review.
You would see a warning at the top of the Release Review page 👇
Click on View Warning Message.
It’s warning that we haven’t specified any Testers yet.
𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐩𝐩 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞
To set testers, go back to App Releases and Click on Manage button next to Internal test.
You will be navigated to ‘Manage Testers’ page.
On Manage Testers tab, select from an existing list of testers if you have any previously created list, or click on ‘Create New List’ to create a new list of testers.
Click Save button 👇
Great, we got an Internal test release configured for our app. There are still some more sections to complete before we could submit our app to Android for review. These are:
⊙ App content
⊙ Content Rating
⊙ Pricing and Distribution
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠
Go to Content Rating from the left side menu and complete the Questionnaire to get your app’s Content rating calculated by Google Play console 👇
𝐀𝐩𝐩 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭
Next, we’ll complete App Content section. For this, we’ll need a Privacy Policy URL.
We created a Privacy Policy URL for our app in the previous post . Copy that URL as you will need it when completing App Content section 👇
𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Next, we need to set Pricing and Distribution settings for our app 👇
Now that we completed all the sections required to rollout a release, go back to App Releases. On the Application Release Review page, now the warning that we saw earlier of no testers being selected, should be gone and Review Summary should say that release is ready to be rolled out.
Click on ‘Edit Release’ button next to Internal Test Track release we created earlier.
This completes the rollout of the Internal Test Track of our app.
The app would be in ‘Pending Publication’ status. Once its published, we would have the opt-in URL of our app, that would be shared with our testers who can opt in to test our app.
We wait for app to get published.
App Published
The App got published after a wait of 30 hours for me. It may take anywhere between few hours to a week.
With the App published on Google Play store, now our testers, that we added to our testers list, should be able to download and test the apps.
To share the download link with testers, go to App Releases → Internal Test Track, and click Manage button next to it 👇
On Internal Test page, expand the Manage testers section and the Opt-in URL should now be available to share with our testers 👇
Send this Opt-in URL to testers and they should be able to download the app from Android Play store. Note that the testers must be logged in to Android play store on their cell phones with the email account that we have specified in the app’s tests list. Else the Opt-in URL will give error like below 👇
Once a tester opens the opt-in URL on mobile, he/she would be prompted to opt-in to app’s internal testing program. Once opted in to the program, a link to download the app from the Android Play store would be provided👇
Once downloaded, the app now should be available on the mobile phone. Open the app to test👇
Get feedback
Once the testers have installed our app, they’ll automatically be updated to use the test version within a few minutes.
The testers can’t leave public reviews on Google Play. To get their feedback, we can include a feedback channel or let the testers know that they can provide their feedback by email, website, or a message forum.
If you’re running an open test, the testers can also provide their feedback with private feedback through Google Play.
Next
Great, in this Part-II of the series, we saw how to register app in Google Play Console(GPC), got our app bundled, configured a released on GPC and finally published our app.
In the next Part-III of the series, we would see how to automate the app’s bundling, releasing and publishing using Gitlab CI/CD and Gradle Play Publisher (GPP)
