Source: https://docs.expo.dev/tutorial/eas/android-production-build

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Create a production build for Android

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Learn about the process of creating a production build for Android and automating the release process.

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In this chapter, we'll create our example app's production version and submit it to the Google Play Store. We'll also explore how to automate the creation and release of new app versions.

Watch: Creating and releasing a production build for Android

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Prerequisites

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To publish and distribute an app on the Google Play Store, we need:

• Google Play Developer Account: Must have a paid developer account. For details on setting one up, visit the Google Play sign-up page .
• Google Service Account key: We'll need a Google Service Account email and JSON key to automate the app submission process. Follow the detailed instructions in our guide on creating a Google Service Account key or downloading it from an existing account , then return to this guide. This is optional but required for automating the release process .
• Production build profile: Ensure that a production build profile is present in your eas.json, which is added by default.

Production build for Android

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A production Android build has a .aab format which is optimized for distribution on the Google Play Store. Unlike .apk builds, .aab files can only be distributed and installed through the Google Play Store.

1

Create a production build

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To create an Android production build using the default production profile, open your terminal and execute the following command. Since production is set as the default profile in the EAS configuration, there is no need to specify it explicitly with the --profile flag.

Terminal

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- eas build --platform android

The above command will queue the build. Notice in the EAS dashboard that the Version Code is auto-incremented.

2

Create an app on the Google Play Console

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To upload the app to the Google Play Store for the first time, we need to:

• Go to the Google Play dashboard.
• On the Home page, click Create app to make a new app.

• Fill out our app details and click the Create app button.

3

Release an internal testing version

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After the app is created on Google Play Console, it redirects us to the app's Dashboard screen. We need to prepare an internal test version of our app.

• Click Start testing now on the Dashboard.

• Create an email list of users under Internal Testing > Testers for the internal testing release.

• Google Play Console prompts us to create an internal testing release.
• To create a new release, go to Dashboard and click Create new release. The first thing you will notice that the signing key is automatically generated under App integrity by Google Play Console.

4

Upload the app binary

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After EAS has created a production build:

• Open the EAS dashboard and click on Download to get the .aab file.

• Return to Google Play Console and go to Test and release > Testing > Internal testing.
• Under App bundles, click on Upload to add the .aab file. Then, provide the release details for our app and click on Next.
• On the following screen, click on Save and publish.

5

Share the internal release version

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Under Track Summary, we see that the latest release shows a temporary app name. This is because our app is not reviewed yet.

Under Releases, we see that the app is available to internal testers. To share the app with a team of testers:

• Switch to the Testers tab next to Releases.
• Click on copy link under How testers join your test. You can use this link to share with your team of testers by sending them an email or a message.

• On the device, open the test email and follow the steps to download the app.

• The testing email holder needs to accept the invite, and once accepted, the app can be installed on the device.

Tip: To publish an app on the Play Store, in the Google Dashboard, finish the steps under Set up your app. These steps are required before releasing the app on the Play Store for the first time. You'll have to provide details like a link to a privacy policy, a target audience, data safety and so on.

Complete app store listing: To prepare the app for store listing, see Create app store assets on how to create screenshots and previews.

Promoting a testing release

To promote our internal test release version to alpha, in Google Play Store Console:

• Under Test and release, go to Testing > Closed testing.
• Click Manage track next to Closed testing - Alpha.

6

Add Google Service Account permissions key

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Tip: Before following the steps in this section, see the instructions on creating a Google Service Account key or downloading it from an existing account guide.

From now on, we can use EAS Submit to automate releases and avoid the manual process. To do that, we need to add the service account key to our project's credentials.

After following the Google Service Account guide steps, we can upload the downloaded JSON key to EAS dashboard:

• Go to your project's EAS dashboard, click Credentials, and under Android, click your app's Application identifier.

• Under Service Credentials, click Add a Google Service Account Key.

• Under Change Google Service Account Key, ensure Upload new key is selected and upload the downloaded JSON key. This will add the key to your project's credentials.

7

Internal release

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Let's set the track to internal in eas.json.

• Under submit.production profile, set track to internal:

{ %%placeholder-start%%... %%placeholder-end%% "submit": { "production": { "android": { "track": "internal" } } } }

In the above snippet, we're adding track property and setting its value to internal. This will enable the eas submit command to upload our production build and release it for internal testing on the Google Play Store.

• Now run the eas submit command to release a new internal testing version:

Terminal

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- eas submit --platform android

• This command will automatically create a new internal release version in Google Play Console:

8

Production release

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To release the app for production:

• Change the value for track to production in eas.json:

{ %%placeholder-start%%... %%placeholder-end%% "submit": { "production": { "android": { "track": "production" } } } }

• We can also use the same EAS Build we did for the internal testing release. Run the eas submit command to release to the Play Store:

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- eas submit --platform android

• To create a track and submit our app to the Google Play Store's review process, we need to go to Test and release > Production and under Releases, select the build we want to send for review.

9

Automated release

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For subsequent releases in future, we can streamline the process by combining build creation and Play Store submission into a single step by using the --auto-submit flag with eas build:

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- eas build --platform android --auto-submit

Summary

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Chapter 8: Create a production build for Android

We successfully created a production-ready Android build, discussed manual and automated uploading to Google Play Store using eas submit, and automated the release process with the --auto-submit.

Mark this chapter as read

In the next chapter, learn about the process of creating a production build for iOS.

Next: Create a production build for iOS