Deliver to testers on Google Play

On this page you put the signed App Bundle in front of testers through Google Play’s internal testing track. You upload the first bundle by hand, because Google Play does not let the API create an app or its first release. After that, every build of the release pipeline uploads itself.

The runner uploads from your Mac over outbound HTTPS, so this works in Local Only. Nothing needs to reach your Mac from the internet.

What you need

• A signed app-release.aab from Sign an Android release.
• A Google Play Console developer account.
• Access to a Google Cloud project, to create a service account.
• Instance owner or admin access in Oore, to store the service account key.

1. Upload the first bundle by hand

1. In Play Console, create the app.
2. Open the app’s Internal testing track. Add your testers by email.
3. Create a release on that track, upload the app-release.aab you downloaded from Oore, and roll it out.

When Play Console asks, let Google manage the app signing key. Your keystore stays the upload key, which Oore uses for every later bundle.

2. Create a service account

1. In the Google Cloud console, turn on the Google Play Android Developer API for your project.
2. Create a service account, then add a key of type JSON and download it.
3. In Play Console, open Users and permissions and invite the service account’s email address. Give it the release permissions for this app, and View app information so Oore can show the app’s crash and ANR rates.

Google can take a few minutes to accept a newly invited service account.

3. Store the key in Oore

1. In Oore, open Settings > Store credentials.
2. Under Google Play service account, select Add service account.
3. Keep the name PLAY_SERVICE_ACCOUNT. Select Load from file and choose the JSON key file.
4. Select Add secret.

Oore stores the key as an encrypted instance secret named PLAY_SERVICE_ACCOUNT. Nobody can read it back, and builds see it only as *** in logs.

4. Turn on publishing

1. Open the Release Android pipeline and its Publishing tab.
2. Under Google Play, turn on Upload to Google Play after each successful build.
3. For Service account key, choose PLAY_SERVICE_ACCOUNT.
4. For Track, choose Internal testing.
5. Under Advanced, enter the application ID in Expected package, such as com.example.app.
6. Select Test credentials. Oore shows Google Play accepted the key.
7. Select Turn on Google Play publishing.

The readiness list at the top of the section now shows every item as ready: release signing, the service account key, Google Play access, and the App Bundle build.

5. Run a release build

Select Run build, keep the Release Android pipeline and branch, and select Run build again.

After the build, sign, and artifact steps, the runner adds a publish-play step. It checks that the new version code is higher than every version on the track, uploads the bundle, and rolls it out to internal testing.

Check the result

• The build ends as Succeeded, with a succeeded publish-play step whose log names the internal track.
• Play Console shows the new version on Internal testing.
• A tester opens the internal testing link from Play Console on an Android phone, accepts the invitation, and installs the app from Google Play.

Troubleshooting

Test credentials fails

The message gives Google’s reason. Most often the service account is not invited for this app in Play Console, the invitation is still being processed, or the API is turned off in the Google Cloud project.

publish-play fails because the version code is not higher

The message names both numbers. If the app already had releases before Oore, open the pipeline’s Edit page and set Build number offset above the highest version code on Google Play. Then run a new build.

publish-play fails after you fixed the cause

Select Retry Google Play upload on the failed build. Oore uploads the stored bundle again without rebuilding. See Retry a store upload.

Next step

Your Android app now reaches testers on every release build. From here:

• Promote a tested build to production without rebuilding it, with an approval and a staged rollout.
• Build on every push: turn on External Access, then connect GitHub or GitLab.
• Move the pipeline into .oore.yaml so it is reviewed with your code.
• Ship the same app on iOS: Build your first iOS app.

For every Google Play setting, such as staged rollouts and release notes, see Publish to Google Play.