Docs
BlogChangelogStar Us on GitHub
HomeGuidesEASReferenceLearn
ArchiveExpo SnackDiscord and ForumsNewsletter

This documentation is available as Markdown for AI agents and LLMs. See the full Markdown index or append .md to any documentation URL.

Manually submit an Android app to the Google Play Store

Edit page

Step-by-step guide for uploading an Android app to Google Play Console for the first time.

If you are submitting your Android app to the Google Play Store for the first time, this guide walks through the steps to upload it manually and create your first release in Google Play Console, a web UI.

A manual upload is optional. The eas submit command can create your app's first release directly and by default on the internal testing track. Use this guide if you prefer to create the first release yourself in Play Console.
The Google Play Console dashboard changes over time. If a screenshot or label in this guide does not match what you see, open an issue on GitHub to let us know.

Steps to create your first release

1

Open Google Play Console and click Create app.

2

Enter App name, select Default language, App or game, Free or paid, and click Create app.

3

You will be redirected to the Dashboard, where you provide all the information about your Android app.

4

Go through the steps to fill out the app details. Start by preparing your app's internal testing version. Click View tasks under Start testing now.

This step is important. Otherwise, you will see errors related to the app information when you try to publish.

5

On the Internal testing page, under Testers, click Create email list and add users to share the internal test release with. After creating (or selecting an existing) testers list, click Save.

6

Click Create new release.

7

You will be redirected to the App integrity screen. Select Choose signing key > Google-generated key. Using a Google-generated key lets you upload your app even if you lose your Android keystore.

8

Under App bundles, click Upload and choose the .aab file from your computer. If you haven't created your build yet, create one with eas build.

9

Once the upload completes, you will see the archive type and the Version code. The Version code identifies each release. Every new release must have a unique value. In an Expo project, set this with expo.android.versionCode in your app config, or use remote version source to increment it automatically.

10

Enter the Release name and click Next. On the Preview and confirm screen, you may see a warning about "... no deobfuscation file associated with this App Bundle ...". You can skip this for now, or enable ProGuard rules with expo-build-properties. Click Save and publish.

11

You will land on the Internal testing > Releases summary. Click Promote release to make your app available to testers, or to promote it to production.

12

To share the release with the testers list you created, click Testers > Copy link and share the link. Testers can install the app on their device from that link.

Next steps

Go back to the Dashboard and complete the remaining tasks for your app: privacy policy, store assets, and other details. This is required before the app can go to production.

Further reading