Skip to content

React Native Publishing an Android App

Add/Create Keystore

This command will create a keystore with the given name if the file doesn’t exist or append a key to a current keystore.

keytool -genkey -v -keystore mykeystore.keystore -alias mykeyalias -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000

After you have generated the mykeystore.keystore file copy it to android/app.

Setting up gradle variables

Append the snippet below to android/gradle.properties and add the correct values.

MYAPP_RELEASE_STORE_FILE=mykeystore.keystore
MYAPP_RELEASE_KEY_ALIAS=mykeyalias
MYAPP_RELEASE_STORE_PASSWORD=*****
MYAPP_RELEASE_KEY_PASSWORD=*****

Adding signing config to your app’s gradle config

Edit android/app/build.gradle so it looks similar to the one below.

...
android {
    ...
    defaultConfig { ... }
    signingConfigs {
        release {
            storeFile file(MYAPP_RELEASE_STORE_FILE)
            storePassword MYAPP_RELEASE_STORE_PASSWORD
            keyAlias MYAPP_RELEASE_KEY_ALIAS
            keyPassword MYAPP_RELEASE_KEY_PASSWORD
        }
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            ...
            signingConfig signingConfigs.release
        }
    }
}
...

Add the siginingConfigs snippet right below but not in defaultConfig and then append signingConfig signingConfigs.release to buildTypes -> release.

Generating the release APK

cd android && ./gradlew assembleRelease

Testing the release build of your app

cd android && ./gradlew installRelease

Where is my bundled app?

The file you want to upload to the Google Play Store is android/app/build/outputs/apk/app-release.apk

Update version number for each build

In android/app/build.gradle increment:

versionCode 2
versionName "2.0"

Helpful Commands

# List aliases within a keystore with this command:
keytool -list -keystore mykeystore.keystore
Tags: