Publish to Google Play

Open Publish → Google Play. The page is a checklist against your app’s real setup, with a progress ring and a count of what is done. Two kinds of rows appear: ones StoreToNative can check itself, and ones you tick after doing them in Play Console, because Google publishes no way to check them.

App basics and account

• App id, Privacy policy URL and Support email. Set on the Builds page and in Design studio → Contact & legal.
• App icon. Checked against the build, not the upload: This build shipped the default icon or This build has your old app icon both mean make a new build.
• Signed store build (.aab). From step 2 on the Builds page.
• Google Play Developer account. Choose I already have one, Guide me — create new, or Published before. The account costs $25 once. Google verifies your identity or business before you can publish.
• Store readiness. The companion plugin’s verdict on your shop, shown for information and not counted.

Which kind of account? A personal account must run a closed test before it can publish to production: at least 12 testers for 14 continuous days. An organization account skips that requirement but needs a registered legal entity and a D-U-N-S number.

Android upload key

Every app gets its own signing key, created on its first Android build. The card shows the key’s certificate SHA-256 and when it was last exported. It is on the Publish page on every plan, trial included.

Export upload key… re-asks for your account password and hands you a .p12 file with a one-time password and key alias. Keep it somewhere safe: anyone holding the file and its password can publish updates to your app. You need it if you ever move the app away from StoreToNative, or if you ever delete the app: deleting it deletes the key, and an app created again gets a new one unless you import this file. Owners and admins can export.

Automatic uploads to Google Play (optional)

With this connection, store builds go to Play’s internal testing track on their own and Send to Google Play production on the Builds page promotes them. Without it, you upload each .aab by hand.

1. In Play Console, open Users and permissions → Invite new users.
2. Invite the service-account address shown on the card.
3. Grant it your app with Release to testing tracks and Release to production.
4. Press Connect.

Two things Google’s API does not allow, so they stay manual: creating the app record, and the very first .aab upload. The card shows Optional, Connected or Access lost, and you can disconnect at any time.

The Play Console checklist

Nine steps, ticked by you as you complete them.

1. Create the app in Play Console, with the package name shown on the Builds page.
2. Store listing. You supply: an app icon at 512 × 512 PNG under 1 MB, a feature graphic at 1024 × 500, between two and eight phone screenshots (16:9 or 9:16, each side between 320 and 3,840 px), the Shopping category, a contact email, and the privacy policy URL. A short description of up to 80 characters and a full description of up to 4,000. StoreToNative does not hold this copy; write it in Play Console.
3. Upload the app bundle. Go to Testing → Internal testing → Create new release and upload the .aab. Not Production first. When Play asks about Play App Signing, accept the default.
4. Data safety form. The card computes the answers from your add-ons and offers Copy answers: personal information, account information, cart activity, device identifiers and purchase history as applicable, everything else Not collected. Two warnings to read: any trackers your own website runs inside the checkout also run in the app’s web checkout, and Play requires an account-deletion URL when the app has accounts. If you change add-ons after filing the form, the page tells you to update it.
5. Content rating questionnaire.
6. App content declarations. App access (a working test login if Shopper accounts is on), ads (none), target audience, and the news, government, financial and health declarations.
7. Countries and closed testing. Choose countries. New personal accounts run the closed test here.
8. Send for review.
9. After it’s live. Paste the Play App Signing SHA-256 fingerprint from Play Console, which completes the Android deep-link file, confirm the package name, and switch on It’s live on Google Play so the install link, QR code and smart banner point at your listing.

Reading Play’s outcomes

The page explains the states Play leaves you in. Saved as a draft on production — nobody can install it until you roll it out means open the release in Play Console and roll it out. Saved, but not sent for review means go to Publishing overview and press Send changes for review.