Success on Google Play starts with quality. The best apps and games have higher ratings, more installs, and more engagement. We recommend visiting the Play Store Developer Policy Center before you submit your app to the Play Store.

Publishing to the Google Play Store requires a Google Play Developer Account (approximately $25 USD one-time fee). Don't have an account? Sign up here.

AAB vs APK

When you download an app from Thunkable you receive an email with an APK file that you download directly to your Android device.

When you publish an Android app you receive an email with an AAB file for you to upload to the Google Play Store.

Common Android Publishing Issues

The Keystore / Signing Key

Keystores in Android are storage mechanisms for security certificates to prevent others from updating your app on the Google Play store. Your keystore contains a private key that is unique to your app.

Duplicated apps within an account () maintain the same keystore as the original app. Apps copied from a link do not have the same keystore.

If your app was deleted, and you have not downloaded a copy of your keystore, it is permanently lost. We strongly recommend you use so that you can update your published apps if your keystore is lost.

Exporting / importing a keystore to your app

Export keystore from a Thunkable project

If you make a copy of a Thunkable project, the copy will have a different keystore to the original project.

To export a keystore from a Thunkable project:

• Click the gear icon of on the left hand side of your Design tab your app in upper left corner to bring up App Settings

• Scroll to Android Keystore and click Export Keystore

Alias and Password

In the dialog that comes up, you will see the keystore's password and a button that says Export Keystore. You will need this password to import your keystore to other projects. You can change the password at this stage by editing the password in the text box.

The default keystore alias used by Thunkable will be AndroidKey.

Click OK to save the .keystore file to your computer.

Import keystore to Thunkable

To import a keystore to a Thunkable project:

• Click the gear icon of on the left hand side of your Design tab your app in upper left corner to bring up App Settings

• Scroll to Android Keystore and click Import Keystore

Enter the password and select the .keystore file you previously saved to your computer into the Import Keystore dialog.

Resetting Your Keystore

Create a new project in Thunkable for exporting the Keystore zip and .pem file.

You will then need to download the Android App Bundle to create a keystore and .pem file.

To download your Android App Bundle (AAB) file:

1. Within your Thunkable project, click the Publish and Download icon.

2. Select Publish Android from the drop-down menu.

3. A publishing modal is provided to guide you through the publication process.

4. Enter the email address you want the app download link sent to.

You will not need to do anything with the AAB file that is sent to your email, you may delete it.

You will then need to download your Keystore Zip. This is a compressed version of your app's Android Keystore.

You can download this from your project settings under Keystore Zip:

Save that zip file to a location where you can easily find it.

From here, you will need to go to your . Go to Setup > App Signing and click on Request upload key resetGoogle Play Console

For the reason for resetting your upload key, select I lost my upload key. In step 3, upload the .pem file from the Thunkable project you created earlier. The .pem file is located in your Keystore Zip.

After you have selected the .pem file, click Request

You should immediately receive an email from Google Play Console letting you know that they have received your request and the date the new key will become valid.

Please note: you will need to wait until the new key is valid to update your app.

However, you can now update the key in your existing app.

In the existing app, click on Import Keystore and then upload the Keystore zip from your new project into the existing project.

Manage Your Own App Signing

If you don't want Google to manage your App Signing, you can do so yourself. This is not necessary.

In Thunkable:

Download your Keystore Zip

You will need to download your Keystore Zip. This is a compressed version of your app's Android Keystore.

You can download this from your project settings under Keystore Zip:

In the Play Store:

Click Manage App Signing:

Click Export and upload a key from Java keystore:

You can skip straight to Step 3: Upload generated ZIP and Upload the

Click Continue.

Continue following the instructions in this document from .

Remove your app from the Play Store

To make your app unavailable for download on the Play Store, open your app listing on the and do the following:

1. Scroll down to “Release” and click on “Setup”

2. Then “Advanced Settings”.

3. Click the “Unpublished” radio button

4. Then click “Save” to unpublish your app.

You can see the relevant areas below:

Removing your app from the Play Store will not delete it from devices which have previously downloaded the app.

Submit your app for review

Create a new app on the Google Play Console

1. Sign-in to your account.

2. Click Create app in the upper right.

3. Complete the requested app details fields. Note: The App Name is how your app will appear on Google Play.

4. Complete the required declarations.

5. Click Create app.

App Dashboard

While you're getting set up, the Google Play Console Dashboard shows you what you need to do to get your app up and running. This includes recommendations on how to manage, test, and promote your app. Once you've completed a task, return to the Google Play Console Dashboard to explore what else you need can do.

We'll focus on the the following steps:

• Set up your app

• Publish Your app on Google Play

Set up your app

In this section, you'll share with Google the content of your app, and manage how it is organized and presented on Google Play.

1. Click View tasks in the Set up your app section to see the tasks you must complete.

2. Click on a task.

3. Complete the required fields.

4. Click Save

Main store listing

1. Click Main store listing under the Grow heading in the sidebar.

2. Complete the required fields and upload the required assets. See here for additional guidance: .

3. Click Save.

Create and publish a release

1. Return to the Google Play Console Dashboard.

2. Click View tasks in the Create and publish a release section to see the tasks you must complete.

3. Click the Select countries task.

Advertising ID

You must complete an advertising ID declaration.

Steps to complete the advertising ID declaration:

1. In response to the question, "Does your app use advertising ID?" select Yes.

2. In response to the question, "Why does your app need to use advertising ID?" select:

   1. App functionality

Data Safety Overview

Currently all apps made on Thunkable request access to permissions or data (for analytics and app data, NOT specific user data), which means you will need to account for those in your Data Safety form. The first thing you will need to include, if you already have not is that your app is collecting a couple of the required data types, so your Data Safety form should look like this:

Click Start Rollout to Production to publish your app!

Once your app has been reviewed, it will go live on the Google Play Store.

Before you publish your first app

Required Assets

We recommend you compile the following assets before embarking on the publishing journey.

• App Information

  • [Text] App Name To be shown in the Play Store.

  • [Text] A Short Description of your app

  • [Text] A Full Description of your app

App Settings

To publish your app on Android, you'll need to add of access the following in your Thunkable project's :

• App Name

• Icon

• Package Name (referred to as App (Bundle) ID in Thunkable)

• Version Name & Version Code

Package Name

Every new Thunkable project is automatically given a unique App (Bundle) ID. For the purposes of publishing to the Play Store, this is refered to as your app's package name.

To locate your package name:

1. Open your Thunkable project.

2. Navigate to the Design tab.

3. Click the Settings gear icon in the sidebar.

4. Copy the content of the

You'll notice that Thunkable adheres to the following naming convention to avoid conflicts with other apps: com.yourDomainName.yourAppName. It is all lower case letters, none of the segments begin with a number, and there are no characteres with accents.

Each time you create a new app

Set your Android Version

Google Play requires each new version of your app to have a unique and sequentially higher Version Name and Version Code. You can let Thunkable auto-increment (or automatically increase) the version data for you.

Download your Android App Bundle (AAB) file

The Apple and Android publishing processes are quite different. To publish with Apple, you complete the process in the Thunkable publishing wizard and the app file is sent directly to your Apple TestFlight. To publish with Android, you receive an email from Thunkable with your app's AAB file, which you download and then upload to the Google Play Store.

To download your Android App Bundle (AAB) file:

1. Within your Thunkable project, click the Publish and Download icon.

2. Select Publish Android from the drop-down menu.

3. A publishing modal is provided to guide you through the publication process.

Create a new app on the Google Play Console

1. Sign-in to your account.

2. Click Create app in the upper right.

3. Complete the requested app details fields. Note: The App Name is how your app will appear on Google Play.

Manage your app signing

Google will offer to protect your app signing key. You can click Continue to allow this to proceed. You will only be asked this the first time you publish a release.

If you don't want Google to manage your App Signing, you can do so yourself. This is not necessary.

In Thunkable:

Download your Keystore Zip

You will need to download your Keystore Zip. This is a compressed version of your app's Android Keystore.

You can download this from your project settings under Keystore Zip:

We recommend creating a new folder on your computer. Download your AAB file and your Keystore Zip to this new folder. That way, the correct AAB file and Keystore Zip will be together.

In the Play Store:

Click Manage App Signing:

Click Export and upload a key from Java keystore:

You can skip straight to Step 3: Upload generated ZIP and Upload the

Click Continue.

Continue following the instructions in this document from .

App Dashboard

While you're getting set up, the Google Play Console Dashboard shows you what you need to do to get your app up and running. This includes recommendations on how to manage, test, and promote your app. Once you've completed a task, return to the Google Play Console Dashboard to explore what else you need can do.

We'll focus on the the following steps:

• Set up your app

• Publish Your app on Google Play

Set up your app

In this section, you'll share with Google the content of your app, and manage how it is organized and presented on Google Play.

1. Click View tasks in the Set up your app section to see the tasks you must complete.

2. Click on a task.

3. Complete the required fields.

4. Click Save

Apps that request access to sensitive permissions or data (as defined in the ) are required by the Google Play Store to include a privacy policy. All apps made on Thunkable request access to sensitive permissions or data, which means you will need to provide a privacy policy.

Main store listing

1. Click Main store listing under the Grow heading in the sidebar.

2. Complete the required fields and upload the required assets. See here for additional guidance: .

3. Click Save.

Create and publish a release

1. Return to the Google Play Console Dashboard.

2. Click View tasks in the Create and publish a release section to see the tasks you must complete.

3. Click the Select countries task.

To update your app

Updating an existing app on the Play Store

1. In your Google Play Console, click on the Releases tab.

2. Click the Create New Release Button

3. Upload the AAB file into the App bundles section. Instructions for downloading your AAB are available here: .

If you are updating an existing app on the Google Play Store, your Thunkable project will need to have:

• the same as the published app

• an incremented (version number is higher than the version number of your published app)

• the same as the published app

You will not need to change any app signing settings when updating a published app.