Building an Android App is the process of creating an app to make it available to the users by publishing it. You release your application through an application marketplace, such as the Google Play store. When you publish your app on the Google Play Store, you put your app in front of the immense number of active customers of the Android play store. Building an Android mobile app on the Play Store involves the following five steps:
Android requires a Keystore to be created for every app published on Google Play Store. Android requires that all apps be digitally signed with a certificate before they can be installed. Click here to know how to generate the signing keys for your Android app.
Upload Signing Keys on StoreHippo
After the Keystore is created, you need to upload it to your store. To configure the signing keys for your Android app, go to Mobile Apps >Mobile Signing Keys section in StoreHippo Admin Panel. To upload the signing keys, fill out the following fields:
Title:Enter the name of the signing key that you are creating.
Type: Choose the type of platform. Here, you need to select the "Android" option.
Keystore: Keystore is a storage mechanism for security certificates. It should be in JKS format.
Key Password: Password for the signing key.
Keystore Password: Password for the Keystore.
Alias: Keypair alias name.
NOTE: You can build the app without uploading Android signing keys. In that case, the app will be signed with StoreHippo's default key. When you use the StoreHippo inbuilt Android build, then the SHA-1 key for your app will be 15:27:AE:98:AA:0F:93:05:4F:6A:1E:F1:99:1E:88:D9:33:29:AA:AE.
Create a Mobile App Build
After you have uploaded the signing keys, you have everything that you need to create an app. For creating the app in your store, go to Mobile Apps >Mobile Apps section in StoreHippo Admin Panel. Select the Android Platform and select the Key that you have created in the earlier sections, as shown below:
Enabled: Check the flag if you want to build the app for Android.
Key: The signing key will be used to sign the app for publishing on the Google Play Store.
Preferences: StoreHippo Mobile apps support some custom preferences for the app. Preferences are used for things like android-versionCode, android-targetSdkVersion, and others.
Sha256 Cert Fingerprint: In case, if you want to define SHA 256 fingerprint, you can mention it here. You can get the SHA256 from Google Play Console.
Push Notifications
StoreHippo allows you to send push notifications in Android apps. However, to do so, you need to configure the push notification in the Android mobile app. To know more about the Cloud Messaging configuration, refer to Android push notifications.
The StoreHippo provides support for the two Android app formats, which are .apk and .aab.
APK: If you want to test the app by directly installing it on your device or want to send an update for your app on the Google Play Store, you need to download the APK version. Click on the Download Android APK to download the android app in the .apk format.
AAB: The AAB stands for Android App Bundle. If you want to upload the new app on Google Play Console, you need to download this .aab version. Click on the Download Android Bundle to download the android app bundle in the .aab format.