حزمة تطبيق إصدار موقَّعة

Your debug builds run on your device, but the Play Store needs a release build: optimized, shrunk, and cryptographically signed by you.

The Play Store wants an Android App Bundle (.aab), not an APK. Google generates device-specific APKs from it, so users download only what they need.

A signing key proves every update truly comes from you. Android refuses to install an update signed by a different key, which protects your users.

You generate a keystore file holding your key. Guard it and its passwords carefully: lose them and you can lock yourself out of updating the app.

Never commit passwords. Put them in gradle.properties (gitignored) or environment variables and read them in your build config.

In build.gradle you declare a signingConfig that points to the keystore and credentials, then attach it to the release build type.

Turn on minifyEnabled for release. R8 removes unused code and obfuscates names, making your bundle smaller and harder to reverse engineer.

Run the bundleRelease Gradle task. It compiles, shrinks, and signs your app, producing a release .aab ready to upload.

You are packaging your app for the Play Store. Which artifact should you upload?

With Play App Signing, Google holds the final app signing key and you keep only an upload key. If your upload key is lost, you can reset it.

Before publishing, install the signed build via an internal testing track. R8 can break reflection, so confirm everything works in the optimized variant.

Every upload needs a higher versionCode than the last. The Play Store rejects duplicates, so increment it on each release before you build.

You created a keystore, set up a signingConfig, shrank with R8, and built a signed .aab. Your app is ready for the Play Console.