In order to submit your Android app to Google Play Store, you need to create a Google Service Account key. To do this, the following steps are required:
- Create a Google Cloud project (optional if you already have one)
- Create a Google Service Account and create and download the JSON key file
- Enable the Google Play Android Developer API
- Invite the Google Service Account to your Google Play Console account
- If you don't have a Google Cloud project yet, create one in the Google Cloud Console. If you already have a project, you can skip this step.
- Open the Service Accounts page in the Google Cloud Console and click CREATE SERVICE ACCOUNT.
- Enter a name for your service account. We recommend a name that will make it easy for you to remember that it is for your Google Play Console account. Optionally, enter the service account ID and description of your choice. Click the DONE button.
- On the newly created service account, select Manage keys from the options button, then Create new key. Choose JSON and then the CREATE button. Download the
.jsonfile and store it in a safe place.
- Open the Google Play Android Developer API page and click ENABLE.
- In the Google Play Console, open the Users & permissions page and click Invite new users.
- Enter the email address of the service account you created in step 3. On the App permissions tab, select your app(s). If you want to apply the permissions to all apps, you can also select the permissions on the Account permissions tab instead
- Select the required permissions to upload and manage your app, and click Invite user
That's it! From now on, we can use the generated Google Service Account key to upload and publish your app.