Preparing your apps for release
Android Studio normally signs your build using a debug key. This debug build allows you to build and test your app quickly. To publish your app on Google Play, you must create a release build signed with your own key. This release build will not be debuggable and can be optimized for size.
The release build must also have the correct version information. Otherwise, you won’t be able to publish a new app or update an already published app.
Let’s start with adding versions to your app.
Versioning apps
The version of your app is important for the following reasons:
- Users can see the version they have downloaded. They can use this when checking whether there’s an update or whether there are known issues when reporting bugs/problems with the app.
- The device and Google Play use the version value to determine whether an app can or should be updated.
- Developers can also use this value to add feature support to...