Google Play

Google Play is the Android app distribution service maintained by Google.

This guide covers the requirements for publishing your Android app on Google Play.

Note

Tauri uses an Android Studio project under the hood, so any official practice for building and publishing Android apps also apply to your app. See the official documentation for more information.

Requirements

To distribute Android apps in the Play Store you must create a Play Console developer account.

Additionally, you must setup code signing.

See the release checklist for more information.

Changing App Icon

After running tauri android init to setup the Xcode project, you can use the tauri icon command to update the app icons.

npm

npm run tauri icon /path/to/app-icon.png

yarn

yarn tauri icon /path/to/app-icon.png

pnpm

pnpm tauri icon /path/to/app-icon.png

cargo

cargo tauri icon /path/to/app-icon.png

Setting up

Once you’ve created a Play Console developer account, you need to register your app on the Google Play Console website. It will guide you through all the required forms and setup tasks.

Build

You can build an Android App Bundle (AAB) to upload to Google Play by running the following command:

npm

npm run tauri android build --aab

yarn

yarn tauri android build --aab

pnpm

pnpm tauri android build --aab

cargo

cargo tauri android build --aab

Tauri derives the version code from the value defined in tauri.conf.json > version (versionCode = major*1000000 + minor*1000 + patch). You can set a custom version code in the [tauri.conf.json > bundle > android > versionCode] configuration if you need a different version code scheme e.g. sequential codes:

tauri.conf.json

{
  "bundle": {
    "android": {
      "versionCode": 100
    }
  }
}

Build APKs

The AAB format is the recommended bundle file to upload to Google Play, but it is also possible to generate APKs that can be used for testing or distribution outside the store. To compile APKs for your app you can use the --apk argument:

npm

npm run tauri android build --apk

yarn

yarn tauri android build --apk

pnpm

pnpm tauri android build --apk

cargo

cargo tauri android build --apk

Architecture selection

By default Tauri builds your app for all supported architectures (aarch64, armv7, i686 and x86_64). To only compile for a subset of targets, you can use the --target argument:

npm

npm run tauri android build --aab --target aarch64 --target armv7

yarn

yarn tauri android build --aab --target aarch64 --target armv7

pnpm

pnpm tauri android build --aab --target aarch64 --target armv7

cargo

cargo tauri android build --aab --target aarch64 --target armv7

Separate bundles per architecture

By default the generated AAB and APK is universal, containing all supported targets. To generate individual bundles per target, use the --split-per-abi argument.

Note

This is only useful for testing or distribution outside Google Play, as it reduces the file size but is less convenient to upload. Google Play handles the supported architectures for you.

npm

npm run tauri android build --apk --split-per-abi

yarn

yarn tauri android build --apk --split-per-abi

pnpm

pnpm tauri android build --apk --split-per-abi

cargo

cargo tauri android build --apk --split-per-abi

Changing the minimum supported Android version

The minimum supported Android version for Tauri apps is Android 7.0 (codename Nougat, SDK 24).

There are some techniques to use newer Android APIs while still supporting older systems. See the Android documentation for more information.

If your app must execute on a newer Android version, you can configure [tauri.conf.json > bundle > android > minSdkVersion]:

tauri.conf.json

{
  "bundle": {
    "android": {
      "minSdkVersion": 28
    }
  }
}

Upload

After building your app and generating the Android App Bundle file, which can be found in gen/android/app/build/outputs/bundle/universalRelease/app-universal-release.aab, you can now create a new release and upload it in the Google Play Console.

The first upload must be made manually in the website so it can verify your app signature and bundle identifier. Tauri currently does not offer a way to automate the process of creating Android releases, which must leverage the Google Play Developer API, but it is a work in progress.