1. Create your Play Console account
Go to play.google.com/console and sign in with a Google account. The one-time developer registration fee is $25 USD. Account activation is typically instant after payment clears.
Use a Google account you intend to manage long-term. The account that registers the developer account becomes the account owner with the highest permission level. You can invite other Google accounts as team members later, but transferring account ownership requires contacting Google Play support.
2. Create an app in Play Console
From the Play Console dashboard, click Create app. Fill in the following:
- App name:your app's name as it will appear on the Play Store listing.
- Default language: English (United States). You can add more languages later.
- App or game: App.
- Free or paid: Free. Appolar apps are free to install — revenue comes through Shopify checkout. You cannot change a free app to paid after it has been published.
Click Create app. Before your first submission, Play Console requires you to complete a store listing (description, screenshots), a content rating questionnaire, a target audience declaration, a privacy policy URL, and a data safety form. You do not need to complete those now — the next steps focus on setting up the credentials Appolar needs to submit builds.
3. Create a service account
Appolar accesses Play Console via a Google service account — a machine identity with scoped permissions, rather than your personal Google credentials. This is the approach Google recommends for automated publishing pipelines.
Go to console.cloud.google.com. If you don't have a Google Cloud project yet, create one. Name it something recognizable like Appolar Access — the name is for your own reference and has no effect on how Play Console connects.
In the project, navigate to IAM & Admin > Service Accounts > Create Service Account.
- Service account name:
appolar-deploy - Description:"Service account for Appolar to submit builds"
- Click Create and Continue. Skip the optional role and user access steps on the next two screens — you will grant the role from within Play Console, not from Google Cloud. Click Done.
Click on the appolar-deploy service account you just created, then go to Keys > Add Key > Create new key. Select JSON format and click Create. The JSON key file downloads automatically. This is the file you will upload to Appolar.
Note. Unlike Apple's .p8 key, Google JSON keys can be re-downloaded at any time by generating a new key for the same service account. Keep the file safe, but if you lose it you can create a replacement without losing access to your Play Console account.
4. Grant access in Play Console
Creating the service account in Google Cloud does not automatically give it any Play Console permissions. You need to link it to your Play Console account and assign a role.
In Play Console, go to Setup > API access. If you see a prompt asking you to link your Play Console account to a Google Cloud project, select the same project you used in the previous step.
Under Service accounts, find the appolar-deploy account and click Grant access. Set the role to Release Manager. This grants the account permission to upload and manage app releases, which is the minimum Appolar needs to submit builds on your behalf.
Note. The Grant access step links the service account to your entire Play Console developer account, not to a single app. The Release Manager role is scoped to release management — it cannot delete apps, manage billing, or access financial reports.
5. Upload to Appolar
In the Appolar builder, go to Builder > Publishing > Google Play. Upload the JSON key file you downloaded from Google Cloud Console. Also enter your app's package name — the Android equivalent of a bundle ID, in reverse-domain format, for example com.zaraeg.app. This must match the package name you will use when Appolar triggers your first build.
Click Save. Appolar encrypts the JSON credential with AES-256-GCM and stores it in an isolated credential store. The credential is used only to upload Android App Bundles to Play Console — never for any other purpose.
| What you need | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| Service account JSON key | Google Cloud Console > IAM & Admin > Service Accounts > Keys |
| Package name | Play Console > your app > App Dashboard (shown in the header) |