Create your Google Play app record

Before Vunda can upload your Android app, an app record has to exist in your Google Play Console account for it to upload into. Google offers no way for an outside app like Vunda to create that record for you, so this one is yours to do - once, in your own account, in a couple of minutes. Expo, whose build service we use, lists it as a prerequisite in exactly those terms: create an app by clicking Create app in the Google Play Console. (Source: Expo - submit to Google Play.)

Vunda tracks this as one of your outstanding publish steps, shown as Create your app in Google Play Console - see the Create your store records step until you record your confirmation. In the step list it appears as its own line, Create your Google Play record, separate from the Apple one - so making one record and not the other shows honestly as one recorded detail and one still waiting.

Neither store record is externally verified before Vunda has access to its account. Apple gives you a numeric Apple ID to record; Google gives you nothing equivalent because the package name binds only when we upload the first build. For Google, you record your confirmation with the button in Step 2 below.

Make the record before you grant us any access. Once the app exists you can give our service account permissions on that app alone, instead of on your whole developer account - which is why the Publish page puts the records first.

What you will need

• A Google Play Console developer account. If you have not opened one yet, start with Set up your Apple Developer and Google Play accounts.
• Your app's Android package name. Vunda derives this for you and shows it on the Publish page in your Shopify admin, in the Create your store records step, with a Copy button next to it. There is nothing to ask us for. It looks like app.vunda.yourstore.
• The name you want shoppers to see on Google Play, and your app's default language.

Step 1: create the app in Play Console

This step happens inside Google Play Console, not in Vunda, so the exact screens are owned by Google. Verify against their current guide before you rely on it.

Open Google Play Console and choose Create app. Google asks you for four things:

• App name, as you want it to appear on Google Play.
• Default language.
• Whether this is an app or a game.
• Whether it is free or paid.

Some of these are hard to change once your app has been published, so read the notes Google shows on the form before you submit it. (Source: Create and set up your app.)

Step 2: tell Vunda the record exists

This step happens in Vunda, and it takes one click.

Open the Publish page in your Shopify admin and find the Create your store records step. Next to your Android package name there is a button reading I have created my Google Play app. Press it once the record is made. The note under the button says the same thing this guide does: there is no number to enter on the Google side, so we cannot detect the record, and we will not upload your Android build until you confirm.

Vunda answers with Thanks - your Google Play record confirmation was saved, the button turns into a Recorded badge, and your Create your Google Play record step becomes Recorded. This records what you told us; it is not a Google Play verification. Pressing it again is harmless if you are not sure whether it registered.

Only press it once the app really is in Play Console. If you confirm early, your build still runs but the Android upload fails when it cannot find an app to upload into. Create the record first, then confirm.

Step 3: grant Vunda access to this app only

This step happens inside Google Play Console, not in Vunda, so the exact screens are owned by Google. Verify against their current guide before you rely on it.

Now that the app exists you can name it in a permission grant, and that is the whole reason this step comes after Step 1. On the Publish page, copy the address labelled Grant access to this service account (your publish checklist calls it the Google Play service account). Then, in Google Play Console, open Users and permissions, invite that address, keep the grant on App permissions for just this app, and under Releases tick Release apps to testing tracks and Manage testing tracks and edit tester lists. The field-by-field walk through Google's invite form, including why access expiry stays off, is in Give Vunda access to your store accounts.

Play Console separates the two kinds of grant. Google's guidance is to use the App permissions tab "to select permissions to apply to specific apps", and the Account permissions tab "to select permissions to apply to all apps in your developer account", and it states that "App permissions only apply to the selected app". Use the App permissions tab, pick your Vunda app, and grant the permissions that let a user create and roll out releases. Google names those permissions itself and revises the labels from time to time, so read what is on the form rather than hunting for an exact phrase. (Source: Add developer account users and manage permissions.)

Granted this way, our service account can put builds into your Vunda app and nothing else. You never create a Google Cloud project or handle a JSON key - the service account is ours. The Apple half of this, and why Apple cannot be scoped the same way, is in Give Vunda access to your store accounts.

Step 4: know how the package name binds

Play Console does not ask you to type a package name when you create the record. Google takes it from the first app bundle uploaded to that record, and from then on it is fixed. The Publish page says the same thing next to the value: Google Play locks this in when the first build is uploaded. The record itself only needs a name.

Google's own wording on permanence is blunt: "Package names for app files are unique and permanent, so please name them carefully. Package names can't be deleted or re-used in the future." (Source: Create and set up your app.)

Two things follow from that:

• Create a new, empty app record for your Vunda app, and let our upload be its first one.
• If this record has already had a different app bundle uploaded to it - an app a previous agency built for you, say - tell us before you publish. Our build will not be able to upload into it, and we will work out the right path with you.

Step 5: let Vunda make the first upload

You do not need to upload anything by hand. Our build service submits your Android app for you, and the first submission creates your app's first release on the internal testing track. There is no manual first upload to do.

We deliberately send it as a draft on that track ("track": "internal" with "releaseStatus": "draft" in our submit configuration), so nothing reaches shoppers on its own. You open the draft in Play Console, review it, roll it out to internal testing, then promote it to production when you are happy. The step-by-step is in Publish your app to the App Store and Google Play. (Sources: Expo - submit to Google Play, Prepare and roll out a release.)

If yours is a newer personal Play account

Google applies an extra testing requirement to personal developer accounts created after November 13, 2023: you have to run a closed test before you can apply for production access. It does not block your Vunda build or the internal-testing upload above, but it does sit between you and a public release, so plan for it early. The detail, including how many testers you need and for how long, is in the Android part of Publish your app to the App Store and Google Play. (Source: App testing requirements for new personal developer accounts.)

After you create the record

Your Play record is ready to receive builds, our service account can reach that one app, and - once you have pressed the confirm button in Step 2 - Vunda knows the record is there. Your listing content is covered in Complete your store listings. The iOS equivalent of this guide is Create your App Store Connect app record.