How to publish Flutter app to Google Play with FlutLab

Every mobile developer dreams to disrupt the market with his kick-ass app. Google Play gives us a chance to achieve this in Android World.

In order to share your application with Google Play, you need:
- to be a mobile developer
- to have an Google Play Developer account

This article will show the modern approch to publish your ground-breaking Flutter to Google Play app with help of online IDE: FlutLab.io

Part 1: Create a new app in Google Play Console.

1. Go to your Google Play Console and open “All apps” tab.

2. Click on Create app button.

3. Fill in all fields and press Create app button.

4. Excellent! You have get your first Google Play app project.

Part 2: Add internal testers

You can select Production, Open testing, Closed testing, or Internal testing depending on your target. In this instruction, I will show the publishing process for Internal testing. But it is almost the same for all the other variants. The only difference is that you need to fill in all the data about the app before publishing it.
I will mention this in more details at the end of this post.

Let’s add testers' Google Accounts by their email addresses.

Click on the Copy link and save it. Later, when you upload the application, you can send this link to your testers so that they can accept the invitation and install the application on their devices.

Part 3: Generate Signed Bundle in FlutLab (Premium plan only)

1. Go to FlutLab and create a new project.

2. You should enter a unique package name that is not occupied inside Google Play yet. App name can be any but should conform to the Google Play rules.

3. Open in Explorer frame of FlutLab <project name>/android/app/build.gradle and make sure that compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion are 30 or higher. This parameter should meet the minimum requirements of Google Play otherwise you will not be able to publish the compiled application.

4. Check that the application is in working state. On the screen below you can see that we were able to perform the “web build”.

5. If you are ready to publish your app let’s do it. Click on the settings icon.

6. Open the Signing tab and click Generate button.

7. You should see the next window (available in FlutLab Premium Plan)

You can use any — APK or Android App Bundle. The last option lets Google Play optimize the distribution of the app parts for the different user devices. Use this type for smaller app size, better compatibility and security.

8. Press Next button. Now you should tap the upper “Create New” button for creating KeyStore and alias for your new app. If you already have KeyStore you can create only aliases by clicking the second “Create New” button.

9. Here we’re going to tap the upper button and fill in the required form data. When ready, we’ll click Create button.

10. Now you will be able to select the key store and alias from the list.

11. Enter the passwords and then you can click the Generate button to build the Signed App Bundle.

12. Download the Signed App Bundle result on your device.

Part 4: Publishing procedures in Google Play Console

1. Back to your Google Play Console and click on the Create new release button.

2. Signing process is more friendly for App Bundles (but ofcource, yuo can set everytihg for APKs also). In the below window just tap on the Continue button.

3. Upload your App Bundle (<project name>.aab) or APK (<project name>.apk file. After this fill all the fields as in the below example and press Save button.

4. Great! Now it’s time to press the Review release button.

5. Say welcome to your testers. Open Testing/Internal testing and click Start rollout to Internal testing.

6. Congratulations! You have published your first application and testers from the list created above can download it from the link and install it via Google Play.
In your Google Play Console, you can see the following message:

As I said earlier, you can select Production, Open testing, Closed testing, or Internal testing publishing variants. Internal testing allows you to publish and update the app immediately without any Google Play checks but only for the internal testers team. Closed testing (Alpha) has similar features, but it can be used for higher number of testers and requires review from Google Play. Open testing is a beta, and also needs app project review and review for each new app update. Open testing allows app istallation by any user. So anyone can join the beta program.

Production is a case when your app will be available in Google Play for any user without any additional actions. But be prepared to fill in all the data about your application, logo, description, screenshots, additional advertisement info, age, region restriction. You have to start this process from the Main store listing page.

Until you fill in all the required fields, the console will not let you publish the production or beta version. But when you are done, you can click the publish button as you did for internal testing and the application will be sent for review.

When Google Play will done its review, the app will immediately be available to all the users across the Globe.