← Part of Google Play

Get your Android app to your testers

Your release reached Google Play as a draft? Roll it out, send it for review and share the test link with your testers.

When Bloxks publishes your Android app, the build goes to the track you picked (closed testing by default). For a brand new app, Google adds one rule: as long as the app has never been released, it only accepts a release as a draft. Your build is on Google Play, but no tester receives it until you finish these steps in Play Console. You only do this once: after this first review, the next builds are rolled out on their own.

In Bloxks, the publication then shows Sent to Google Play — rollout to finish.

1. Roll out the draft release

In Play Console, open your app, then Test and release, Testing, Closed testing, and your track (usually Alpha).

  • Open the draft release and click Edit release. Google may still show an older name (for example "1 (1.0.0)"): what counts is the version code listed in the release, which matches the build number shown in Bloxks.
  • Click Next, read the warnings on the "Preview and confirm" screen, then Save (or Start rollout to Closed testing).

2. Send the changes for review

Open Publishing overview, then click Send changes for review. The first closed test of an app is reviewed by Google: usually a few hours, sometimes several days. Until Google approves it, testers can't install anything.

Google refuses to send? The Publishing overview lists what is still missing (privacy policy, content rating, data safety, target audience…). Fill in each item: Bloxks prepares most of the answers in the Google Play publishing window.

3. Add your testers

In the track, open the Testers tab:

  • tick an email list (or create one) and add your testers’ Google addresses, the ones signed in on their phones;
  • save.

Still in Testers, copy the link under Join on the web. It has this shape:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/<your.package.name>

Each tester opens it on their phone, with the Google account you added, taps Become a tester, then installs the app from Google Play. The link can take a few hours to work after the first rollout.

Good to know

  • Internal testing skips Google review and is available within minutes, up to 100 testers. Handy for a quick check, but it does not count toward the 12 testers over 14 days that new personal accounts must complete before production.
  • Nothing goes to production unless you pick that track when publishing from Bloxks.
  • Testers already on the internal track keep receiving the build of that track, not the closed test one.
  • To test purchases for free, also follow Test purchases on Android.

Google’s official help: Prepare and roll out a release and Set up an open, closed or internal test.