Google Play

What is Google Play?

Google Play is where Android apps get published. Its control room, the Play Console, is where you manage your app, and a companion service account lets Bloxks act there on your behalf, from build to release.

What it unlocks in Bloxks

• One-click publishing: Bloxks compiles your app, uploads it to Google Play and pushes it to the track you chose, end to end.
• Complete Play Store listing: title, short and full description, screenshots. Bloxks prepares everything.
• Testing tracks: ship to internal testing first, then to production.
• Updates: every time you improve your app, ship a new version without leaving Bloxks.

What you need first

A Google Play Developer account (25 USD, one time). It is Google’s mandatory pass to publish on the Play Store, whatever tool you use.

Your app also has to exist in Play Console before Bloxks can publish to it: Google does not allow creating an app record through its API.

Connect Google Play to Bloxks

The JSON file is not a Google password and does not log you into the Play Console. It is a private technical key for a service account: it lets Bloxks authenticate to Google’s publishing API on your behalf, without storing your personal Google credentials. Anyone holding this file can act with the permissions you grant it, so never share it or commit it to Git.

1. In Google Cloud, select an existing project or create a dedicated one. Open IAM & Admin → Service Accounts, then select Create service account. Give it a clear name such as bloxks-play-publisher and finish the creation. You do not need to grant it a Google Cloud role for this purpose.
2. Open the new service account, select Keys → Add key → Create new key, choose JSON, then download the file. Google shows this private key only at creation time; store it in a password manager or a secure vault.
3. Enable the API in the same Google Cloud project:
   • Click this direct link: Google Play Android Developer API.
   • At the very top of the Google Cloud page, open the project selector. Select the project in which you just created the service account. If Google shows a project-selection dialog first, choose that project there.
   • On the API page, click the blue Enable button. Wait a few seconds for Google to finish enabling it.
   • You are done when the button is replaced by Manage (or when the page says API enabled). If you already see Manage, do not click anything: the API is already enabled for this project.
   • Do not create an API key, OAuth client, or another credential on this screen. The service-account JSON file from step 2 is the credential Zzz needs. If the Enable button is disabled or missing, ask the owner of that Google Cloud project to grant you permission to enable APIs.
4. Create the app manually in Play Console if it does not already exist. Its package name must match your Android build exactly (for example com.yourcompany.yourapp).
5. Open Google Play Console, which is a separate website from Google Cloud. Copy the service account’s email address (it ends in iam.gserviceaccount.com). In Users and permissions, invite that address. Then open Account permissions and select Administrator (all permissions). This is the simplest option: the service account will automatically have access to every current and future app in this developer account, so you do not need to select apps individually. This role has full control of the Play Console account; only use it for the service-account JSON key that you keep private in Bloxks.
6. In Bloxks, open Connections → Google Play → Add connection, upload the JSON file, enter the exact package name, then save and test. The test signs in to Google and checks that this service account can access that specific app; it does not publish a build.

Good to know

• Your JSON key is encrypted on our servers and only used to talk to Google for you. It is never shown again.
• Connect once, publish every app: the same service account works for all your Bloxks projects.
• If your developer account is new, Google requires a closed test with at least 12 testers over 14 days before you can release publicly. Bloxks publishes to a testing track first, so you can start that clock right away.
• Google’s review is mostly automated and usually takes a few hours to 3 days, longer for a brand new account.

Want to go deeper? Read the official Google Play Developer API docs.