Zilu Ramkrishna Rane

Posted on Jun 4, 2018

React Native Build APK Generate release mode APK for React-Native project to publish on PlayStore

#reactnative #apk

Good Day All! I hope you are doing Good.

From last couple of days, Me and my friends were doing comparative study of ionic3 and react-native. During that period, we were struggling to generate release mode APK for React-Native project.

Finally, we came across following solution:

Create and then copy a keystore file to android/app

keytool -genkey -v -keystore mykeystore.keystore -alias mykeyalias -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000

Setup your gradle variables in android/gradle.properties

MYAPP_RELEASE_STORE_FILE=mykeystore.keystore
MYAPP_RELEASE_KEY_ALIAS=mykeyalias
MYAPP_RELEASE_STORE_PASSWORD=*****
MYAPP_RELEASE_KEY_PASSWORD=*****

Add signing config to android/app/build.gradle

android {
signingConfigs {
release {
storeFile file(MYAPP_RELEASE_STORE_FILE)
storePassword MYAPP_RELEASE_STORE_PASSWORD
keyAlias MYAPP_RELEASE_KEY_ALIAS
keyPassword MYAPP_RELEASE_KEY_PASSWORD
}
}
buildTypes {
release {
signingConfig signingConfigs.release
}
}
}

Generate your release APK:

cd android && ./gradlew assembleRelease

Your APK will get generated at: android/app/build/outputs/apk/app-release.apk

Special Thanks to Tyler Buchea : http://blog.tylerbuchea.com/react-native-publishing-an-android-app/

Top comments (26)

mrcflorian • Apr 30 '19

Thanks for the tutorial! I've put up an article containing several errors that I encounter when building a release APK for React Native pretty frequently.

Anaga Uche • May 2 '19 • Edited

I love your article, thanks

Zilu Ramkrishna Rane • May 1 '19

Thanks mrcflorian

Rostyslav • Apr 21 '19

Hi Zilu. Follow your instructions, obtain error:

Unable to load script. Make sure you're either running a Metro server (run 'react-native start') or that your bundle 'index.android.bundle' is packaged correctly for release.

Egi ESEM • Jun 1 '20

don't run debug version, to create apk release version first you must run:
npx react-native run-android --variant=release
or
react-native run-android --variant=release

Then APK can be found in android/app/build/outputs/apk/release

Zilu Ramkrishna Rane • May 1 '19

You get this error after running which command?
Could you please provide more details.

Jhone Pterbok • Mar 7

To publish a React Native project on PlayStore, generate a release mode APK using the command line or Android Studio. Then, sign and align the Drama live Mod APK before uploading it.

jbernibe • Mar 5 '20

Hello my friend, i did the procedure above, but dont work, it show me the next message :
"Deprecated Gradle features were used in this build, making it incompatible with Gradle 6.0"
Could you Please help me whit that.

Thelaptopsguide • Sep 12 '22

Thanks for the very helpful tips. I’ve been using colored pencils for a few years now and been really happy with them, and yet there are still so many things you suggest that never occurred to me. If you want asnwer of your question then you can visit areteitech.net, for sure you will find eveything you are asking for I go through white pencils like crazy, too. Blending, all kinds of things–yet it didn’t occur to me that I should be using the white pencil first to get those nice bright spots. Such a simple thing, and yet…I didn’t catch on to what I’d been doing wrong till now. Thank you so much!

Max Programming • Nov 29 '20

I am using Expo to build my app so is there an easy way to do so in Expo? Because I don't have an android folder in my directory structure

Emicarito ★ • Jan 6 '19

Hi Zilu,

If you are in Windows the last command is cd android && gradlew assembleRelease

whitout the "./"

Ayesh Nipun Dinurang • May 19 '19

Thanks for the article. The app was built without errors. But when I install it on my device and run the app, App keeps stopping with the message "App keeps stooping"

Jamedo Kokalena • Mar 17

To publish a React-Native project on the PlayStore, you need to generate a release mode APK (Android Package Kit). This can be done by running the command "react-native run-android --variant=release" in the project directory, which will create a signed APK file. You can then upload this file to the PlayStore Console to release your app like Snapseed MOD APK. It is important to note that you will need to have a valid keystore file and signing key for this process.