To fully automate your Android app build and publishing workflow using GitHub Actions, we’ll break it into three main steps:

✅ What This GitHub Action Will Do

1. Build the APK using Gradle on a GitHub Actions runner.
2. Upload the APK to GitHub Releases as an asset (optional: GitHub Packages if you prefer).
3. Deploy the APK to Google Play Store – Internal/Test Track using the r0adkll/upload-google-play action.

📁 Prerequisites

1. Play Store Setup

• Create a Google Play Console account.
• Upload the initial APK manually once to create the app entry.
• Create a Service Account with Release access and generate a JSON key file.

2. GitHub Repository Secrets

Add these secrets to your repository settings:

📜 GitHub Actions Workflow (.github/workflows/android-release.yml)

name: Android Release Pipeline

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v*'  # Triggers on version tags like v1.0.0

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build APK
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - name: Checkout Code
      uses: actions/checkout@v4

    - name: Set up JDK
      uses: actions/setup-java@v3
      with:
        distribution: 'temurin'
        java-version: '17'

    - name: Decode Keystore
      if: env.RELEASE_SIGNING_ENABLED == 'true'
      run: |
        echo "${{ secrets.ANDROID_KEYSTORE_BASE64 }}" | base64 -d > my-release-key.keystore

    - name: Build APK
      run: ./gradlew assembleRelease
      env:
        KEYSTORE_FILE: my-release-key.keystore
        KEYSTORE_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD }}
        KEY_ALIAS: ${{ secrets.ANDROID_KEY_ALIAS }}
        KEY_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.ANDROID_KEY_PASSWORD }}

    - name: Upload APK to GitHub Release
      uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
      with:
        name: "Release ${{ github.ref_name }}"
        tag_name: ${{ github.ref_name }}
        files: app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk
      env:
        GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  upload_to_playstore:
    name: Upload to Google Play
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: build

    steps:
    - name: Download Release APK from GitHub
      uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
      with:
        name: app-release.apk

    - name: Upload to Google Play (Internal)
      uses: r0adkll/upload-google-play@v1
      with:
        serviceAccountJsonPlainText: ${{ secrets.GOOGLE_PLAY_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON }}
        packageName: ${{ secrets.PACKAGE_NAME }}
        releaseFiles: app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk
        track: internal  # use 'alpha', 'beta', 'production', or 'internal'
Code language: PHP (php)

📌 Notes

• This will auto-trigger when you push a tag like v1.0.0.
• r0adkll/upload-google-play handles version codes and uploads the APK to the internal testing track.
• You can switch the track to alpha, beta, or production as needed.

🔐 How to Encode Keystore

base64 your-release-key.keystore > keystore.txt
# Copy contents and store in GitHub secret: ANDROID_KEYSTORE_BASE64
Code language: CSS (css)

Rajesh Kumar

I’m a DevOps/SRE/DevSecOps/Cloud Expert passionate about sharing knowledge and experiences. I have worked at Cotocus. I share tech blog at DevOps School, travel stories at Holiday Landmark, stock market tips at Stocks Mantra, health and fitness guidance at My Medic Plus, product reviews at TrueReviewNow , and SEO strategies at Wizbrand.

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