Publishing a signed APK for uploading

Once we have completed all the previous steps, we will proceed to the final step of preparing a signed APK to be published on different app stores. The following sections discuss the steps of producing a signed APK from within Xamarin Studio.

Android keystores

A keystore is a database of security certificates created and managed by the keytool program from the Java SDK. The keystore is an important aspect of creating a release version of the Android app. The Android device cannot run applications that have not been digitally signed. This may come as some surprise because we have been running our app for some time now. During the development process, Xamarin.Android uses a debug keystore that signs the build while running the application from an IDE, and as such the apps to run on the device. This keystore works for debugging purposes only, but will not be recognized as a valid keystore for the distribution of released apps.

A keystore must be kept safe...