Generating the Android APK

Building the Android Application Package (APK) is a bit more cryptic than releasing for iOS. There are a few steps that we need to follow before we generate the static bundle, like we did in iOS:

1. First, we need to generate a key that we can use to sign our application using keytool. Navigate to the android/app folder in a terminal and run this command:

   $ keytool -genkey -v -keystore my-release-key.keystore -alias my-key-alias -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000
   [Storing my-release-key.keystore]
   

   Note

   Note that this is a private file and should never be shared with anyone. Keep it somewhere safe!

2. Next we have a few configuration files to update. Up a level in the android/ directory open gradle.properties and add these four lines, replacing YOUR_KEY_PASSWORD with the password you used for keytool:

   MYAPP_RELEASE_STORE_FILE=my-release-key.keystore MYAPP_RELEASE_KEY_ALIAS=my-key-alias MYAPP_RELEASE_STORE_PASSWORD=YOUR_KEY_PASSWORD
   MYAPP_RELEASE_KEY_PASSWORD= YOUR_KEY_PASSWORD...