Correct way to sign my Android apps for the Play Store?

Question

I am a beginner solo game developer and I'm still learning about how everything works. I watched a tutorial series about making a game in Unity wherein they showed how to sign your App for Google Play. They implied that you make a new "Key" / "Alias" for every new game you make.

On the other hand someone else told me to make one Key-store and one Key and use that for all future apps.

My questions is should I make a new Key for every app, or should I make one Key and use that for all the apps I intend to upload to the Google Play Store?

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 16 '19 at 05:31

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You have to generate a .jks file (which is a key) and store it safely in drive. u need the key for further updating of the application.

And about your query, u need separate key for every different applications you develop.

To know more about signing applications. Visit here for unity application signing

answered Apr 16 '19 at 05:31

MohanKumar

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Thanks for clearing some confusion. This makes more sense – rrswa Apr 16 '19 at 11:16
Just one thing... Is it the "Keystore" that I should make for every app or the "Alias" ? – rrswa Apr 17 '19 at 02:38
See this answer for your clear view https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17663991/keystore-and-key-alias – MohanKumar Apr 17 '19 at 05:01

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 16 '19 at 05:26

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You have to create new key for every new App .Different Apps has to be signed with different keys.

Same key is used in case you want to update previous uploaded app in Playstore.

Link to official android documentation on app signing

edited Apr 16 '19 at 05:26

Karan Harsh Wardhan

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answered Apr 16 '19 at 04:43

abhinandan sharma

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Thanks for the help. Just to be clear: Do I create a new "keystore" for every app or a new "alias" for every app? – rrswa Apr 16 '19 at 11:33

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 18 '19 at 08:40

I would:

Use Google Play App Signing
Opt to have a new key for every app
It doesn't matter too much if you share upload keys

Google Play app signing has lots of benefits, but two critical ones are it lets you use App Bundle which makes your download smaller, and if you ever lose your signing key (or have it compromised) it allows Google to help you. This is really useful for someone who isn't an expert in App Signing.

The benefit of having a different key per app might not be obvious to you. Suppose as a solo game developer your game makes it really big, and a large game studio wants to offer you a lot of money for it. Hooray, you've made it! But if you have the same signing key and keystore for all your games, then you have to transfer that key (and hence power over all your games) to the studio. If you have a different key for each game, then you can sell the one game they want to buy and hand over the key, but keep the separate keys for your other games.

Google Play App Signing does this for you by default. So I'd just use Google Play App Signing. But if you don't, I'd have a different keystore and key for each app/game.

Correct way to sign my Android apps for the Play Store?

3 Answers3