hora-play-store

name	hora-play-store
description	Publish and manage a "Hora"-family Android app on Google Play — store listing, the App Signing SHA that makes Google Sign-In work for testers, the store icon, and track promotion. Use for Play Console / closed-testing tasks, "testers can't sign in", or store-icon work.

Hora Play Store (signing SHA, store icon, listing, tracks)

"No Google account exists" for testers = the Play App Signing SHA is missing

Google Play re-signs every Play-distributed build with its own App Signing key — a different SHA than your upload/debug keys. Google Sign-In authorises the caller by (package + signing SHA), so a build that signs in fine when sideloaded fails for every Play tester. Via Credential Manager it surfaces as NoCredentialException ("No Google accounts found") even though accounts exist — NOT a DEVELOPER_ERROR (the code is fine if it already uses setFilterByAuthorizedAccounts(false)).

Fix — server-side, no rebuild, no re-review:

1. Play Console → App integrity (use the search box: type app signing; it's not under the Testing list) → App signing key certificate (the upper one, not "Upload key certificate").
2. Copy its SHA-1 and SHA-256.
3. Get the Firebase app id: firebase apps:list ANDROID --project <proj>.
4. Add both (SHA-256 is required for Credential Manager): firebase apps:android:sha:create <appId> <SHA> --project <proj>.
5. Verify: firebase apps:android:sha:list <appId> --project <proj>. Testers retry in ~5–15 min.

The store icon ≠ the launcher icon (but it IS generated, not hand-matched)

The adaptive launcher foreground keeps safe-zone padding (the glyph fills only a small bounding circle) — fine on-device (the launcher masks/zooms) but it looks tiny in the Play listing, which renders the store icon almost as-is. As of the v3 icon geometry standard (2026-07), this is a solved, generated asset — play_icon() in brand/launcher-icon/gen_launcher_icon.py renders it at PLAY_BAND_FRAC (larger than the launcher's LAUNCHER_BAND_FRAC, tuned so the mark doesn't read as cramped inside Play's own grid/detail chrome). Don't curl a live listing and re-derive metrics per app — just run python gen_launcher_icon.py <app>, which writes android/play_icon_512.png alongside every other icon from the one family spec. Launcher mipmaps are generated by the same run and stay in sync automatically.

Setting the store icon — use the edits.images API (don't fight the browser)

The 512 store icon can be set non-interactively with the AndroidPublisher edits API, with the same publisher service account that uploads bundles — even when the full listing bootstrap / publishListing is blocked (see below). icon is a single-image type, so upload replaces:

svc = build("androidpublisher","v3",credentials=sa_creds)          # scope .../androidpublisher
eid = svc.edits().insert(packageName=PKG, body={}).execute()["id"]
svc.edits().images().upload(packageName=PKG, editId=eid, language="<listing locale, e.g. en-GB>",
    imageType="icon", media_body=MediaFileUpload(icon_512_png, mimetype="image/png")).execute()
svc.edits().validate(packageName=PKG, editId=eid).execute()         # catch issues before publishing
svc.edits().commit(packageName=PKG, editId=eid).execute()           # commit = live

Verify by re-listing on a fresh edit (edits().images().list(... imageType="icon")) and diffing the served url bytes against the source. Use the app's actual listing locale (edits().listings().list).

Why not the console UI: agent automation of Add assets -> Upload is unreliable — the in-page picker fires a native OS file dialog (not drivable from the browser tools), and the browser file-upload tool only accepts files the harness registered, so it rejects repo paths. A human clicking Upload works fine; for automation, prefer the API above.

Tracks & promotion

• internal publishes immediately via API.
• internal → closed (alpha): promoteReleaseArtifact --from-track internal --promote-track alpha --release-status completed (use draft only while the app itself is still a draft, then roll out in console). alpha (closed) → beta (open) → production likewise.
• Gate before production: Play requires roughly 12 testers × 14 continuous days on a closed test before a new app/account can reach production — a one-time unlock, not a per-release gate. Updating the closed version does not reset the clock.
• Version-code precedence: when a user is eligible for builds on multiple tracks, Play serves the highest version code, not the highest-priority track. You can't have the same build artifact on two tracks simultaneously — to put a build on Open Testing while another sits in Production, bump the version code first. ("Production is King" holds only because it usually carries the highest code.)
• Launch-day exception: for an external/marketing launch, target Production with a direct link — a "Join Beta → wait → install" flow adds friction that hurts launch-day conversion.

Listing API is often blocked on fresh apps — enter listing manually

publishReleaseListing / bootstrap calls can 404 ("listing not found" / "migrate to new publishing API") because the service account lacks full store-listing permission (the edits().images() icon / graphics upload above still works — see "Setting the store icon"). Enter the rest of the store listing by hand in console: copy, feature graphic (1024×500), phone screenshots (≤ 2:1, e.g. 1080×2160), and the content rating / data safety / target audience / ads declarations.

Feature graphic — generate it, don't hand-author it

The 1024×500 feature graphic is generated, not designed per app: feature_graphic() in brand/launcher-icon/gen_launcher_icon.py (run via generate_all()/the <app> CLI) writes android/play_feature_graphic.png from the same wordmark engine as the launcher icon, plus the app's name_en/tagline_en from the APPS dict, in Google Sans Flex at 'ROND' 100. Upload it via the edits().images() API above (imageType="featureGraphic") or by hand in console — never hand-draw a one-off. Full design language (store icon + feature graphic + screenshot framing + title/description copy conventions): conventions.md → "Play Store listing design language".

Security

The Play Console service-account key is gitignored — never commit/print it. See hora-app-release for the full no-secrets checklist.