https://developer.android.com/studio/publish/app-signing
Android requires that all APKs be digitally signed with a certificate before they are installed on a device or updated. When releasing using Android App Bundles, you need to sign your app bundle with an upload key before uploading it to the Play Console, and Play App Signing takes care of the rest. For apps distributing using APKs on the Play Store or on other stores, you must manually sign your APKs for upload.
This page guides you through some important concepts related to app signing and security, how to sign your app for release to Google Play using Android Studio, and how to configure Play App Signing.
The following is a high-level overview of the steps you might need to take to sign and publish a new app to Google Play:
If instead your app is already published to the Google Play Store with an existing app signing key, or you would like to choose the app signing key for a new app instead of having Google generate it, follow these steps:
This page also explores how to manage your own keys for when uploading your app to other app stores. If you do not use Android Studio or would rather sign your app from the command line, learn about how to use apksigner.
Note: If you are building an Wear OS app, the process for signing the app can differ from the process described on this page. See the information about packaging and publishing Wear OS apps.
With Play App Signing, Google manages and protects your app's signing key for you and uses it to sign your APKs for distribution. And, because app bundles defer building and signing APKs to the Google Play Store, you need to configure Play App Signing before you upload your app bundle. Doing so lets you benefit from the following: