Hello and welcome to my channel. In this video, I will quickly show you how
to build, test, and deploy your React Native Expo application to the app store. I am an Android user, so I will deploy my
apps to the Google Play Store. I published the app in the Google Play Store,
and you can see it on the screen. Just follow the video, and don’t skip anything;
otherwise, you will miss something. First, let’s start an Expo application. Select the blank template and continue to
download dependencies. Here, I am going to make a very simple application,
so it won’t take much time. If you are in a hurry, you can skip a few
minutes, but I suggest you watch the video. For this application, I am going to add a
title, image, and description. Now, add some styles to the title, image,
and description. Next, run the application. Oh! I missed adding the image to the assets folder. So, I am going to add the image and rerun
the application. Now, you can see that our application is running
absolutely fine in the Expo Go app, as expected. Now, we are going to build an APK for this
Expo project. For this, we are going to follow the official
documentation. Step 1 is to install the EAS-CLI in our project. Step 2 is to log in to our Expo account. If you don’t have one, create your Expo
account, and then log in with the same credentials here. Step 3 is to configure our application for
the build. Here, I am going to test the APK on my Android
device, so I will select Android here. Now, our application is well-configured, so
let’s build an APK. Use the following command in the terminal
window to build an APK. I will not suggest you make changes to the
Android application ID if you're building an APK for the first time. It’s a one-time change thing, so be aware
if you change it. Next, we will let Expo generate a new Keystore. If you are using Android Studio, then you
can add your custom keystore here too if you want. Now, our application build has started, and
you have to wait for some time. It may take 5-10 minutes to complete the build. In the meantime, don’t forget to read the
documentation. Like, if you are using a private NPM package,
then you have to add the NPM token. Does your app code depend on environment variables? Add them to your build configuration. There is more to read here, so read this information
if you are working on a big project. Now our build is complete. Download this build from the official Expo
website. After downloading, I am adding this APK to
my Android device and then installing this APK. After the installation, you can see that the
response time of the application is fast, and it’s smooth. Here, I missed something to add, the app icon
and adaptive icon. I already made the image with the exact pixel
it requires and then replaced it with the original one. But unfortunately, we can’t see the changes
in this APK because we already built it. Now, let’s build our app for production. Use the command EAS build and select Android. Now, wait for the build to complete. Last time, we built the APK, but this time
we are building an AAB file. AAB stands for Android App Bundle. We will add this AAB file to the Google Play
Store. Our AAB build is complete. Download the AAB from the Expo website. Now we are going to push this app to production. You need to have a Google Play Console account
to publish your app on Google Play. If you don’t have one, you can create it
by visiting the Google Play Console website. Keep in mind that there is a one-time registration
fee of $25 to publish your application. Once you log in to your dashboard, you can
start creating your app by clicking on the "create app" button. Here, you need to provide some basic details
about your application, such as its name, whether it's a game or an app, and whether
it's free or paid. Make sure to read everything carefully before
filling out the form. In the "setup your app" section of the dashboard,
you will need to fill out some important tasks. The first task is to provide a privacy policy
URL. If you don't have one, you can create a simple
static HTML page for your policy and host it using GitHub Pages. If you need help with this step, let me know
in the comment section, and I will create a quick video to guide you through the process. Once you have a URL, add it to the privacy
policy section of the dashboard and save it. Next, you will need to manage any restricted
sections of your app, such as memberships, subscriptions, or any other restrictions. This is important because if Google reviewers
can't review your app, they might block it from being published. If your app contains ads, make sure to select
"yes" in the app access section. When it comes to content rating, you will
need to answer some questions about your app. Make sure to read them carefully before answering. If your app contains miscellaneous content,
it might not get a good rating. Submit the rating and go back to the dashboard. Select your target audience, and make sure
to read the instructions before filling out the information. If your app is not a news app and has no relation
to Covid-19, select the appropriate options. If your app does not collect or share any
user data, select that option. If your app is not a government app, select
the appropriate option. Choose the category of your app (in this case,
education), and add some relevant tags. Add your email and click save. You will then need to add short and long descriptions
of your app. If you have already written them, you can
simply copy and paste them into the appropriate sections. You will also need to add an app icon, a feature
graphic, and some screenshots of your app. Make sure to design them according to the
required pixels. In the "create and publish a release" section,
you can add the countries where you want to publish your app. If you want to publish it worldwide, select
"all." Click on "create new release" and upload the
AAB file. You can also add a message for this release. You might encounter an error when you click
on "next." If your app doesn't contain any ads, select
"no." If it does, select "yes" and choose the appropriate
options. Save your changes, and the error should disappear. The downloadable size of the application is
10.5 MB. Click on "start rollout to production," and
your app will go through the review process, which can take 2-7 days depending on the type
of application. That's it for this video. If you're interested in React Native or Firebase,
make sure to check out my channel's playlist for more valuable content. Don't forget to subscribe for more videos,
and I'll see you in the next one!
