[Android development] 4. Building a signed .APK file

Hey folks!
Welcome back to the new tutorial. This is going to be about  'How to generate a signed .APK file" for the android application that you have created. In this tutorial im going to create to generate signed apk of the 'Hello World' app that we studied in the 'Previous tutorial'.
 
All you have to do is follow the simple steps given below:

1. Open the android project and click on Build>Generate signed apk 
     (as shown in the picture below)

2. Create a 'Key store' and sign your application
'Key store' is just like a signature for your application.
Learn more about Key Store from 'here'.

Note:

• Save the key in a safe location and dont forget the details you entered about the key store, like passwords and other details (This will be needed if you publish your app in the Google play store).
• Do not ever forget the password of the key store, since the key is of no use without the password.
• Do not share this file with anyone who doesn't own the application, because this is your unique signature for the application. 

If you have not created key already, click on 'Create new' button and create one as shown in the picture below.

3. Finish this last step
After you have created the key and filled all the other information, click on 'NEXT' .

In the next screen, select the location where the .APK should be produced. Select the release type as 'Release' and click on 'FINISH'.

Wait for the project to get built and after the build is done, you will see the apk file in the selected destination folder.

Video tutorial for this post on 'CodeShuffle YouTube' 

That's all, you have generated your first apk now. Got queries? Drop comments.. let me solve it :)

Author : Anonymous

He is a simple passionate tech freak who himself is an engineering student at Canara Engineering college. He likes App Development, Web designing, Blogging, Youtubing, Debugging and also is a CodeGeek!

Sharing is sexy!

Related Articles