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Building a release APK with Expo

If you have a React Native app built with Expo, just a few steps are needed to publish it on the Solana Mobile dApp Store.

This guide assumes minimal experience with typical Android development tools.

Step 1. Build an APK​

By default, when building with EAS, the platform compiles an Android App Bundle (.aab) file. Solana Mobile dApp Store requires a different binary format, APK, so we'll create a new EAS profile by adding the following lines in eas.json:

"dapp-store": {
    "channel": "production",
    "android": {
        "buildType": "apk"
    }
}

Then build:

npx eas build -p android --profile dapp-store

Meanwhile, in your project directory, create a new folder dapp-store-build (if you're using Git you may want to add this folder to .gitignore to avoid uploading large binary files).

Once the EAS build has finished, download the APK file, and name it myapp-0.0.1-unsigned.apk. Replace myapp and 0.0.1 with your app name and release version, but keep file naming consistent between updates.

Step 2. Set up Java and Android tooling​

You will need to download and install:

Once Android Studio is installed, you need to create an empty project. Then, open Settings > Languages & Frameworks > Android SDK.

Switch to SDK Tools tab and check if you have Android SDK Command-line tools installed.

A tool named AAPT2 (Android Asset Packaging Tool) may be missing from Android Studio, and you may have to install it separately:

sdkmanager "build-tools;build-tools-version"

build-tools-version should be replaced with the latest version from the release page: https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/build-tools

For example:

sdkmanager "build-tools;34.0.0"

Alternatively, use a full path on Mac:

~/Library/Android/sdk/cmdline-tools/latest/bin/sdkmanager "build-tools;34.0.0"

Step 3. Sign the APK​

In your project directory, create a new folder dapp-store-signing-keys (if you're using Git you may want to add this folder to .gitignore to avoid exposing signing keys).

Open the folder dapp-store-signing-keys and run the following command (edit as needed) to create a keystore used for signing the app.

keytool -genkey -v -keystore release-key.keystore -alias myapp -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 50000

In this command you need to change the values:

  • myapp: unique name (alias) that identifies your app or project
  • 50000: key validity in days; you may want to reduce it

Open your project directory, and run the following command:

~/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/35.0.0/apksigner sign \
    --ks ./dapp-store-signing-keys/release-key.keystore \
    --ks-key-alias myapp \
    --out ./dapp-store-build/myapp-v0.0.1-signed.apk \
    ./dapp-store-build/myapp-v0.0.1-unsigned.apk

The signed binary will be at dapp-store-build/myapp-v0.0.1-signed.apk. This is the file you'll need to reference in config.yaml at the publishing stage.

Publishing to dApp Store​

Now that you have signed APK, you are ready to follow the dApp publishing guide to submit your app to Solana Mobile dApp Store.