Use your AI as the copilot
Open your coding agent in the project folder and give it this job. Let it inspect files, run safe checks and prepare the work; you stay in control of accounts, payments, secrets and the final publish button.
Help me prepare this Expo app for Google Play. Inspect the project and report its package ID, version, permissions, data collection, icons, build configuration and likely policy gaps. Do not create accounts, pay fees, upload builds or submit forms. Make a checklist backed by file paths, and distinguish facts you found from questions I must answer.
1. Create a Play Console developer account
Pay the one-time fee and verify your identity with an official ID. Choose personal or organization; an organization account needs a D-U-N-S number. Verification can take a few days.
2. Know the testing rule before you start
New personal accounts must run a closed test with at least 12 testers who stay opted in for 14 days in a row before they can apply for production. Line up friends with Android phones now. Check the current rule on Google's page; it has changed before.
3. Build the Android bundle with EAS
Google Play takes an .aab file. First ask the AI to inspect and validate the Expo configuration. Then run the account and cloud-build commands yourself; they can upload code and use paid service quotas.
Ask your AI:
Inspect app.json/app.config and eas.json for a Google Play production build. Check the package ID, version code, permissions, icons and production profile. Propose the smallest required edits, but do not run EAS or access an account.
npm install -g eas-cli eas login eas build:configure eas build --platform android --profile production
4. Create the app in Play Console
Create app → name, default language, app or game, free or paid. Free cannot become paid later.
5. Fill in App content
A privacy policy URL, Data safety form, content rating, target audience, ads declaration and a test login if needed. If people can create an account, Google requires a way to delete it both inside the app and on a web page, and the Data safety form asks for that page's address. Let the AI inventory SDKs and code paths, but verify every answer yourself: policy declarations are your responsibility.
Ask your AI:
Create a draft Data safety inventory from the dependencies and code. For every data type, cite the file or SDK that suggests it and mark uncertain items as questions. Do not decide the final legal declaration for me.
6. Write the store listing
Ask the AI to draft honest listing copy from the features that actually exist. You still need a 512×512 icon, a 1024×500 feature graphic and at least two real phone screenshots, not mockups of missing features.
Ask your AI:
Draft an 80-character short description and a clear full Google Play description using only features you can verify in this repository. List every claim with the file that supports it, and omit unsupported promises.
7. Upload to a closed testing track
Testing → Closed testing → create a release and upload the .aab by hand in the console. Add your testers' emails, save the list, and send them the opt-in link (note: the opt-in link only works after your first closed-testing release finishes Google's initial review). To upload from your terminal instead, create a Google service-account key and give it access in Play Console (the Expo submit page walks through it). By default eas submit puts the build on the internal testing track, which is not the closed test that counts toward production access. To target the closed test, set "track": "alpha" in the android part of your eas.json submit profile, or upload that build by hand.
eas submit --platform android
8. Apply for production and release
After the 14 days, answer Google's questions about your test and apply for production access. Review usually takes a few days. Then roll out, starting with a percentage of users if you want a safety margin.
Official pages
Prices and rules change. When this guide and the provider disagree, the provider is right.