Google Play Linking

Follow this guide to get your Google Play account key for use with Apptonomy.

Overview

Apptonomy needs your permission to modify your localized app descriptions and upload localized screenshots.

You grant permission to Apptonomy with what’s known as a Service Account Key. The following steps walk you through generation of a service account key.

If you’re familiar with Google Cloud Console (GCP) and Play Store Console then this will be quite easy and you might skip some steps along the way, otherwise just follow the steps closely and we’ll get you up and running in a few minutes.

At a high level, linking a Play Store account is straightforward, but as always with Google (and Apple!) there are some devils in the details. So let’s get this right!

Prerequisites

• Access to the Google Cloud (GCP) console with an account with elevated privileges.
• Access to Play Store Console with an account with Admin (all permissions) — you’ll need this to grant the service account the account-level permission that unlocks reporting-bucket access in step IV.

Steps

I. Enable the Play Store API

This is how Apptonomy talks to the Play Store and uploads your localized app descriptions and screenshots. It might already be enabled, let’s check…

1. Go to the Play Store API page on the Google Cloud Console: Play Store API
2. Ensure the right project is selected (drop down top left)
3. If you see then you’re good to go.
4. Otherwise, click

II. Create Service Account

1. Go to the Service Accounts area on the Google Cloud Console: Service Accounts
2. Ensure you’ve selected the right project (same project as above in Enable Play Store API)
3. Click
4. Service Account Name: apptonomy-service-account (or whatever you want!)
5. Copy the email address and put it somewhere for later (we’ll use it soon):
6. Click Done

III. Create Service Account Key

1. Go back to the Service Accounts list and note that you might need to refresh the page to see the newly created account.
2. Click on the new service account (it has the email address we copied above).
3. Click on the tab.
4. Click Add key > Create new key
5. Choose Key type JSON and click Create
6. The key file will download immediately to your computer.

IV. Add Service Account to Play Store Console

This is the only place you grant the service account permissions. Everything Apptonomy needs — reading and writing app metadata, and downloading the reporting CSVs we use for analytics — flows from permissions set here. You’ll set permissions on two tabs:

1. Go to the Google Play Console.
2. Click Users & Permissions in the left nav.
3. Click Invite new users.
4. Paste the email address you copied above for the service account (hint: it ends with iam.gserviceaccount.com).

App permissions

5. Click Add app and choose Select all (or specific apps you want to integrate with Apptonomy).
6. Grant both of the following roles. They’re separate on purpose — Apptonomy reads app metadata through the first, and uses the second to probe write access at credential-entry time and to publish store-listing changes later:
   • View app information — lets Apptonomy read your app’s listing, details, and release history. This is the minimum role required to link at all.
   • Manage store presence — lets Apptonomy run the write-access probe at credential-entry time and, later, publish store listing changes on your behalf.
7. Click Apply.

Account permissions

8. Switch to the Account permissions tab (next to App permissions in the same dialog).
9. Check View app information and download bulk reports (read-only). This is the permission that grants the service account access to your pubsite_prod_* reporting bucket — without it, Apptonomy can’t sync installs, crashes, ratings, or any of the daily CSV-based analytics.
10. Click Apply.
11. Click Invite user.

Why “Account permissions” and not GCS IAM?

The pubsite_prod_* reporting bucket is owned by Google Play Console infrastructure, not by your GCP project. You cannot grant Storage Object Viewer on it from the Cloud Storage browser — the Permissions tab on the bucket will typically show “Unable to load roles” because the bucket isn’t in any project you administer. Reporting access is configured exclusively through this Play Console account-level permission.

Propagation delay

Google may take up to 24 hours to apply new Play Console permissions to the reporting bucket. If Apptonomy reports a 403 on the bucket immediately after linking, that’s almost always propagation — re-validate the credential the next day before troubleshooting further.

V. Tell Apptonomy where to find your reporting bucket

Apptonomy needs the bucket name to know which CSVs to read.

1. Go to Google Play Console.
2. Left nav → Download reports → Statistics.
3. Click Copy Cloud Storage URI.

The URI looks like gs://pubsite_prod_rev_<developer-id>. Some older Play accounts use gs://pubsite_prod_<developer-id> without the rev_ segment; Apptonomy accepts either form.

When you upload the service account JSON in Apptonomy, paste this URI (or the bare bucket name) into the Reporting bucket field next to the JSON upload.

Finished!

That’s it! Now return to Apptonomy, click Connect Play Store and upload the JSON file.

Key File Security

The JSON file contains a key that can be used to access your Play Store account and make changes (e.g. submit screenshots and app store descriptions, etc). Apptonomy treats the JSON key as highly sensitive information. The file is encrypted in the browser before uploading via SSL/TLS then it is re-encrypted and stored according to best practices.

Read about how Apptonomy secures keys