Link Google Play to Firebase

Linking your Firebase Android App to a Google Play developer account enables the following:

  • App Distribution: support for Android App Bundles (AAB)
    • When you upload an app bundle to App Distribution, it's exported to Google Play to generate an APK that's optimized for your tester's device configuration.
  • Google Analytics: share revenue and audience data
    • Access your in-app purchase and subscription events data from Google Play in Firebase and Google Analytics.

If you linked to Google Play before September 14, 2021, all your existing app links have been automatically populated within both the App Distribution integration and the Google Analytics integration for Google Play.

Link to Google Play

Prerequisites

To create a Firebase link to Google Play and to upload AABs, make sure that your app meets the following requirements:

  • The app is registered with your Firebase project and your Google Play developer account. This means that you have both a Firebase Android App and a Google Play app.
  • The app in Google Play and the Firebase Android App are both registered using the same package name.
  • The app in Google Play is set up on the app dashboard and is distributed to one of the Google Play tracks (Internal, Closed, Open testing, or Production).
  • The app's review in Google Play is complete and the app is published. Your app is published if the App status column displays one of the following statuses: Internal (not Draft Internal Testing), Closed testing, Open testing, or Production.

How to link

Note that your Google Play developer account can be linked to multiple Firebase Android Apps (even in separate Firebase projects), but each Firebase Android App can only be linked to a single Google Play developer account.

Here's how to link a Firebase Android App to a Google Play developer account via the Firebase console:

  1. Sign in to Firebase, then select your project.
  2. Click the Settings icon, then select Project Settings.
  3. On the Project Settings page, click the Integrations tab.
  4. On the Google Play card, click Link.
    If you already have links to Google Play, click Manage instead.
  5. Follow the on-screen instructions to select which product integrations to enable and which Firebase Android Apps to link to Google Play.

Unlink from Google Play

You have three options for unlinking Google Play: unlinking Google Play entirely from all apps in your Firebase project, unlinking all apps for a specific product integration, or unlinking specific apps for a specific product integration.

The following will happen for an app that's unlinked:

  • Any data previously exported will remain accessible in the recipient product(s).
  • If the app was linked via the App Distribution integration, you will no longer be able to upload new app bundles to App Distribution and export them to Google Play via the App Distribution integration.
  • If the app was linked via the Google Analytics integration, all exports of revenue and audience data between Google Play and Google Analytics through this integration will stop.

Here's how to unlink from Google Play via the Firebase console:

  1. Sign in to Firebase, then select your project.
  2. Click the Settings icon, then select Project settings.
  3. On the Project Settings page, click the Integrations tab.
  4. On the Google Play card, click Manage.
  5. Unlink all apps or specific apps from Google Play:
    • Unlink all apps: At the bottom of the page, click Unlink
    • Unlink all apps for a specific product integration: Switch off the toggle for the specific product
    • Unlink specific app(s): Click open the specific product, then deselect the app(s) that you want to unlink
  6. Confirm that you want to unlink.

Required permissions and suggested roles

These roles will enable you to create/update/delete a link for Google Play in the Firebase console:

  • Either of the following Firebase roles: project Owner or Firebase Admin
    and
  • Either of the following Google Play access levels: account Owner or Admin

These roles will enable you to view the existing links for Google Play in the Firebase console:

  • project Owner, Editor, or Viewer
    or
  • project Viewer or Firebase Admin
    or
  • any of the Firebase product-category predefined roles

If you don't have the necessary Firebase role, you can ask a project Owner to assign one of these roles to your account via the Firebase console IAM settings.

The following table describes the Firebase permissions required to perform specific actions.

Action in Firebase console Firebase permission(s) required
Create a link

firebase.links.create OR

firebase.playlinks.update

Delete an existing link firebase.links.delete
Update which Google Play developer account is linked to a Firebase Android App firebase.playlinks.update
View which Google Play developer account is linked to a Firebase Android App

firebase.links.list OR

firebase.playlinks.list

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?