Building an Android APK with React Native CLI

Two Gradle commands stand between your React Native project and an APK you can hand to anyone. No dev server, no tooling on their end, just an installable release build. I show the whole process with the React Native CLI in the video, including the folder where Android hides the finished file.

Perfect if you need to get your app onto testers' phones without touching the Play Store.

What's inside

• Verify the app runs first with npx react-native run-android
• Build the release with ./gradlew clean and ./gradlew assembleRelease
• Find the APK in android/app/build/outputs/apk/release
• Install it by dragging onto a device or emulator
• Bump version and build numbers between builds
• Why release builds load faster than debug builds

Resources

CourseReact Native course

Ready for the stores? The Publishing section walks the full App Store and Play Store submission in 75 minutes.