Android builds (APK & AAB)

Turn your mobile project into a real installable Android app — without a Mac, Android Studio, or a single command. GenVibe builds it for you and hands you the file.

Two formats, for two different jobs:

• APK — install straight onto an Android phone. Best for testing, or sending to someone to try.
• AAB — the format Google Play requires. Use this when you're ready to publish.

Before you start

Builds run on your own free Expo account, which means the app, its signing key and its build history all belong to you — not to GenVibe. It's a one-time setup.

1. Open your mobile project and click the Android icon in the preview toolbar.
2. Follow the link to Expo access tokens and sign up if you don't have an account.
3. Under Personal access tokens, click Create token and copy it.
4. Paste it into GenVibe and click Connect Expo.

That page also offers Robot users. You don't need one — pick a personal access token. A robot token can build, but it can't read the resulting build, so you'd never see the status or the download link.

Your token is encrypted, stored once for your whole account, and never shown again — so you only do this on your first build, not for every project. It's never sent to your browser and never reaches the AI.

Build it

Click the Android icon, choose APK or AAB, and hit Build. That's it — you can close the dialog and carry on working.

The dialog shows live progress: your place in the queue, how long it's been running, and whether it's still waiting or actively compiling.

Expo's free plan is low priority, so queue time varies a lot — sometimes a few minutes, sometimes over an hour before the build even starts. Compiling itself takes about 10–15 minutes. If you build often, Expo's $19/mo Starter plan is high priority.

Download it

When the build finishes, a Download button appears in the same dialog.

• APK — open the file on an Android phone to install it. You may need to allow installs from unknown sources.
• AAB — upload it to Google Play Console to publish.

Builds keep running if you close GenVibe. Come back later, click the Android icon, and the status (or the download) is waiting for you.

Building both formats

You can have one APK and one AAB in flight at the same time — useful when you want to test on your phone and prepare a Play Store release.

They won't run in parallel, though. Expo's free plan builds one at a time, so the second one starts when the first finishes. GenVibe tells you when that's happening.

You can't queue two of the same format at once — that would just cost you build minutes for an identical file.

Publishing to Google Play

1. Build an AAB.
2. Create an app in Google Play Console (a one-time $25 developer fee applies).
3. Upload the AAB under a release track.
4. Fill in the store listing, content rating and privacy policy Google asks for.

Because the signing key lives on your Expo account, you can keep publishing updates independently — you're never locked into GenVibe.

App name and package ID

The first time you build, GenVibe makes sure your app.json has the two things Android requires:

• a slug — the project name in your Expo dashboard
• an android.package — the unique ID Google Play identifies your app by, e.g. app.genvibe.a1b2c3d4e5

Both are derived from your app and left alone once set. To choose your own, just ask in chat before building:

Set the Android package name to com.mycompany.myapp

Change the package ID before you publish. Once an app is live on Google Play, its package ID is permanent — a new one means a new listing that existing users won't be updated to.

iOS

Coming soon. iOS builds need a paid Apple Developer account ($99/year) plus signing certificates, so they're not available yet. You can still preview your app on an iPhone today with the QR code and the Expo Go app — see Mobile apps.

Troubleshooting

"No EXPO_TOKEN found" — the token wasn't saved. Reopen the Android dialog and connect again, making sure you copied a personal access token.

The build failed — the dialog shows Expo's actual error. The most common cause is a package that can't be installed; ask in chat to fix the dependency, then build again.

It's been queued for ages — that's Expo's free-tier queue, not a stuck build. It will finish. A paid Expo plan skips the queue.

Want to disconnect? Open the Android dialog and click Disconnect at the bottom. Builds already running on Expo aren't affected.

Tips

• Build an APK first and try it on a real phone before preparing a Play Store release.
• Ask for your app icon and splash screen before building — they're baked into the file.
• Every build uses your Expo build minutes, so avoid rebuilding until you've actually changed something.