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Connect Google Play Console (service account)

Connecting Google Play Console brings Google’s own numbers into StoRank: daily installs by country, store listing visitors and acquisitions, crashes and ANRs, and review replies from the dashboard. One connection covers every Android app in your developer account.

1. What you need

  • A Play Console account that can invite users and grant permissions.
  • A Google Cloud project (an existing one or a new one).
  • About 10 minutes; Google can take a few hours (up to 24) to activate the permission.

2. Create the service account

  1. Open Google Cloud Console and pick a project at the top (or create a new one).
  2. Go to IAM & Admin → Service Accounts → Create service account. Name: storank. You don’t need to give it any role.
  3. Open the new account: Keys → Add key → Create new key → JSON. The JSON file downloads; keep it somewhere safe.
  4. Note the account’s email address (…@….iam.gserviceaccount.com).

3. Enable the two APIs

In the same Google Cloud project, open both pages, check that your project is selected at the top and press Enable:

4. Invite the service account in Play Console

  1. In Play Console, open Users and permissions → Invite new users.
  2. Enter the service account’s email address.
  3. Under Account permissions, tick View app information and download bulk reports.
  4. If you want to reply to reviews from StoRank, also tick Reply to reviews.
  5. Send the invitation. One service account covers all your Android apps.

5. Copy the reports address

  1. In Play Console, open Download reports → Statistics.
  2. Copy the Cloud Storage URI on that page (it starts with gs://pubsite_prod_rev_).

6. Add it to StoRank

  1. In StoRank, open Settings → Google Play Console Connection.
  2. Paste the Cloud Storage URI, choose the JSON file and press Connect and Save.
  3. Google often takes a few hours (up to 24) to activate a new service account’s permission. StoRank tries every hour and fetches the reports on its own once access opens; you don’t need to do anything. Install reports are monthly files and arrive 1-2 days late.

7. What each permission unlocks

  • View app information and download bulk reports: daily installs by country, store listing visitors and acquisitions; with the Reporting API enabled, crashes and ANRs.
  • Reply to reviews (with the Android Developer API enabled): reading reviews through the API and sending replies from StoRank. Without it, StoRank shows the public reviews from the store page.
  • Google’s API only allows replies to reviews from the last 7 days; reply to older ones in Play Console.

8. Common problems

  • “Can’t access” right after connecting: the permission isn’t active yet. Wait a few hours; StoRank retries on its own.
  • The Crashes card says the Reporting API is off: enable Google Play Developer Reporting API in the project where you created the service account.
  • The Crashes card shows a permission error: give the service account the View app information permission in Play Console.

9. Disconnecting

Delete the connection in Settings → Connections: the encrypted JSON key and the fetched data are deleted. To cut access on Google’s side as well, delete the key in Google Cloud or remove the user in Play Console. More: How we protect your data.

Still stuck?

Use Report a Bug in the dashboard’s left menu (the page you are on is added automatically) or write to [email protected]. We usually reply within 24 hours.

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