Connecting Google Play

You need to be the owner of the Google Play developer account, or an admin who can invite users to it. Inviting the service account is the step that proves the app is yours, and only an owner or admin can do it.

Set aside about ten minutes. You’ll create a service account in Google Cloud, invite it to your Play Console, and upload its key here. Nothing in this guide changes your app, your listing or your releases.

If you’d rather not do any of this, you can sign in with Google instead when you link the app. It’s two clicks, but Google caps how many people can use it until our app finishes Google’s review, so the service account is the dependable option.

The service account lives in a Google Cloud project that you own. If you already have one for this app, use it and skip to the next step.

1. 1
   Open the Google Cloud console and sign in with the Google account that owns your Play developer account.
2. 2
   Give the project a name you’ll recognise later — “Play reviews” is fine — and press Create.

If you have several Google accounts, it’s worth doing this in a private window so you don’t create the project under the wrong one.

1. 1
   With your new project selected, open the Google Play Android Developer API and press Enable. This is the API we read reviews and post replies through.
2. 2
   Also enable the Google Play Developer Reporting API. This is what lets us list your apps, so you can pick the ones to manage.
3. 3
   Only if you want your older reviews imported: also enable the Cloud Storage API. Google’s review API only goes back 7 days; everything older comes from monthly report files, which are kept in Cloud Storage. Once linked, add their Cloud Storage URI with Import history on the account in Connections.

1. 1
   Open IAM & Admin → Service accounts and press Create service account.
2. 2
   Name it something you’ll recognise in Play Console later, such as “Reply Hearth review replies”, then press Create and continue.
3. 3
   For the role, choose Basic → Browser, press Continue, then Done. This role grants nothing in Play Console — the permissions that matter are the ones you set in the next step.
4. 4
   Find the new account in the list, open its three-dot menu → Manage keys → Add key → Create new key → JSON → Create. A.jsonfile downloads to your computer.

Keep that file safe. Anyone who has it can act as this service account. You’ll upload it to us in the last step, and you can delete the key in Google Cloud at any time to cut off access immediately.

This is the step that gives the service account access to your apps, and only your apps.

1. 1
   Copy the service account’s email address from Google Cloud. It ends in .iam.gserviceaccount.com.
2. 2
   In Play Console → Users and permissions, press Invite new user and paste that email address.
3. 3
   Under App permissions, add the apps you want us to manage and tick both Reply to reviews and View app information (read-only). The first lets us read reviews and post replies; the second lets us list your apps so you can choose from a list. Both are needed.
4. 4
   Only if you enabled Cloud Storage above: under Account permissions, also tick View app information and download bulk reports (read-only). Google only offers this one account-wide, not per app. It lets us read your monthly review reports — nothing financial, and we only open the review files for apps you’ve linked here.
5. 5
   Press Invite user. The invitation is accepted automatically, but Google can take a few minutes to apply it.

1. 1
   In Reply Hearth, open Connections and choose Google Play.
2. 2
   Upload the .json key file and press Find my apps. We’ll list everything the service account can reach, and you tick the ones to manage.

We check the key straight away. If it fails, the message tells you what to fix — usually a missing permission, or an invitation Google hasn’t applied yet.

Adding more apps later never needs a new key: open the account here and pick them from the same list.

• The key is encrypted before it’s stored, and it is never sent back to a browser, shown in our app, or written to our logs.
• We read your reviews and post the replies you approve, or the ones you’ve explicitly turned on automatic replies for. Nothing posts on its own until you switch that on, per app and per star rating.
• We never touch your releases, your store listing, your pricing or your earnings. The Reply to reviews permission doesn’t allow it, and we don’t ask for anything that would.
• Review text is deleted within 30 days, and we never mix one customer’s reviews with another’s.
• To cut off access at any time, disconnect the app here, delete the key in Google Cloud, or remove the invitation in Play Console. Any one of those is enough.

More detail is in our Privacy Policy.

“That service account can’t read this app’s reviews yet”

Nearly always one of two things: the invitation hasn’t been applied yet (wait a few minutes and try again), or the app wasn’t ticked under App permissions when you invited the account. Check the invitation in Play Console under Users and permissions.

You created the project under the wrong Google account

Easy to do if you’re signed into several. Start again in a private window, signed in as the Play developer account owner.

“We can’t list this account’s apps”

The service account needs View app information (read-only) as well as Reply to reviews, and the Play Developer Reporting API enabled in your Cloud project.

Your older reviews didn’t import

That needs the Cloud Storage API and the bulk-reports permission from the optional steps above, plus the reports’ Cloud Storage URI (Play Console → Download reports → Reviews → Copy Cloud Storage URI) added to the account in Connections. Without them everything still works — you just won’t see reviews older than 7 days.