Description:
I'm facing an issue with my companion Android apps (a phone app and a Wear OS app) not working together when one is installed from the Play Store and the other is installed as APK via an external link. Both work fine during development when installed from Android Studio (using the release variant with the same key) However, after publishing the Wear OS app to the Play Store it signed automatically by the Play Store, and the opt-out option was removed recently, so the apps do not work together.
Question:
Given that opting out of Play Console signing is no longer an option, what workarounds or steps can I take to ensure compatibility between companion apps in this scenario?
Additional Information:
Both apps have the same package name, permissions, and communication methods.
Target SDK Versions: 33 for both
Any insights or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
I've tried to upgrade the app signing key on Play Console using PEPK tool
$ java -jar pepk.jar --keystore=foo.keystore --alias=foo --output=output.zip --signing-keystore=uploadkey.keystore --signing-key-alias=upload-key-alias --rsa-aes-encryption --encryption-key-path=/path/to/encryption_public_key.pem