No matching client found for package name (Google Analytics) - multiple productFlavors & buildTypes

Question

Context:

I'm trying to set up Google Analytics for my app. (having 4 custom buildTypes and more than a few productFlavors)

It works fine when I select the Build Variant which has the applicationId set to com.my.app.package.name (the package name used when generating the google-services.json). But, my other flavors have different applicationIds.

I followed the offical devguide to set it up.

Error I get when any another build variant is selected in Build Variants Tab (which has a different applicationId (package name) is as follows:

Error:Execution failed for task ':app:processAllcategoriesDebugfreeGoogleServices'.

No matching client found for package name 'com.my.app.package.name.debug'

Explanation of Error Message:

In the task name in the error message above Debugfree is my custom buildType and Allcategories is one of my productFlavors.

I understand the error and know the package name is different from what i used when generating the json, but that is what I'm trying to figure a way around.

Problem:

Now, the google-services.json resides in the app folder and hence I am not being able to separate them out for each product flavor by dropping them in the flavor specific source set folder.

Questions:

1. My custom byildType for debugging suffixes .debug to the applicationId (package name). Is there a way I can make it work with the google-services.json which has my release applicationId (i.e. without the suffix .debug)
2. Is there a way to have multiple product flavors configured in the same google-services.json file without using separate files and tasks to copy the required file to app folder. I know it can be done using task as mentioned in this post. Is there a simpler way to just have one file or pick right file based on gradle configuration?
3. I see the package_name field in google-services.json has the package name com.my.app.package.name. Can I add multiple package names manually to work for all build variants? If yes, how to do that? Could not find any instructions in documentations.

Answer 1

Found this:

The google-services.json file is generally placed in the app/ directory, but as of version 2.0.0-alpha3 of the plugin support was added for build types, which would make the following directory structure valid:

app/src/
    main/google-services.json
    dogfood/google-services.json
    mytype1/google-services.json
    ...

Source

Source 2