I just published a new release of an android app on google play yet it seems to take ages for it to appear for the users of the google play store. In the developer console it is immediately updated so I assume all is okay with the apk. Taking ages means for me right now over one hour. Is this normal and if so, is there a way to speed up the process?
Yes, it's normal, and no, you can't speed it up. It's just the time it takes to propagate the new information across all of Google's servers.