Deploying Your Mobile App to the App Stores

Launching a mobile app involves a fair bit of coordination between Apple, Google, testing, and ongoing updates. It can feel like a lot, but we do this regularly with our clients and we'll guide you through it.

Setting Up Your Store Accounts

You'll need accounts with both platforms before we can deploy anything. Apple charges £79 per year for their Developer Program, and Google has a one-time £20 fee for Play Console access. We'll walk you through the sign-up process. Apple takes a few days to verify your account; Google usually approves within 48 hours.

Once you're enrolled, we'll help you put together your app listings. Both stores need your app name, description, screenshots, and a privacy policy. Apple is pickier about screenshot sizes and content guidelines, but we know what they expect and we'll get it right first time.

On the technical side, we handle the configuration in App Store Connect (bundle identifiers, SKUs, any in-app purchases) and Google Play Console (content declarations, store listing setup). You can focus on your business while we sort out the technical bits.

Testing Before You Go Live

We always test with real users before a public launch. Both platforms have testing tools built in, and they're worth using properly.

TestFlight (iOS)

TestFlight is Apple's beta testing platform. We can invite up to 10,000 testers using their email addresses, so it's easy to include your team, stakeholders, or selected customers. Your internal team gets access to builds straight away. External testers need a quick review from Apple, usually done within a day.

We'll set up TestFlight for you and show you how to invite testers and read their feedback. It's simple once you've done it once.

Google Play Testing Tracks

Google gives you three options: internal testing, closed testing, and open testing.

Internal testing is where we start. You can add up to 100 testers by email and builds appear within minutes. Good for your core team and quick feedback.

Closed testing lets you expand to a bigger group with invite lists. Open testing makes your app available to anyone who finds the link, useful for public betas. We'll recommend what makes sense for your launch and help you manage testers along the way.

How We Handle Ongoing Releases

Once the app is live, you'll want a reliable way to push updates without breaking things for your users.

Our approach: every release goes through testing first. For iOS, we upload to TestFlight and give your team a day or two to check the build before we promote it to the App Store. For Android, we push to your testing track, you verify it, then we promote to production.

This catches problems that automated tests miss. Real people using real phones find issues that simulators never show. We build this testing time into our schedules so nobody feels rushed to skip steps.

Automating Builds with Codemagic

Building apps manually gets old fast, and it's easy to make mistakes. So we set up automated pipelines using Codemagic.

Codemagic handles iOS and Android builds from one configuration file, and it provides the Mac machines needed for iOS builds (which would otherwise cost you extra on platforms like GitHub Actions).

Once it's configured, the process runs automatically. Push code to your main branch, Codemagic runs your tests, builds the apps, and uploads them to TestFlight and Google Play testing. We let you know when builds are ready, you check them with your team, and we promote to production when you're happy.

We handle the Codemagic setup and show your team how the workflow runs. After that, releases become routine.

Managing iOS-Specific Configurations

Some features need specific setup in Xcode, and this can cause headaches if you're not careful. Push notifications are the classic example.

iOS push notifications require entitlements and capability settings in your Xcode project. If you're using FlutterFlow or regenerating your iOS project for any reason, these settings can get wiped out.

We solve this with a branch strategy. We keep a release branch that has all your Xcode configurations locked in: push notification entitlements, App Groups, Sign in with Apple, whatever your app needs. When it's time to release, we merge your latest code into this branch, so the configurations stay intact.

Codemagic builds from this release branch, so everything is always in place. We document the setup and you'll understand how it works, but we're also there to help with future releases if you need us.

Putting It All Together

Development happens on feature branches, merged into main after review. Codemagic runs tests on every push. When you're ready for a release, we merge into the release branch and trigger a build.

Codemagic builds both platforms and uploads to your testing tracks. Your team checks the build (we'll tell you what to look for) and flags any issues. After a couple of days of successful testing, we promote to production. Apple's review usually takes a day or two; Google is often quicker.

We keep you updated at each step and deal with any review feedback that comes back.

We're Here to Help

Mobile deployment has a lot of moving parts. We've helped many clients through this process and we'll do the same for you. We'll set up your pipeline, configure your store accounts, establish your testing workflow, and support you through each release.

If you've got an app to launch, get in touch.