How to Publish Your App to the App Store (Step by Step, 2026) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00This application is live on the App
2. 0:01Store right now. Real listing, real
3. 0:03screenshots, and a real price, 99 cents.
4. 0:06And in this video, I'm going to show you
5. 0:07exactly how it got there. How to publish
6. 0:10your application to the App Store
7. 0:11step-by-step. Xcode, App Store Connect,
8. 0:14screenshots, pricing, submitting for
9. 0:16review, everything. It doesn't matter if
10. 0:18you build the application with Cloud or
11. 0:20manually with React Native or straight
12. 0:22in Xcode. By the end of this video,
13. 0:23Apple will be reviewing it. Quick thing
14. 0:25before we start, my team and I are
15. 0:27opening up spots for one or two clients
16. 0:30who are serious about their application.
17. 0:31We take it from zero all the way
18. 0:33planning, building, publishing,
19. 0:35maintaining it. A real long-term
20. 0:37collaboration. We've been building
21. 0:38mobile applications for years. It's what
22. 0:40we do. And if you're building on your
23. 0:42own, I also open a few one-on-one spots.
24. 0:441 hour with me every week or a month or
25. 0:47two depending on the project. Going from
26. 0:49idea to App Store together. If that's
27. 0:51you, please send me an email. It's right
28. 0:53here in the description. All right,
29. 0:54let's get your app on the App Store.
30. 0:58Before we start, you're going to need a
31. 1:00couple things. First of all, an Apple
32. 1:02developer account, which cost [music]
33. 1:04$99 per year. And the approval is not
34. 1:07instant. It usually takes like a day or
35. 1:09two. You're also going to need a Mac
36. 1:11with Xcode installed. You can download
37. 1:13Xcode from the App Store. Third, you
38. 1:16need an app, any app. You can build it
39. 1:18with Cloud, Expo, React Native, SwiftUI,
40. 1:21it doesn't matter. Okay, that's all you
41. 1:22need. Let's get into it.
42. 1:26So, the app that I'm publishing today
43. 1:28it's called Kojan. It's
44. 1:30kind of like a unique name. I actually
45. 1:32encourage you to have a unique name of
46. 1:34your application, especially since this
47. 1:35is a habit tracker. There are already
48. 1:37millions of habit trackers in the App
49. 1:39Store. So, try to make it unique. Um it
50. 1:43has widgets. The data lives locally. You
51. 1:46can sort items. It's compatible with
52. 1:49dark mode and light mode. You can see
53. 1:51your consistency here.
54. 1:53It has smooth transitions. It's fully
55. 1:55native, and it works very nicely.
56. 1:58I actually built this application in the
57. 2:00channel I created a video using Fable 5.
58. 2:02So, if you're curious, check it out.
59. 2:07Okay, let's get the project [music]
60. 2:08ready to be published. The first thing
61. 2:11that I would recommend to do before
62. 2:13anything else is actually to come up
63. 2:15with the brand and the positioning of
64. 2:19your application. I'm going to leave the
65. 2:20link to the blog that I'm referring here
66. 2:23as cloud skills for mobile development.
67. 2:26The one that I recommend to use is ASO
68. 2:28audit. So, you can copy this and install
69. 2:31it. I have actually an explanation here
70. 2:33on what it does, but it basically does
71. 2:35>> [music]
72. 2:35>> a research. I ran it here. My project
73. 2:38was named Ember. After running this
74. 2:41skill, I found out that there are
75. 2:42already five habit trackers called
76. 2:45Ember. Then I asked Fable 5 to come up
77. 2:47with different names and it came up with
78. 2:49the following list and I decided to use
79. 2:52Cochan. Once we have this, let's
80. 2:54actually work on the actual name of the
81. 2:58app. So, since this is a React Native
82. 2:59application, you just want to make sure
83. 3:01that the name of your app is correct
84. 3:04here
85. 3:05in the app.json. If you're using Xcode,
86. 3:07you can change the name in the Xcode
87. 3:09project. Next, you want to make sure
88. 3:11that the bundle identifier is correct.
89. 3:14For example, it usually is the brand
90. 3:18name, in my case Code with Beto, com,
91. 3:20and then the name of the app. So, the
92. 3:22bundle identifier is a unique string for
93. 3:25your application and once you create it
94. 3:26and publish your application, you are
95. 3:28not going to be able to change it. This
96. 3:30is not customer facing, but still you
97. 3:32want to make sure that it's good, like
98. 3:35with your brand and then the name of the
99. 3:36application. Now, I'm setting supports
100. 3:39tablet equal to false. This is because
101. 3:41Apple requires you to provide
102. 3:43screenshots
103. 3:45of your application running on iPad in
104. 3:48case you decide to support tablets. I
105. 3:50recommend that if this is the first time
106. 3:51that you're publishing, set this to
107. 3:53false because it will save you a lot of
108. 3:55time and you can [music] always turn
109. 3:57this on and add support for tablet and
110. 3:59make sure that everything looks great.
111. 4:01But for now, let's keep it simple. Now,
112. 4:03something important is that if you
113. 4:04decide to support tablet from day zero,
114. 4:06you're going to need to support it from
115. 4:08now on ever. [music] So, you cannot
116. 4:10disable it once it's supported. And if
117. 4:13you send updates of your application and
118. 4:15it doesn't really work on iPad, Apple
119. 4:18can reject it. I also have this strange
120. 4:20setting here that is saying that my
121. 4:22application does not use any fancy
122. 4:25encryption. This is the case for most of
123. 4:27your applications and this setting here
124. 4:30alone will save you a lot of time
125. 4:31because you don't have to manually set
126. 4:34this to false in the website once we
127. 4:36publish the application.
128. 4:38So, I think this is all. Another thing
129. 4:40to notice is that the version is 1.0.0.
130. 4:43As you keep developing your application,
131. 4:45you are going to be increasing the
132. 4:46version.
133. 4:47>> [music]
134. 4:47>> You can only publish one version at a
135. 4:49time. So, we start with one and then if
136. 4:51you add a new screen or something or you
137. 4:53do a major refactor, you maybe want to
138. 4:55change this to be version 2.0. Okay, so
139. 4:58we have the name, we have the bundle, we
140. 5:00have the version. Now, another thing is
141. 5:02that we need an app icon. So, this is my
142. 5:05icon and Fable created it for me. In
143. 5:07case you want Fable to create your icon
144. 5:09as well, you can check the app icon
145. 5:12skill. It's actually a skill that me and
146. 5:14my team created and maintain and it
147. 5:16creates beautiful icons that support
148. 5:19Android and iOS with [music] the new
149. 5:21icon composer compatibility, of course.
150. 5:24It uses Snap AI, which is a CLI tool
151. 5:26that I created a while ago and I even
152. 5:29have videos explaining how to use it.
153. 5:31So, you want help with your icon, just
154. 5:33use [music] the skill. It's also great
155. 5:35for inspiration. Now, we need to
156. 5:36actually create the native project of my
157. 5:39application. Since this is a React
158. 5:41Native Expo application, I need to run a
159. 5:44command to be able to generate the main
160. 5:47iOS folder that we are going to use to
161. 5:50deploy the application. This basically
162. 5:52requires to run one command in your
163. 5:55terminal. And I'm going to run the
164. 5:56following MPX Expo
165. 5:59prebuild platform
166. 6:01iOS
167. 6:03with the clean flag, okay?
168. 6:06Let's hit enter.
169. 6:07This command will create an iOS folder
170. 6:10on the left. Since React Native can
171. 6:12target Android, iOS, desktop, web, you
172. 6:16just want to run this command for the
173. 6:18platform that you want to target.
174. 6:19[music] And this will create the native
175. 6:21project, okay? So, this is my app native
176. 6:24project. And [music] we need to open
177. 6:27this iOS folder with Xcode to be able to
178. 6:30deploy it. So,
179. 6:31let's do that. Open Xcode, select open
180. 6:34existing project, and in here navigate
181. 6:37to your application. In my case, it's in
182. 6:39my desktop. It's called Habit's Fable.
183. 6:42And then select the newly created iOS
184. 6:45project. We are now inside Xcode. I can
185. 6:48see the name of my application if you
186. 6:49click on the top
187. 6:51>> [music]
188. 6:51>> left. If you build your application with
189. 6:53Xcode from the start, this is where you
190. 6:56join us. Now, we need to sign our
191. 6:57application with our developer account.
192. 7:00So, in Xcode, you can press command
193. 7:02comma to open the settings.
194. 7:04And just make sure that you are signed
195. 7:07in into your Apple developer account.
196. 7:09Just go ahead and add your account by
197. 7:11pressing this button. Once you sign in,
198. 7:13go to signing [music] and capabilities.
199. 7:15Now, this is where most beginners uh get
200. 7:18scared because this used to be complex a
201. 7:20long time ago. But now you can actually
202. 7:23just handle this automatically. So, make
203. 7:25sure that automatically manage signing
204. 7:27is selected.
205. 7:28>> [music]
206. 7:28>> And then select your team.
207. 7:30So, right now I have Code with Beto LLC,
208. 7:32which is my business account, but you
209. 7:34can also use your personal team.
210. 7:37You just select the correct one.
211. 7:39And Xcode will handle the signing. And
212. 7:41that's it. That's That's all. Since my
213. 7:43application has two targets, the main
214. 7:45application and it also has a widget, go
215. 7:48ahead and select the widget as well here
216. 7:49on the left, in case you have a widget
217. 7:52as well,
218. 7:53and select your theme as well.
219. 7:55Okay. And now we're ready to publish.
220. 7:57So, we can send this application now
221. 7:59directly to the App Store Connect
222. 8:02website.
223. 8:03The way we do that is selecting the
224. 8:05target here.
225. 8:07It's selecting my iPhone by default
226. 8:09because it's connected to the computer,
227. 8:11but since this is going to compile it
228. 8:13for any iOS device, go ahead and select
229. 8:16any iOS device, arm 64. And then, go to
230. 8:20the product
231. 8:21tab and select archive. This will start
232. 8:24compiling the application and make it
233. 8:27ready for the App Store. This takes a
234. 8:29couple minutes, so let's wait a bit.
235. 8:31After a moment, the application is ready
236. 8:33to be distributed and this window will
237. 8:36be opened. So, select version one. This
238. 8:38is the one that we just created.
239. 8:40Press distribute application and select
240. 8:43[music] App Store Connect.
241. 8:45So, here it's just very simple. Just
242. 8:47press distribute and that's all. Since
243. 8:49this is the first time that we are
244. 8:50creating this application, it's going to
245. 8:52ask us to register it. So, make sure
246. 8:55that the bundle identifier is correct.
247. 8:58This is the one that I want to use. This
248. 9:00is the correct name for the application.
249. 9:01So, just press next. And after a moment,
250. 9:04we are done. We have a couple of
251. 9:05warnings, but you don't need to worry
252. 9:07about it. Just press [music] done
253. 9:09and we are good. Now, the application is
254. 9:12created, the record and this [music]
255. 9:14specific build was uploaded to App Store
256. 9:17Connect.
257. 9:20So, now I'm going to go to my Apple
258. 9:22developer account
259. 9:24and let's select applications. And now I
260. 9:27can see my Code Zone application right
261. 9:29here.
262. 9:30Now, it doesn't have an icon, it doesn't
263. 9:33have anything, but the good [music] news
264. 9:34is that it's now created and we can
265. 9:37click on it. So, this is where we will
266. 9:39add all the information for the
267. 9:40application
268. 9:42uh before we, you know, send it for
269. 9:43review. But right now, the important
270. 9:45thing is inside the TestFlight [music]
271. 9:47tab. Right now, you can see that the
272. 9:49application is being processed. Now, at
273. 9:51this point is where the internal testing
274. 9:54of the application happens. And for
275. 9:56that, to install the application, we
276. 9:57need to install TestFlight in our phone.
277. 10:00So, go to the App Store and search for
278. 10:02TestFlight. It is this one. Just go
279. 10:04ahead and download it and open it. We're
280. 10:06going to need it to test our
281. 10:08application. And after a moment, the
282. 10:10application is ready to submit. This is
283. 10:13the first build. Now, let's start
284. 10:15testing our application. On the left, on
285. 10:17internal testing, I'm going to press the
286. 10:19plus button and then I'm going to create
287. 10:22a new group.
288. 10:23I'll just call it internal. I recommend
289. 10:25that you enable automatic distribution.
290. 10:28That means that every new upload of your
291. 10:30application uh will be automatically
292. 10:32distributed internally for your
293. 10:35developers or just for you in this case,
294. 10:37just for [music] me. So, let's create
295. 10:39this internal test group. And I'm going
296. 10:41to add people here. So, as you can see,
297. 10:42I already have a couple people from my
298. 10:44organization.
299. 10:46I'm going to select myself and add
300. 10:48myself as a tester. After I did that,
301. 10:50now I got a new email
302. 10:53with the invitation. So, you need to
303. 10:55actually accept this. Okay, so view in
304. 10:57TestFlight. Make sure that you already
305. 10:59have TestFlight.
306. 11:00This will deep link into the application
307. 11:02and will open
308. 11:04>> [music]
309. 11:04>> um the app so that you can install it.
310. 11:07Now, this is not the App Store
311. 11:09distribution, but you can still install
312. 11:11it and verify that it will work in a
313. 11:13production environment. Because now,
314. 11:16this is going to be like the real
315. 11:17application, okay? Let's open it. And
316. 11:19the application seems to be working
317. 11:21fine. Let's test dark mode. And once
318. 11:24you're happy with [music] the testing,
319. 11:26internal testing, we are ready to submit
320. 11:28this for production.
321. 11:32All right, so let's go to distribution
322. 11:34tab. This is the most annoying part
323. 11:36because Apple requires real screenshots
324. 11:38and they have to look good and you need
325. 11:40to provide a bunch of information. I
326. 11:41publish a lot of applications and I can
327. 11:43tell you that the screenshots is the
328. 11:46most painful part of publishing an
329. 11:47application. And for that, me and my
330. 11:50team actually created a free resource
331. 11:52for you. So, it's a Figma template. If
332. 11:54you go to coded otto, just go to
333. 11:56resources, pull out the another
334. 11:57template. I'm going to leave the link in
335. 11:58the description as well. And in here,
336. 12:01you're going to find um you know, the
337. 12:02template. This is a template that you
338. 12:04can use to actually build a production
339. 12:07ready application. It comes with
340. 12:08payments, it comes with support for iOS
341. 12:11and Android. Agent skills for
342. 12:13rebranding. You can use it for any type
343. 12:15of application that you're building.
344. 12:17But, it also comes with Figma template
345. 12:18and the Figma template is the free
346. 12:20resource. So, just click on it. This
347. 12:23will open Figma and press open in Figma.
348. 12:26You can explore the template pages here
349. 12:28on the left.
350. 12:30We have a template for Apple.
351. 12:33This is how it looks. And we also have
352. 12:35one for Google.
353. 12:37So, if you're publishing for the Play
354. 12:39Store, this will also work for you. We
355. 12:41also have a template for your icon.
356. 12:44Um since I already have my icon, so I'm
357. 12:46not going to be using this. But, what I
358. 12:48want to use is the template for the
359. 12:50screenshots. So, what I want to do here
360. 12:52is pretty cool. You can select the
361. 12:54device. On the left, I'm going to select
362. 12:56the image.
363. 12:58And this is the image that I want to
364. 12:59change. So, on my phone, I'm going to
365. 13:01just
366. 13:03switch to light mode since I think this
367. 13:05will look a bit better.
368. 13:06Take a screenshot.
369. 13:08And then
370. 13:09>> [music]
371. 13:09>> copy and delete.
372. 13:12And then here in my Mac,
373. 13:14>> [music]
374. 13:14>> I'll paste it directly.
375. 13:16And boom, I have my first screenshot.
376. 13:19And then you can start changing the
377. 13:21text. Of course, you can play around
378. 13:22with the design, but this is basically
379. 13:24what you would do. Try to screenshot the
380. 13:27most interesting features of your
381. 13:29application. I think the heat map is a
382. 13:31good screenshot to show. It's just
383. 13:34copy and delete.
384. 13:36You can do the same. Select the actual
385. 13:39image.
386. 13:41Paste.
387. 13:42And boom. It's looking great. Okay, so
388. 13:44after a moment, this is what I landed
389. 13:46on. So, I'm just going to select the
390. 13:48four layers and scroll down, export
391. 13:51them. There we have them. This will
392. 13:53download a zip file where you can find
393. 13:55them. So, now let's just grab the
394. 13:57screenshots and drag them in here.
395. 14:00Press okay.
396. 14:02And boom. We have now the most difficult
397. 14:05part of our application.
398. 14:09And let's add a promotional text. This
399. 14:11is what Claude came up with. Now, the
400. 14:14description of the application, you
401. 14:16know, just explaining the name, the
402. 14:19privacy by design, you know, we don't
403. 14:21collect any data, and that will make it
404. 14:24easy for us as well. When I paste some
405. 14:26keywords, keywords are actually very
406. 14:27important because that's how people will
407. 14:29find your application, ASO, and all that
408. 14:31good stuff. I actually created another
409. 14:33video on the things that I do before
410. 14:34publishing an application. I'm going to
411. 14:36leave it down here. Since I don't have a
412. 14:38landing page or a website for this
413. 14:40application, I'm just going to use my
414. 14:41personal website. But, you know,
415. 14:43nowadays you can create a website in 5
416. 14:45minutes just by prompting. Now, for the
417. 14:47copyright, I recommend that you use your
418. 14:49brand name.
419. 14:50I'm going to say Codigo Beto LLC. Let's
420. 14:53keep scrolling down. Now, let's select
421. 14:55the build, right? So, now that we are
422. 14:57sure that this version one works, we
423. 15:00actually tested it. Just select it, and
424. 15:02this is the build that we're going to
425. 15:04submit.
426. 15:05When you create a new version,
427. 15:06>> [music]
428. 15:06>> just go ahead and do the same. Select
429. 15:07the version that you want to submit.
430. 15:09And I recommend that you save the
431. 15:11progress so that you don't lose
432. 15:12anything. We keep scrolling down, we get
433. 15:14to the app review information. My
434. 15:16application does not require signing, so
435. 15:18I'm going to disable this.
436. 15:20And hit save.
437. 15:22If your application has authentication,
438. 15:24you need to provide
439. 15:25uh credentials for the Apple team to
440. 15:29review it. And then we get to the final
441. 15:31option here, the App Store version
442. 15:33release. Automatically release this
443. 15:35version. So, when Apple approves this
444. 15:36application, I'm going to automatically
445. 15:38release it. But, if you prefer, you can
446. 15:40also do this manually once you are
447. 15:43ready.
448. 15:44Okay, so I'm just going to
449. 15:45um save that. I have everything saved.
450. 15:48Now, the next thing that we need to do
451. 15:49is go to the app information here on the
452. 15:52left. And now we get to the fun part. We
453. 15:54need to provide a name, which is already
454. 15:57there. This is my subtitle.
455. 15:59Let's just bring it here. General
456. 16:01information, just make sure that
457. 16:03everything looks correct here. And the
458. 16:05category of the application, it's going
459. 16:07to be
460. 16:08productivity. The other one is going to
461. 16:09be lifestyle. So, you can add two. So,
462. 16:12if your app contains or shows or
463. 16:14accesses any third-party content, you
464. 16:16must have the rights to
465. 16:18use it in your application. So, you can
466. 16:20set up the content rights here. Since my
467. 16:22application does not do that, I'm good.
468. 16:25I don't need to do that. Let's set up
469. 16:27the age ratings. My application is super
470. 16:29basic, so I'm just going to say no to
471. 16:30everything. But, of course, if your app
472. 16:32is
473. 16:33more complex or you have, you know,
474. 16:36other integrations, you might need to
475. 16:38select different options here. No, no,
476. 16:40no. Next. No. Next. And then here I'm
477. 16:43going to say just not applicable. But,
478. 16:45if your application is made for kids, of
479. 16:47course, select this option and press
480. 16:49save. And this means [music] our
481. 16:51application can be used by 4-year-olds.
482. 16:53That's good. And that's pretty much all
483. 16:55we need to set up here.
484. 16:57Going to press save on the right. Let's
485. 16:58go to the app privacy. Let's get
486. 17:00started. Since I don't collect any
487. 17:02information, this is going to be super
488. 17:04easy for me. You guys You can just say
489. 17:05no. [music]
490. 17:06And that's it.
491. 17:07And then we can publish it.
492. 17:10Press publish.
493. 17:12And here you can also provide a privacy
494. 17:13policy URL. So, I can use that and save.
495. 17:18This, by the way, is required for all
496. 17:19applications, so you're going to need to
497. 17:21have a URL. I think we're almost ready.
498. 17:23Now, after that, I'm going to go to the
499. 17:26pricing and availability. Now, my
500. 17:28application does not have in-app
501. 17:29purchases.
502. 17:30By the way, in case you want to learn
503. 17:32more about in-app purchases, I would
504. 17:33highly recommend to check out my course.
505. 17:36I have a full lesson on payments
506. 17:40and in-app purchases, especially with
507. 17:43RevenueCat. The reason I'm I'm telling
508. 17:45you this is because you're going to need
509. 17:47to set up some things in the App Store
510. 17:50and Play Store.
511. 17:51So, my course actually covers both.
512. 17:54You need to connect your App Store
513. 17:56account and Play Store account to
514. 17:58RevenueCat, and then you should be able
515. 17:59to
516. 18:01um set up subscriptions and in-app
517. 18:03purchases.
518. 18:04So, of course, this video will not cover
519. 18:06that because that's [music] a different
520. 18:09beast on its own.
521. 18:10But, what I'm going to do now, since I
522. 18:12actually want to make money for my
523. 18:14application, it's to set up a price.
524. 18:17And setting up a price of an application
525. 18:18it will actually save you a lot of time
526. 18:21because you don't need to set up in-app
527. 18:23purchases or subscriptions. So, I'm just
528. 18:24going to set a simple price.
529. 18:27I don't know if people will be paying
530. 18:30will be willing to pay for my
531. 18:31application, so I'm just going to set a
532. 18:32price of $0.99.
533. 18:35Okay, so that's how you, you know, price
534. 18:37your application without having to,
535. 18:40you know, complicate yourself with
536. 18:42in-app purchases and stuff, especially
537. 18:43for a simple application.
538. 18:45That said, you can also set the
539. 18:46application for free and make it
540. 18:48available for free.
541. 18:50Okay.
542. 18:51Let's confirm. [music] This will
543. 18:52basically give you the price for each
544. 18:54country. You can change that manually if
545. 18:56you want, but I recommend that you just
546. 18:58select next, next, and select what Apple
547. 19:00gives you by default.
548. 19:02Now, the set up availability. I want
549. 19:04[music] to I want my application to be
550. 19:06available in all countries, so let's
551. 19:08press next. Continue. Let's go go
552. 19:10distribution again. Okay, it seems that
553. 19:12we have everything. I'm just going to
554. 19:14press add for review here. And this will
555. 19:16actually let me know if I missed
556. 19:18something. And in fact, I did. So, I
557. 19:21need to set up content rights
558. 19:22information. Let's take a look. Maybe I
559. 19:24didn't save that. Okay, so it seems that
560. 19:26we still need to do this. Oh, okay. It's
561. 19:27just a matter of saying no, we don't do
562. 19:29that.
563. 19:31And let's save. Let's go back to
564. 19:32distribution
565. 19:34and add for review. All right, once we
566. 19:36do that, you can actually see that the
567. 19:38icon of the application now appears here
568. 19:41and we are ready to submit for review.
569. 19:43So, it's submitting. We did it. Your app
570. 19:46is officially in Apple's queue. And by
571. 19:48the way, everything we just did, like
572. 19:50from idea all the way to submit for
573. 19:52review, is exactly what my book covers.
574. 19:55It's called from idea to App Store. It's
575. 19:56basically the mental model that you need
576. 19:58to actually bring your app ideas to
577. 20:00life, even if you don't code. It's just
578. 20:03a guide that will actually help you save
579. 20:05your progress, iterate up to your
580. 20:07application, and successfully publish
581. 20:09it, and actually make money. Link in
582. 20:10description. [music] I built this exact
583. 20:12application using Cloud Fable 5 from
584. 20:15zero, step by step, and that video is
585. 20:17right here. Build it and then come back
586. 20:19to ship it. See you there.