How to Publish Your App
Hey there and welcome back! In the last lesson you learned how to leverage the marketplace and some of our core features to build your app. In this lesson, we’re going to talk about how to publish your app.
Now, we’re going to be honest with you: We’ve got some bad news and I’ve got some good news. The bad news is that publishing your app to the App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android can be difficult. There are several details you have to follow properly and multiple edge cases you could encounter along the way. The good news is, that at BuildFire our awesome publishing team will handle publishing your app to both the App Store and Google Play for you! Let’s briefly go over how to send your app off to our team for publishing.
How to Submit Your App for Publishing
Once you’re ready to publish your app, simply follow these steps:
Step 1: Create your own Google and Apple Developer accounts and Enroll In Those Programs
Both Apple and Google require that you have dedicated developer accounts that you own attached to your app, but there are some benefits that come along in doing so. You’ll have more control over your app, your app’s listing, and will have the ability to access the backend to get access to things such as device-specific analytics.
If you need help with creating a Google Developer Account, we have an article that takes you through the process which you can access here.
You will want to add Publishing3@BuildFire.com to iOS as an Admin
You will want to add publishing@buildfire.com to Google as an Admin
If you need help with how to do this, we have an article that takes you through the steps which you can access here.
If you need help with creating an Apple Developer Account and enrolling in the program, we have an article that takes you through the process which you can access here.
IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT YOUR APPLE DEVELOPER ACCOUNT
Creating an Apple Developer Account is a two-step process. Apple doesn’t automatically take you through the enrollment process after you create an Apple ID, so make sure that you enroll in the program as well.
Also, be mindful of what type of Apple Developer Account you’re enrolling as. Apple has two types of Apple Developer Accounts: Individual and Company/Organization. If your app is branded to your company then you will need to enroll in a Company/Organization developer account under your company's name. If your app is branded to you as an individual, then you should enroll in an Individual developer account. Enrolling in the correct developer account type helps keep your app and account in line with Apple's guidelines and will help in the submission and review process.
Finally, due to a requirement by Apple, each Apple Developer Account needs to have two-factor authentication enabled in them which means that you’ll need to set up a device for Apple to send a 6-digit code to. It’s easiest if you have an Apple device that you can use, but if you don’t simply reach out to Apple and they’ll be able to help you set that up. Because of this requirement, when you first submit your app you’ll need to reach out to us at support@buildfire.com so that we can get you set up for a call where our publishing team can call you to obtain that code in order to submit your app to Apple for you.
Step 2: Upgrade Your Subscription
If you want to get the most out of the platform you’ll want to upgrade to one of our paid plans. When you do this, not only will you be able to publish your app, but doing so will also unlock our advanced features such as targeted push notifications, user tagging, and more depending on the plan you go with.
Once you have enrolled in Apple and Google’s developer programs you can upgrade to one of our paid plans by clicking the “Upgrade” button at the top of the App Dashboard.
Step 3: Fill out your publishing information
Once you have upgraded to one of our paid plans the Publishing Information for your app will be unlocked allowing you to fill it out and send your app off to our publishing team.
At first glance, this can seem daunting, but don’t worry there are just a few questions that we need answered in order to properly categorize your app and set up your store listings. To help assist you with each of these steps, we’ve put together a dedicated tutorial on what information is needed for us to submit your app to Apple and Google which you can access here.
Once you’ve submitted your app our publishing team will take over the submission process, and just as a reminder, after you’ve sent your app off to our publishing team make sure you reach out to us at support@buildfire.com so that we can get you set up for a call to complete the Apple submission of your app.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT APPLE & GOOGLE’S REVIEW PROCESS
If your app gets rejected by Apple or Google for whatever reason, please let us know. While rare, if for some reason your app is rejected by Apple and/or Google they will let you know by sending you an email that you’re using for your developer accounts, and we will not be notified. If you do get a message from Apple or Google please forward the email you get from them to support@buildfire.com and we'd be happy to assist you on how to move forward.
Now that you know how to build and publish your app, in our next lesson we’ll talk about how to leverage our advanced features to attract your audience and keep them engaged.
Related Articles
In addition to this article, we recommend checking out the following related articles so that you have a better insight into how to use the system to its fullest advantage:
Still have questions? No problem! Reach out to us and we’d be happy to help :)