iOS App Distribution

In the last episode, you logged into App Store Connect, filled out any agreements and banking information, and created your first App Store record. Let’s pick up where you left off.

There’s a lot of information here. Let’s hit some of the highlights.

Under App Information, you can update both the name and subtitle of your app, and also provide localizations via the drop down to the right. This ensures that your app’s name is correct in whichever localizations you support.

Further down the page, you can select the primary and secondary categories for your app, which will impact where it gets displayed in the App Store.

You can then list the rights to any third party content you have in your app, the age rating, and any license agreements you want for your app. As a default, you may use Apple’s standard license agreement.

I didn’t set them here, but make sure you set the content rights and age ratings information for your app. If you don’t, it will appear as an error when you submit for review.

Then, switch to pricing and availability. This app is going to be free.

Next provide your privacy policy. Apple provides a tool to help you identify your app’s data collection practices.

Save, then select Prepare for Submission.

At this point, you provide your screenshots of the app. This app supports iPhone, so I will provide some screenshots here.

Once your screenshots are added, fill out the rest of the fields for the app listing. Once done, scroll down. You’ll see that you can select a build but there isn’t one available yet. Don’t worry, we’ll get there.

Now, Click the save button. At this point, you’ll see a Submit for Review button. Now comes the final step in submitting to the app store and that’s submitting your app which we’ll do in the next episode.

The final section provides app review information. For instance, I may have an app that I need to provide user login information. Since this app doesn’t use user accounts, uncheck sign-in required. Finally, I need to set how the app will be released. Select Manually Release this Version. This will cause the app to appear as “Pending Developer Release” if it is approved, which means you will be responsible for the final release of the app to the App Store. Now submit for review. You’ll notice an error. We haven’t selected a build - because we haven’t uploaded one from Xcode. We’ll take care of that in the next episode.