Can I Upload to the App Store Without a Subscription

Publishing an iOS App to App Store

So you heard that Apple is rather picky when it comes to accepting apps in App Store. And indeed, Apple tree does make information technology much harder than Google when it comes to publishing apps. This doesn't mean it'southward impossible yet. All you volition need is patience and, if possible, following the advice of somebody who has washed it before. This is what it looks like to upload an iOS to App Store in January 2021.

Both App Store and Play Store require yous to purchase a developer license. While Play Store's license is cheap ($25) and lasts forever, Apple'south one is more expensive ($100), must be renewed every year and the upload process is more than complicated. I recommend starting with Play Store , testing the app with some users in the production surround and once everything is gear up, motion into App Shop.

Important! You will demand a Mac device or virtual machine to upload the app to App Store. The just way to upload apps is through XCode or Transporter and they both can only be installed in MacOS.

Apple Developer Portal

In gild to upload an app to App Shop you lot will showtime demand to create an Apple Developer account in the Apple tree Developer Portal. Sign in with your Apple ID, fill the enrollment class, pay the $100 registration fee and let'due south move on.

You will discover you get asked twice for the same details in the Romanized Contact Information. "Romanized" stands for latin alphabet hither, so I guess this section is meant for users who write in non-latin alphabets (e.g. cyrillic, chinese, etc.). In your case, enter the same details y'all filled higher up.

Afterwards your Developer Program Enrollment finishes you will exist able to admission developer resource from the Apple tree Programmer Portal. Here y'all volition need to create a few items:

• Distribution certificate: Certificate that identifies your team and allows you to submit apps to the App Store. Here is a great guide on how to create a distribution certificate manually (y'all volition need to generate the certificate from a Mac).

Distribution Certificate

• App ID: The identifier of your app. The Parcel ID must be the same equally the bundleIdentifier in your app binaries. When creating the App ID manually you volition encounter a list of capabilities your app can add to your app (e.k. Push Notifications, Sign In with Apple, etc.). You can edit those capabilities afterward, and then you lot don't need to configure them at present.

App ID

• Provisioning profile: Only apps signed by Apple can be installed on an iOS device. This becomes an effect when developing, because yous volition likely want to test the app on a real device before submitting the app for review. Provisioning profiles are the solution to this problem; they are embedded in your app binaries and let the app to run in sure devices before Apple signs it. A provisioning profile must be created for each app.

Provisioning Contour

Creating this items is the well-nigh confusing and undocumented part of the unabridged upload process. I can't provide much more details nearly information technology since I am using Expo to develop iOS apps and I relied on their CLI to generate both the distribution certificate, the app id and the provisioning profile.

If you utilize Expo CLI from Windows and run into Apple Developer Portal authentication bug, consider running the command in an Ubuntu terminal using WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). Neither Control Prompt, PowerShell or Git Bash were able to cosign at the time of writing.

App Store Connect

After you take successfully created the items described above in the Apple Programmer Portal, nosotros can move on to App Store Connect (sometime Itunes Connect), the platform where application binaries are actually uploaded.

Click on My Apps and, once in he Apps page, create a new app by clicking in the + push. You will be asked a bunch of details about the app. In the Bundle ID field option the App ID yous've just created in the Apple Programmer Portal. The SKU is a unique ID not visible to app users: y'all can use the bundle identifier or any other relevant text.

When the create operation finishes you will so be directed to the app settings folio, where you lot will need to provide plenty of information most your app. Filling all the required sections is mandatory in order to submit your app for review.

The simplest approach to getting your app set up consists in clicking the Submit for Review push, fixing the errors that volition be reported and so clicking the button again, until no more errors are reported. Here is an overview of some of the sections y'all volition observe:

• iOS App > Version Data > App screenshots: Y'all will need to submit screenshots for unlike device sizes: 6.5 inches iPhones (1242 x 2688px or 1284 ten 2778px), 5.5 inches iPhones (1242 ten 2208px) and iPads (2048 x 2732px). You can capture those from an emulator / real device or y'all tin can generate some images featuring the app expect and feel (east.g. the images on Tinder's app store page), as long as you use the required sizes and the app content on the images matches the app appearance. The images you attach here are the ones that volition be visible on your app's shop folio.

• iOS App > Version Data > Support URL: It's not enough to put a URL to your landing page. The Apple team will visit the link and look for user support content (due east.k. a contact course).

• iOS App > Build: Here you will need to select the actual app file (.ipa format), merely it'southward non possible to upload information technology directly to App Shop Connect. You will need to use XCode or Transporter to upload the generated .ipa file. When the upload finishes you will observe a new app version bachelor in this section. Yous tin can see a list of all bachelor versions in the TestFlight tab.

• iOS App > Age rating: You lot volition be asked questions about the type of content in your app. At that place are no rights or wrongs. It's only about determining age restrictions for certain types of content. The Unrestricted Web Admission particular means whether users can admission whatsoever URL inside your app (e.thou. a spider web browser).

• iOS App > Review data: If your app requires users to authenticate (e.g. creating an business relationship or using an identity provider such as Facebook), you volition demand to provide demo credentials. Create a testing business relationship in your app and add the username and password in this department.

• App information > Content rights: Here you need to ostend that you lot don't apply 3rd-party content or, in case you do, that you are allowed to use such content. If you utilize a public API for example, you lot are immune to use information technology given it's public.

• Pricing and availability: Apple tree allow's you chose your app'south cost by selecting one of the 90+ price tiers at the time of writing (from free app to tier 87 app, i.due east., 1099€). You can also choose the countries availability for your app in this section (past default your app volition be available in all the countries of the earth).

• App Privacy > Privacy policy: It's mandatory to accept a privacy policy in gild to deploy an app to the app shop. Information technology will be visible on your app'due south folio and it can either exist a link to a PDF file or a web page. If yous have already created a privacy policy page for you website you can link to that page (e.k. https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/privacy-policy-eea).

• App Privacy > Privacy practices: Questionnaire to decide whether your app collects and stores users data outside the application. If your app requires users to create an business relationship for example, you are then storing user data outside the app. Y'all volition demand to specify why you collect the information for each of the data types your app collects. Once you finish answering the privacy practices questionnaire, you volition need to publish the answers to exist able to submit your app for review.

Submit for Review

Congratulate yourself! Yous've made it through the App Store maze 🍾 Yous filled all the necessary sections and you've finally been allowed to submit your app for review. Over the next days Apple volition accept a expect at your app and either approve it, getting back to you with the skillful news you are expecting, or reject it, providing a detailed explanation with the rejection reasons.

App Shop Connect rejection email

It's ok to get rejected. It only ways that in that location is something y'all need to modify or analyze. Go through the rejection reasons and cheerfully ready all the reported issues. Eventually you will go a dissimilar e-mail, your app will get approved and your only concern will be to make your app fifty-fifty improve 💃

Edit: February 2022

When the iOS developer license expires, you volition not only lose the hability to update your apps but they volition be entirely removed from the App Shop until you renew your membership.

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Source: https://medium.com/swlh/publishing-an-ios-app-to-app-store-d4f88c3686de

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