How to publish an app to the App Store and Google Play

Knowing how to publish an app to the app store, and to Google Play alongside it, is the last practical step between a finished app and one people can actually download, and while it is more involved than uploading a file, it is manageable once you know what each store requires. Publishing means setting up developer accounts, preparing store assets, meeting each store's guidelines, submitting the app, and passing review. This page walks through that process for both the App Store and Google Play, and how to avoid the common reasons apps get rejected. It is the end-stage of getting an app live, and our broader app launch and deployment page covers launch more widely; this page focuses on the store submission itself.

What you need before you submit

Publishing starts well before you hit submit, with a set of things that need to be in place, and getting them ready early avoids last-minute scrambles. First are the developer accounts: Apple's App Store requires membership of the Apple Developer Program, a yearly fee, and Google Play requires a developer account with a one-off registration fee, so both stores need you to be a registered developer before you can publish. These take a little time to set up, particularly verifying a business account, which now involves extra identity checks, an organisation identifier such as a D-U-N-S number for Apple, and, for new Google Play personal accounts, a short period of closed testing with a group of testers before you can publish publicly, so they are worth sorting early rather than at the end.

Beyond the accounts, you need the finished, properly tested app and a set of store assets, because the stores show your app through a listing as well as the app itself. That listing needs an icon, screenshots, a clear description, and other metadata, plus a privacy policy, which both stores require. Apple also asks for privacy labels and Google for a data safety section describing what data the app collects and how it is used. None of this is difficult, but all of it has to be right, since missing or poor assets and privacy information are common causes of rejection. Preparing the app, the listing and the privacy details together, before submitting, is what makes the actual publishing step smooth, and our app store optimization page covers how to make that listing work for discovery as well as approval.

The review process, and getting through it

Once everything is ready, you submit the app and it goes through each store's review before going live, and understanding review is key to publishing without frustration. Apple's App Store review is the stricter of the two and typically takes from a day to a few days, while Google Play review is often quicker but can also take a few days, with both sometimes longer for a first submission or an app that raises questions. The review itself is rarely the source of delay; rejections and resubmissions are, so the goal is to pass first time rather than to submit early and hope.

Passing review cleanly comes down to building the app to each store's guidelines from the start, rather than trying to satisfy them after the fact. Apps get rejected for predictable, avoidable reasons: bugs and crashes, breaking the guidelines, missing or inadequate privacy information, misleading metadata, broken links, or simply not enough functionality to justify being an app. Apple's stricter review means an app has to genuinely meet its standards, which is why a developer experienced with App Store review treats it as a formality, building in a way that passes, while an inexperienced one can get caught in a cycle of rejections that delays the launch. Most rejection reasons are within your control, so thorough testing and getting the guidelines, listing and privacy right before submitting is what turns review from a hurdle into a quick final step.

Privacy and the details that cause rejection

It is worth dwelling on privacy specifically, because it is both a firm store requirement and one of the more common reasons apps are sent back. Both Apple and Google require a privacy policy, and any app that collects user data must disclose what it collects and how it is used, through Apple's privacy labels and Google's data safety section. This is not a formality to rush at the last minute; the stores check it, getting it wrong causes rejection, and for an app handling personal information it is a genuine compliance matter. For Australian apps, privacy obligations under the Privacy Act may also apply, so privacy deserves to be handled properly rather than treated as a box to tick.

The same care applies to the other small details that trip up submissions, because the stores are particular and a minor problem causes a real delay. Broken links in the app or listing, metadata that overstates what the app does, screenshots that do not match the actual app, and missing required information all cause rejections that are entirely avoidable with a careful pass before submitting. The lesson across all of it is that publishing rewards thoroughness: an app that is properly tested, with an accurate listing, correct privacy disclosures and working links, sails through, while one submitted with loose ends gets bounced. Treating the submission as a final quality step, not a quick upload, is what gets an app live without the back-and-forth that frustrates first-time publishers.

Doing it yourself or having it handled

Publishing an app is something you can do yourself, but many app owners would rather not deal with developer accounts, store guidelines, assets and review, and there is a good case for having the people who built the app also publish it. When we build an app, we handle the store submission as part of the launch: preparing the assets, meeting each store's requirements, submitting to both stores, and getting the app through review, so you do not have to work through the process or interpret a rejection notice. Because we built the app, we know it meets the standards and can respond quickly if a store raises anything, which usually makes the whole thing smoother.

That said, the process is learnable, and an owner who wants to publish their own app can do so by working through each store's requirements carefully, which is exactly what this page is meant to help with. Whether you publish it yourself or have it handled, the keys are the same: the right accounts, a tested app, an accurate listing, correct privacy details, and building to the guidelines so review goes cleanly. If you would like the publishing handled as part of building your app, so it goes from idea to live on both stores without you managing the submission, tell us about the app you want made, and we will include getting it published, properly and first time, in how we deliver it.