How to: publishing an app to the App Store 2019/2020 Guide
This guide will cover all the steps to publish your iOS app to the oficial Apple store.
- Generating the app ID
- Building the archive in Xcode
- App Store Connect settings:
3.1 Creating the new app
3.2 App information
3.3 Pricing and Availability
3.4 Submit for review
4. Creating your support and privacy police website
5. Review and publishing
1. Generating the app ID
First things first.
You’ll need to generate a ID to every app you make. To do that, log into your apple developer account. Remember that you need to buy the iOS Development and iOS Distribution certificates to be able to publish something to the app store (currently, you can buy a 1-year certificate for U$99).
Once logged, go to the Certificates, Identifiers and Profiles menu.
On the left Menu, select Identifiers. Click the plus icon to create a new identifier.
Select the first option and Continue.
You should set a Bundle ID (that should match the one in the Xcode project). Apple suggests that your Bundle ID follow the model: country abbreviation + .com + . + organization + . + app name.
Once you finish, the Identifier should appear on the list along with the XC Wildcard.
2. Building the archive in Xcode
Once you've finish your app, you need to generate the Archive that will be uploaded to App Store Connect.
Inside your Xcode project, go to the Project Navigator (first icon on the left menu, the one that looks like a folder). Here, you need to ensure two main things are correct: the app Version and Build.
If this is the first version you are launching to the store, you should let the default option (1.0) in Version. The Build corresponds to the versions you upload to the App Store connect (the released and rejected ones). Thus, every time you make a new Archive, you should manually increment the build by one.
Next step is effectively building the archive. Go to the Product Menu and select Archive.
The archive menu should open. Select the archive you just made and click in Distribute App.
Unless you want something very specific, let the following options in the default and click next until you receive the confirmation that your app is being processed.
3. App Store Connect settings
3.1 Creating the new app
Log into your developer account. Choose the App Store Connect menu.
Go to the top left menu. Select My Apps.
Add a New App.
Select iOS. Give the app a name (this one will appear on the App Store!), select the primary language, and the Bundle ID you generated in the first step of this tutorial. Choose a ID for your app (this won’t be visible on the App Store). Create.
3.2 App information
In this section, you'll need to fill the basic info about your app.
Here we have the App name, category and other information.
You should provide a Privacy Policy URL. If you already have a website, create a page for this. If you don’t, see section 4.
3.3 Pricing and Availability
This one is easy. Just set the price your app will be sold for (or if it is costless). Also, check the availability of your app.
3.4 Submit for review
Now, go to the last side menu and set all the other info about your app. There's nothing really complicated here.
About the app previews and screenshots: you'll need a 5.5" display (the iPhone 8 Plus screen), a 6.5" display (the iPhone XR screen) and a 12.9" display (the iPad Pro 12.9" screen) screenshot. You can use the same screenshots for the 2nd and 3rd generation iPads.
To easily get these screenshots, build your app on XCode using the device simulators.
The app previews are not essential, but it's a nice touch to have them.
The support URL is a webpage with support info you need to provide. If you already have a website, create a page for this. If you don’t, see section 4.
4. Creating your support and privacy police website
Once you only need to provide a way for people to contact you about the App (support) and simple privacy police information, we can host this two webpages using Git.
Assuming you already have a GitHub account:
Create a new repository named "yourAccountName/yourAccountName.github.io". Something like this:
Inside the repository, create a index.html file (this one can be empty or just have some general information about the app). This will be the homepage of your website.
You can organize things as you want, but I suggest creating a support.html and a privacy.html page.
In support, you should provide a way for people to contact you. This can be just your email. For the privacy police, you can use an online generator like this one.
Remember you are creating a html file and your text should be written as so.
5. Review and publishing
Once everything is set, save your app and submit for review.
Apple says that 50% of the apps are processed within 24 hours, and 90% within 48 hours. Generally, the app will enter In Review mode in one day. Once in review, it'll take probably 1 hour or so to be approved or rejected. Sometimes it takes longer than this, wich is not a sign of any problem.
You will receive all these updates in your e-mail, but you can also download the App Store Connect ofical app to receive notifications.
Once approved, the status will change to Ready for Sale. Still, it will take a few hours to appear on the App Store search (while waiting, you can find your app using the link).
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