The week between a finished build and a live listing is the one nobody plans for. It is also the one that decides whether anything launches on schedule.
Before you can submit anything
- An Apple Developer Program membership — $99 a year, per organisation
- A signing identity and provisioning profiles that match your bundle ID
- An App Store Connect record with the bundle ID registered
Organisation enrolment needs a D-U-N-S number and can take days. Start it before you need it.
Getting the build up
Archive, validate, upload. Then TestFlight — internal testers immediately, external testers after a lightweight review. Use it properly: TestFlight is where you find the crash that only happens on a real device.
The metadata that actually matters
The title, the subtitle and the keyword field are what store search reads, and they are 30, 30 and 100 characters. Spending them on your brand name is the most common and most expensive mistake. Screenshots and the first two lines of the description drive conversion, and conversion feeds ranking.
Privacy labels and the Data Safety form
Answer these accurately and answer them early. Inaccurate privacy disclosures are a slow, late category of rejection, and they are checked against what the binary actually does.
Review times
Typically 24–48 hours. Longer for a first release, an account change, or anything touching payments, health, or user-generated content. Plan a week for a first launch and do not schedule a launch event against a review queue.
When it comes back rejected
Most rejections are answerable with a change plus a written response rather than a rebuild — see why apps get rejected for the specific guidelines and how to respond to each.
If you'd rather not do any of this
We handle App Store submission as a standing engagement, including the review correspondence and the appeals.