--- date: 2018-03-31 modified_at: 2019-03-09 tags: [entrepreneurship, programming] description: A detailed step-by-step guide for publishing Expo apps to the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, covering configuration, builds, credentials, screenshots, and updates. --- # Publishing your expo app to both app stores Publishing your expo app to both app stores can be an exhausting and scary process with many unknowns if you do it for the first time. To make it a little bit easier, here is my guide! Don't make the same mistakes I made and keep making over and over again! Keep this guide by your side. This guide assumes you just created an app using Expo and want to release it to the Google Play store and Apple Appstore. 1) Setup initial App.json settings: * Add reverse DNS value (com.companyname.appslug) to ios.bundleIdentifier and android.package * iOS: App Icon 1024 x 1024 non-transparent —> put in assets/icon.png * Don’t forget name, description, slug, splash * Add notification settings: "notification": { "icon": "./assets/notifications_icon.png", "color": "#000000", "androidMode": "collapse", "androidCollapsedTitle": "#{unread_notifications} new notifications" }, app.json: App.json should be configured properly. Read more here https://docs.expo.io/versions/latest/workflow/configuration/#__next Make sure to set the right permissions under the android key! Otherwise expo will define defaults which are a lot of permissions. Your APK's package name must be in the following format "com.example.myapp". It may contain letters (a-z), numbers and underscores (_). It must start with a lowercase letter. It must be 150 characters or fewer. 2) Create an initial build exp start —> exp build:android —> wait 2-5 minutes —> exp url:apk exp start —> exp build:ios —> wait 2-5 minutes —> exp url:ipa NB: since exp v50 you can automate this with a script because it will wait until the build is finished. use something like this to download the file from the URL you get from exp url:ipa/apk: P.s. I haven't tested this yet! Let me know if it works. standalonedir="/Users/progenworks/2018 code/Communify/standalone/" && exp start && exp build:ios && urlios = "exp url:ipa" && wget -O $standalonedir "$urlios" && exp build:android && urlandroid = "exp url:apk" && wget -O $standalonedir "$urlandroid" NB: Don’t put files in expo folder, not even under assets, or build will fail! NB: I let expo handle certificates for the time being, but it's questionable whether this a good idea when your app starts to make money, because they kind of own the app, right? It saves a lot of time though, but I become completely dependent on their online services because I can’t update the app version without a certificate. Also, once you want more functionality in your app like payments, you will have to detach, so then you can't let expo do the certificates anymore. You'll have to do it yourself! More Info here https://developer.android.com/studio/publish/app-signing.html and here https://calvium.com/how-to-make-a-p12-file/ 3) Having the right credentials set up Make sure to go through these steps before you upload your build to the Google Play Console or to TestFlight. Every time you forget something, you'll end up having to rebuild and wait so long that your teeth fall out. * Android: up the version number * iOS: up the version number * icon without tranparency and without alpha channels (use alpha-channel-remover to remove alpha-channels from png) Install Google and Maps if you need it: https://docs.expo.io/versions/latest/sdk/google.html https://docs.expo.io/versions/latest/sdk/map-view.html 4) Get All The Files Creating Screenshots * Apple: The exact resolution matters. Create screenshots from iOS Simulator (turn off debug->optimize rendering for window scale and use 5.5" iPhone (iPhone X is optional). Also make a screenshot on the 12.9" iPad. * From Android simulator: The exact resolution doesn't matter. You also need these files: 1. Hi-res icon 512 x 512 32-bit PNG (with alpha) for Android. This is the Android app icon. 2. Feature graphic 1024 w x 500 h JPG or 24-bit PNG (no alpha) for android 3. Link to Privacy policy 5) Build again exp start exp build:android download apk from resulting url exp build:ios download ipa from resulting url 6) [Optional] Check if builds were successful For Android: Drag and drop the .apk into your Android emulator to see if the build was successful. To run it on your Android device, make sure you have the Android platform tools installed along with adb, then just run adb install app-filename.apk with your device plugged in. For iOS: To run it on your iOS Simulator, first build your expo project with the simulator flag by running exp build:ios -t simulator, then download the tarball with the link given upon completion when running exp build:status. Unpack the tar.gz by running tar -xvzf your-app.tar.gz. Then you can run it by starting an iOS Simulator instance, then running xcrun simctl install booted and xcrun simctl launch booted . Another alternative which some people prefer is to install the ios-sim tool and then use ios-sim launch . 7) Upload your standalone builds: Android Developer Console Go Here https://play.google.com/apps/publish/ TestFlight to test app for iOS 1. Add new app in iTunes connect 2. Open xCode —> dev tools —> application loader —> select & upload IPA —> Wait 15 minutes. 3. It can now be added to iTunes connect. In the meantime, descriptions can be filled in, and screenshots etc. can be uploaded. 8) Fill in all details for Android and iOS It's pretty straightforward, so no need to explain everything. But here are some things that were not so straightforward. Check this on the Apple submission form because of Segment: 1. “Attribute this app installation to a previously served advertisement” 2. “Attribute an action taken within this app to a previously served advertisement” 3. “I, YOUR_NAME, confirm that this app, and any third party…” Fill in everything in iTunes Connect and wait 1-2 days for manual review. Make sure to add login credentials! Create some fake google or facebook account and provide these as login credentials (or create an account on your platform for them if you also support normal sign up) 9) Updates? There are only a couple reasons why you might want to rebuild and resubmit the native binaries: * If you want to change native metadata like the app’s name or icon. * If you upgrade to a newer sdkVersion of your app (new React Native version, which requires new native code) If you do this, also update the binary’s versionCode and buildNumber in app.json Good to know: Updates are handled differently on iOS and Android. On Android, updates are downloaded in the background. This means that the first time a user opens your app after an update they will get the old version while the new version is downloaded in the background. The second time they open the app they’ll get the new version. On iOS, updates are downloaded synchronously, so users will get the new version the first time they open your app after an update. —— Future additions: These are some things I'd still like to explore myself: * Production optimizations * App size: can I make it smaller? * How to make the app work offline * Permissions: can I change them to necessary only?