uarpie

Phone apps

What the platform does for an app you want on a phone, and what a store listing actually involves.

You asked your AI for an app, and it built one for a phone rather than a browser. Here is exactly what happens, and an honest account of the store question.

The short version

  • The server your app talks to: hosted, with a database, storage, scheduled jobs and a spending limit. One command, same as everything else.
  • The app itself, on a phone: available immediately as an installable web app. You open a link, tap Add to Home Screen, and it sits on the home screen with its own icon, opens without browser chrome, works offline and can send notifications.
  • The app in the App Store or Google Play: not something the platform does yet, and it needs your own developer account. See below for what that really involves.

For a family app, a class tool or a game for six friends, the second option is not a lesser version. There is no store listing to wait for, no yearly fee, and every deploy updates it immediately on everyone's phone.

Deploying the server

If your project is an Expo or React Native app with a backend folder, deploy the backend:

npx uarpie -C ./server

The command recognises a server with no web pages as an API. Instead of a link to open, it gives you a base URL and a key:

detected  Express · API · Postgres
live      https://quiet-harbor-4471.uarpie.app
key       uarpie_k_prj_… (shown once — put it in your app)

Point your phone app at that URL. See APIs and backends for how the key works.

If your app has no backend at all and needs one, ask your AI: "create an Express server with the API routes this app calls, then deploy it." The deploy tells it the same thing if it finds nothing to host.

Installing the app without a store

An Expo app can produce a web version, and the platform hosts it like any other app. Ask your AI:

Build the web version of this app and deploy it.

Then open the link on your phone:

  • iPhone: Share, then Add to Home Screen.
  • Android: the menu, then Install app or Add to Home Screen.

It behaves like an installed app from then on. Notifications work on both platforms for apps added this way.

Getting the app file to upload yourself

On a paid plan, ask your AI: "build the Android app". The platform builds and signs it and hands you the file (an .aab) with a step-by-step guide for putting it on Google Play yourself — Putting your app on Google Play. Uploading is a form, not a technical job, and it needs nothing from you except a Google Play developer account, which only you can create. Android builds cost nothing extra.

The iPhone version needs Apple hardware to build, which the platform rents per build; that is not connected yet, and your AI will say so. Putting your app on the App Store explains what that route involves so you can plan for it.

The App Store and Google Play, done for you

The honest position: submitting on your behalf is not available yet, and when it arrives it will be a paid feature that needs your own developer account connected.

It is worth being precise about why, because a lot of the work can be automated. Once you have a developer account and connect it, a service can create your signing certificate, build the app, sign it and upload it for you. That is how Expo's EAS works, and it is the model we would follow.

What stays with you, once:

  1. Enrolling. Apple charges $99 a year, in your own name, with agreements only you can accept and identity verification. Google charges $25 once, with identity verification, and new personal accounts must run a closed test with a group of testers over a period of days before publishing publicly. Nobody can do this on your behalf.
  2. Connecting the account, by generating a key in Apple's or Google's console and giving it to the platform.
  3. The first listing: name, description, screenshots, a privacy policy, an age rating.

After that, every later release would be one command, like everything else here.

There is also a review by a person at Apple or Google on each submission, usually a day or so. That is unavoidable for anyone.

What it will cost, and how you will be told

Android builds run on the same machines as everything else here and cost about a cent, so they will be included in a paid plan.

iOS builds need Apple hardware, which we rent rather than own. That costs real money per build, so it will never happen quietly. Your AI has to ask for a price first, show you the exact figure, and wait for you to agree before anything is charged. It cannot skip that step: the platform refuses a release that does not carry back the amount you were quoted. Your spending limit applies here as it does everywhere else.

If you want a store listing today, that is a real project and you should plan for it. If what you want is for your family to open your app on their phones, the link and Add to Home Screen do that this afternoon.

Updating an app that is already installed

Once a phone app built with Expo is installed, its JavaScript can be updated over the air without going back through review. The platform can host those updates, so deploy would update the phone app the same way it updates a website, with the same version history and the same instant rollback. This is planned and requires an installed build to exist first.