# Putting your app on the App Store

What uploading an iPhone app involves, for someone who has never done it — and where the platform stands today.

**Where this stands:** the platform cannot yet build the iPhone file (an `.ipa`) for you. Building one needs Apple hardware, which the platform will rent per build; that service is not connected yet, and your AI will tell you so honestly if you ask. What you can do today is the installable web app — open the link on an iPhone, Share, **Add to Home Screen** — which for a family or a club is usually the better answer anyway: no review, no yearly fee, updates instantly.

This page is here so you know what the store route involves when the build arrives.

## Before you start — once, ever

1. **An Apple Developer account.** [developer.apple.com/programs](https://developer.apple.com/programs). Apple charges **$99 a year**, in your own name, with identity verification and legal agreements only you can accept. For a business, Apple also asks for a D-U-N-S number, which is free but takes days.
2. **A Mac, or not.** Uploading to Apple is normally done from a Mac with Apple's *Transporter* app. Without a Mac, the platform's *release* option (which uploads for you once your account is connected) is the way, when it exists.
3. **Things to write down**: a name (30 characters), a subtitle, a description, an icon (1024×1024), screenshots for at least one iPhone size, a support web address, a **privacy policy web address**, and answers about what the app collects. Your AI can write the descriptions and the policy page.

## Creating the app in App Store Connect

1. Go to [appstoreconnect.apple.com](https://appstoreconnect.apple.com) → **My Apps** → **+** → **New App**.
2. Choose iOS, give it the name, choose the language, and choose the **bundle ID** (the platform tells you what it is — it looks like `app.uarpie.family-books`).
3. Fill in the **App Information** and **Pricing** pages (Free).

## Uploading the file

- **With a Mac:** open *Transporter*, sign in, drop the `.ipa` in, and choose **Deliver**. A few minutes later the build appears under **TestFlight** in App Store Connect.
- **Without a Mac:** the platform's release option does this step for you once your account is connected.

Under **TestFlight**, add yourself as a tester; you can install the app on your own iPhone before it is public.

## The forms Apple needs

On the version page: the screenshots, descriptions, keywords, support and privacy addresses; the **App Privacy** questionnaire (what the app collects — your AI knows); the **age rating** questionnaire; and, if the app needs a login, a **demo account** for the reviewer.

Then choose the build under **Build**, and **Add for Review** → **Submit to App Review**.

## The review

A person at Apple opens the app, usually within a day or two. Apple is stricter than Google: apps that are "just a website", have too little to do, or ask for a login without explaining why are commonly refused the first time. The email says exactly why; paste it to your AI. Approval means the app appears on the App Store within a day.

## Updating it later

Each update is a new version number, a new build uploaded the same way, and a new (usually faster) review.