Publishing to the App Store and Google Play: what to know
Building the app is half the job. The other half is clearing review on two platforms with different rules, different timelines, and different tolerance for mistakes.
Developer accounts
The Apple Developer Program costs $99 a year and requires either an individual with identity verification or a company with a D-U-N-S number (free to request, but issuance can take a few weeks — start early). Google Play Console is a one-time $25 fee with faster account verification.
To publish under a company rather than an individual developer, register the account under the legal entity from the start — transferring a published app between developer accounts is a harder procedure than registering correctly the first time.
Review timelines and process
Google Play typically reviews within a few hours, one to two days for a new developer account, longer for sensitive categories (finance, health, content for children). The App Store reviews manually and takes one to three days, sometimes longer for a new account's first submission.
Both stores re-review after every significant update, not just the first submission. A major interface overhaul or new feature goes through review again — plan release timing with a few days of buffer for that.
Common rejection reasons
Apple's most common cause: the app reads as a wrapper around a mobile website with no native value ('this is just a site in a frame'), plus incomplete metadata, broken privacy policy links, and first-launch crashes for the reviewer. Google Play often flags under-disclosed permissions — why does a product catalogue need contacts access — and screenshots that don't match actual functionality.
Both stores reject apps with broken core functions: if the payment form fails a reviewer's test transaction, that's a guaranteed rejection regardless of everything else's quality. Walk the entire user journey from install to payment as an outsider before submitting.
Metadata and ASO
Title, description, keywords (a dedicated field in the App Store, folded into the description in Google Play) and screenshots determine whether the app surfaces in store search and whether someone installs it after seeing the listing. The first two screenshots decide more than everything else combined — they're the ones visible without scrolling.
Localising metadata into Russian and Uzbek rather than English alone noticeably widens reach in Uzbekistan: part of the audience searches specifically in their native language, and an English-only listing loses them before they even read the description.