How to Submit Your First App to the App Store (and Pass Review)

Your first App Store submission is intimidating, but it's mostly paperwork plus a handful of traps that get apps rejected. Here's the checklist I follow to get an app approved on the first try.

Before you submit

• An Apple Developer account (99 USD/year).
• A production build — with Expo, that's eas build --platform ios.
• App icons and a launch screen that actually match the app.
• A real privacy policy hosted at a public URL (Apple requires one).

1. Create the app in App Store Connect

Register a Bundle ID, then create a new app record with your name, primary language, and that Bundle ID. This is also where you'll manage versions and builds.

2. Upload the build

Submit your production build via EAS (eas submit -p ios) or Transporter. It takes a few minutes to finish processing before it appears in App Store Connect and can be attached to a version.

3. Fill in the metadata

This is what users see, so it's worth the effort:

• Name and subtitle — clear, keyword-aware, not clickbait.
• Description — what it does and who it's for, in the first two lines especially.
• Keywords — the 100-character field; use all of it.
• Screenshots — at the required sizes; these sell the app more than the text.

4. Complete the privacy section

Apple's App Privacy questionnaire asks exactly what data you collect and why. Answer it honestly and make sure it matches what your app actually does — mismatches here are a common rejection.

Why apps get rejected (and how to avoid it)

• Broken or incomplete features — anything that looks unfinished. Test the full flow on a real device.
• Missing "Restore Purchases" — mandatory if you sell subscriptions.
• Privacy mismatch — your privacy answers must match real behavior.
• Crashes on launch — reviewers test on current iOS; make sure your build runs there.
• Placeholder content — no Lorem Ipsum, no dead links.

After approval

Submitting isn't the finish line — respond to reviews, watch your crash reports, and ship a quick follow-up update. A studio that iterates after launch outperforms one that treats day one as the goal.

If launching feels like a lot to take on solo, it's one of the things I do for clients — store setup, metadata, and a clean first submission. Either way, the checklist above will get you most of the way there.