Skip to the content
Vibeminter
Getting startedPublishing

Publishing

Your app is published under your own Apple Developer account, not ours. Most Apple steps are acts that only you, or the Account Holder of your team, can do on Apple's own pages. Vibeminter keeps the list, tells you whose move each step is and shows you what to click.

  • App Store Connect
  • TestFlightNot switched on yet
  • App Review

The road and whose move it is

The Apple page shows the road as a row of signal squares, one per step. The shape of a square says whose turn it is, and each square always has a word beside it:

  • Your movea play mark: an act only you, or the Account Holder, can do
  • Apple's turna ring: Apple is working, and nothing you do speeds it up
  • Our turna dot: our side, such as building or checking your work

The road has seven steps, the same on every page. The row below shows the shape of the road, not where you stand on it:

  1. Step 1: Describe your idea
  2. Step 2: We build, you check
  3. Step 3: Start your developer account
  4. Step 4: Apple checks your enrollment
  5. Step 5: Try it on your iPhone
  6. Step 6: Submit for review
  7. Step 7: Apple reviews your app
  1. Describe your idea
  2. We build, you check
  3. Start your developer account
  4. Apple checks your enrollment
  5. Try it on your iPhone
  6. Submit for review
  7. Apple reviews your app

Inside a step, the Apple guide names the part you are in, such as Connecting to App Store Connect.

Your Apple Developer account

Publishing needs a paid membership in the Apple Developer Program. You pay Apple for it, at Apple's price and on Apple's terms. An individual membership belongs to you, and an organization membership needs a legal entity and a D-U-N-S number from Apple's lookup.

Apple
Enrollment times are Apple's. The Apple questions in the app and the Apple checker tell you which of these cases you are in, and the Apple page waits for Apple without asking you to do anything it does not need.

Connecting App Store Connect

Everything the App Store Connect API allows is done through an API key that you generate in your own App Store Connect account. The cards walk you through the steps in order:

  1. Your move

    Accept the Program License Agreement, if Apple shows a new one.

  2. Your move

    Request API access, as the Account Holder. Apple turns it on, and the page waits for it.

  3. Your move

    Generate a team key and download it once.

  4. Your move

    Hand the key over on our key page. The page seals it in your browser before it is sent, and it opens only while a hand-off is open.

A key can be revoked in App Store Connect at any time. The Apple page notices a key that stopped working and gives you a card to replace it.

Builds and TestFlight

Once publishing to TestFlight is switched on for your account and the connection works, the project's Apple pane has a Publish to TestFlight panel. It is a short list of actions that you start yourself:

Not switched on yet
  • Your moveConfirm the bundle ID and let us prepare a signing certificate and profile for your account.
  • Our turnBuild and sign the app on our build machines.
  • Your moveUpload build, which sends the signed build to App Store Connect.
  • Apple's turnWait while Apple processes the build.
  • Your moveSend to TestFlight, which gives the build to your internal testers so you can install it on your iPhone.

Each tap is logged with the action, the build and the time. The upload step has its own cost in credits, which is shown before you tap.

Your store page and Apple's review

Before review, the road covers the store page text, the screenshots, the age rating, category, price and countries, the App Privacy label, the review contact and any purchases the app sells. Some of these are done through the API and some only on Apple's website. For the web-only ones, a card gives you:

  • a verb-first title and one line on why Apple asks for it
  • the exact click path, in Apple's own button labels
  • values to copy, each with its own Copy button
  • a link to the Apple page, and a Done, check again button

Submitting for review is a step like the others. Its card names the page and the button in App Store Connect, and the review itself is Apple's turn.

Waiting for Apple

A step that belongs to Apple shows a waiting screen. It gives Apple's own stated time in Apple's words. It also gives our usual and slow case, but only once enough people stand behind the numbers; below that it says how many there are so far and shows no number. No date is promised for anything Apple does.

Scheduled
While you wait, the page offers two things to do with one tap each. Reminders by email and a check by a person from our team are not switched on yet, so for now come back to the page and check again.

Paste an email from Apple

Apple sends news by email, and there is no feed to read. The Paste an email from Apple panel on the Apple page reads a pasted email, says what kind it is, and moves the road if the email changes your step. Rejections have their own page.

Scheduled

These do not exist yet. Each one names what it waits on, and none has a date.

  • ScheduledSubmitting for review from inside the product.
    Waits on: a legal read of the Apple agreements and Apple's written answer; until then submitting is a click you make in App Store Connect.
  • ScheduledAn address of our own that receives Apple's emails for you, in place of pasting them.
    Waits on: the inbound mail address and its filtering being built and reviewed.
  • ScheduledPush notifications to your phone while you wait.
    Waits on: the push service, which needs a backend we do not run yet.
  • ScheduledA read-only connection for AI assistants that shows where you are on the road.
    Waits on: the launch gate being passed, after which the connection is built.