Do you build apps for both iPhone and Android?

Yes. Your app launches on the App Store and Google Play together, as a real app on each, not a website squeezed into an app shell. The developer accounts are covered by the fixed price, and they’re yours at launch.

One app, both platforms

We build iPhone and Android apps from one shared codebase, using React Native. React Native is a framework that turns one set of code into a proper app on each platform.

For you, that means three things:

• Both stores at once. Your iPhone and Android users get the same product on the same day, and neither lot feels like an afterthought.
• One codebase to maintain. A fix or a new feature is written once, not twice.
• Access to the phone. The camera, location, notifications and offline storage are all available.

Apps work on tablets as well as phones, unless Discovery decides otherwise. Some products, like a field tool, are better on a tablet. For the web side and older handsets, see whether it will work on all devices and browsers.

Not a wrapper

Some cheap builds take a website and put it inside an app shell. They feel slow, they can’t use the phone properly, and app stores are wary of them. Apple’s review guidelines expect an app to go beyond a repackaged website.

What you get instead is an app built to be an app. It’s designed for thumbs and small screens, and it keeps working when the signal drops in a lift.

What a real app can do

ExecSecure moves executives safely through 112 cities. We built its iOS and Android driver apps. They report each car’s position continuously for the whole journey, accurate to about three feet anywhere in the world.

Drivers are onboarded in the app, with licence uploads and training. Vehicle checks are recorded before every job, with reminders so none is missed. A wrapped website couldn’t do that job from a phone in a moving car. Read the ExecSecure story.

Not every app needs that much. But it shows what the phone can do when the app is built for it.

Getting into the stores

Publishing an app means passing Apple’s and Google’s reviews. We handle the store submissions, including the listing details, screenshots and review responses. Review times vary, and a rejection can add days, so we plan for it.

The developer accounts are part of the fixed price. During the build they can sit with us or with you, as you prefer. At launch they’re yours either way.

If they start with us, your apps can move to your own developer accounts later. On both stores, a transfer keeps the app’s users, ratings and reviews. Your company will need its own accounts to receive them, and that takes some paperwork. Our non-technical founder playbook explains what’s involved.

After launch

An app isn’t a statue. Each new version of iOS and Android shifts something, and an app nobody touches for a year starts to creak. Our answer on ongoing maintenance and updates explains how TotalCare keeps yours current.

Which packages include an app?

All three can. Starter launches an app or a website, so you choose. Growth and Scale launch an app and a website. See whether you get both for how to decide, and how much a LaunchPad build costs for what each tier buys. For the rest of the build, see what tech stack we use.