Six weeks, in order
How to launch an app
What to do in the six weeks around shipping a mobile app, in order: store listing, testers, launch day, and the month that matters more.
List your appFree · Permanent · No launch day
The hard part of launching an app is not launch day. It is that most of what decides how the launch goes happened weeks earlier, in the store listing and the first fifty installs, and by the time you are posting about it those are already fixed. The store listing is the page every single install goes through and the only thing the store’s own search can read; fifty real testers find the thing that makes people quit on the second screen; and the month after the launch is where the real acquisition shows up. Launch day is usually fourth or fifth on that list, and it is the one that gets all the attention because it is the only one that happens on a schedule.
What actually moved the needle, honestly
For most independent apps, in this order, and launch day is fourth or fifth.
The store listing
It is the page every install goes through, the only thing store search can read, and much harder to change later than you think.
The first hundred users
Word of mouth from people who actually kept using it. Fifty real testers before that is what makes the hundred possible.
One community, and search
Being present where the problem is discussed, plus the store’s search and Google’s. Both of those keep working with no further input.
The six weeks, in order
Find the week you are in and read from there. Each one assumes the one before it.
Six weeks out: write the store listing
Before the app is finished. For an app the listing is not marketing collateral, it is the product page — and writing it early will change what you build.
Four weeks out: get it into real hands
Fifty real testers is worth more than any tactic on this page, because they find the thing that makes people quit on the second screen. Ask one question, not a survey: what were you trying to do when you stopped. Anything else gets you politeness.
Two weeks out: clear the queues and build the assets once
A square icon, a screenshot set per device size, a thirty-second demo video, one paragraph and one sentence of description — you will paste that set into twenty forms. Set up a landing page that is not the store, somewhere links can point and search can index.
Launch week: be present rather than promotional
Post where the people with the problem already are — a subreddit, a Discord, a forum for the hobby your app serves — and read the rules first. Ask for reviews inside the app at the moment somebody finishes something, because the first twenty are what a stranger sees.
Six weeks out: the store listing is the product
The page every install goes through, and the only part of it store search can read.
The title carries the search term
Not just your brand name. "Cadence — habit tracker" is findable; "Cadence" is not, unless somebody already knows the name. You get thirty characters on the App Store and fifty on Play, and the words in there are weighted more heavily than anything else on the page.
The subtitle and the short description are the second half of that
They are indexed too, and they are the other place a search term can live.
The first two screenshots decide the install
People do not swipe. Put the thing the app does in the first frame, with a caption on it, and never lead with an empty state or a sign-up screen.
The App Store keyword field is not the description
It is a hundred-character comma-separated list, it is invisible to users, and it is the one part of the listing that exists purely for search. Do not waste it on words already in your title.
The things with a queue
The only items here that can move your launch date without asking you first.
Play requires a period of closed testing before a personal account can publish
With a minimum number of testers. The rules have changed more than once and the current numbers are on Google’s own page, so check them the week you start rather than trusting a blog post. If they apply to you, that requirement — not your code — is your launch date.
Review takes days and can reject you
Budget for one rejection. The common ones are short and avoidable:
- A sign-in wall with no demo account.
- A privacy policy URL that 404s.
- A data-collection disclosure that does not match what the app does.
The first test build takes a few days to approve
TestFlight on iOS, an open testing track on Play. Both have to clear before anybody outside your laptop sees anything, which is the deadline people miss.
The month after, which is the part people skip
A launch is a spike, a crash, and then whatever your real acquisition is. This is where you find out what that is.
Watch day-1 and day-7 retention, and nothing else
Until they are good. Every other number is downstream of those two.
Ship an update
Both stores treat an actively updated app better than an abandoned one, and a "what’s new" note is a free reason to appear again.
Answer every review, including the bad ones
It is visible to everybody else reading them.
Get listed in directories, over the following weeks
Rather than in one afternoon. That is the part that keeps working after the launch traffic is gone, and there is a list worth working through.
Where this site fits
A listing rather than a launch, which is the opposite kind of work to everything above.
A permanent page for your app, and a link that passes
WhatAreYouBuilding.AI is a free, worldwide directory of what independent builders are shipping: AI, SaaS and dev tools, by country, category and funding stage. Your app gets a page of its own and a do-follow link to your site. Every submission is reviewed before it appears, and listing is free.
Queryable by agents
Which matters more every month, because "what apps are there for X" is increasingly a question people ask a model rather than a search box.
Questions people actually ask
The ones that decide a date, and the ones that cost money.
When can I publish on Play with a personal developer account?
After a period of closed testing with a minimum number of testers. The rules have changed more than once, so check Google’s own page the week you start rather than trusting a blog post — this one included. If the requirement applies to you, it is your launch date.
What do I ask testers?
One question, not a survey: what were you trying to do when you stopped. Then watch a session recording or sit next to somebody, because the gap between what people say and what they do is the whole point of testing.
Should I buy installs?
No. Retention is what the stores rank on, and bought installs are the worst retention you can buy — so the cheap version of this actively costs you ranking.
Do I need a landing page if I have a store page?
Yes. Somewhere links can point, somewhere search can index, and somewhere people on the wrong device can still read what the app is. A store page does none of those three.
Which launch boards suit an app?
The ones with a consumer audience, rather than the developer-tool boards. Show HN is free and instant if there is a technical angle. There is a page comparing them by what each is actually good at.
The launch was quiet. Should I rebuild?
Check day-1 and day-7 retention first. If people who arrive keep using it, the problem is distribution; if they do not, no amount of distribution helps.
The pages this one points at
The launch half, the after half, and the two checks worth running.
List the app somewhere that does not expire
A permanent page, a do-follow link, and no day to prepare for.