Publish an AI-Built App to the App Store: What You Need Before You Submit

How does an AI-built app get from builder to store?

1. Find your builder's native route in the table below; its own docs have the exact steps.
2. Create a signed IPA and AAB: from the builder, with EAS for an Expo project, or in Xcode and Android Studio.
3. Test the build on a real phone with TestFlight, and run Google Play's closed test if your account needs one.
4. Capture the app in use, turn the captures into a screenshot set and check it in a listing preview; the screenshot section below shows how.
5. Fill in the listing and submit for review.

Can Lovable, Replit, Bolt and Base44 apps go on the App Store?

Builders change often, so check the linked page before you plan around a row.

A Base44 app, or a Lovable app wrapped with Capacitor, is your website inside an app, and Apple's guideline 4.2 asks apps to go beyond a repackaged website. Apple doesn't publish a list of features that are enough. Give the app something the site lacks, such as push notifications, widgets or offline access, before you submit. Base44's iOS app can't be made iPhone only, so plan an iPad screenshot set as well. The Capacitor screenshot guide covers capturing a wrapped app.

Mobile projects from Replit and Bolt are Expo projects. The Expo and React Native screenshot guide has the capture commands for them. For FlutterFlow, the Flutter screenshot guide covers both FlutterFlow products.

Can Lovable apps be published to the App Store?

Not from Lovable itself. Its publish docs say publishing "always deploys to a web URL" and offer two routes:

• A progressive web app. People add it to the home screen from the browser. It skips the store build and review, but a PWA gets no App Store or Google Play listing.
• A Capacitor wrapper. You wrap the app in a native shell outside Lovable, build it with Xcode or a cloud build service and submit it yourself. Lovable suggests wrapping the published URL; Capacitor's own docs advise bundling the built code instead, and either way the app has to clear guideline 4.2. A new Capacitor project also supports iPad, so plan a 13-inch iPad set. Our Capacitor guide walks through both.

Lovable doesn't generate React Native projects, so for a native app its docs suggest prototyping in Lovable and rebuilding the screens in React Native. Replit and Bolt build Expo (React Native) apps when you start a mobile project.

What you need to submit an app to the App Store

Items 2 to 5 are changes to the app or to how you submit it. Items 6 to 10 are fields in App Store Connect.

1. An Apple Developer Program membership. $99 a year. Enroll as an organization if a company owns the app, because the seller name on the listing comes from the account. Organizations need a D-U-N-S Number to enroll.
2. Submit it yourself. Guideline 4.2.6 rejects apps made from a commercial template or app generation service unless the provider of the app's content submits them. Publish from your own developer account, under your own name or company.
3. A demo login for App Review. If the app has sign-in, put a working test account in the review notes and keep your backend running during review (guideline 2.1). If the reviewer can't get past the login screen, the review stops there.
4. Account deletion. If people can create an account, they must be able to delete it inside the app (5.1.1(v)). If the app uses Google or another third-party login to set up or sign in to the user's main account, guideline 4.8 also asks for an equivalent login option that limits data to name and email, lets people keep their email private and doesn't track them for ads without consent, such as Sign in with Apple. It lists exceptions, including apps that use only your own account system, education or enterprise apps with existing accounts, and clients for a specific third-party service.
5. Consent before sending personal data to an AI service. Since November 2025, guideline 5.1.2(i) names third-party AI explicitly: disclose where personal data goes and get permission first. If your app sends a user's messages, photos or profile to OpenAI, Anthropic or Google, show that before the first request.
6. A privacy policy, a support URL and App Privacy details. The policy link goes in App Store Connect and inside the app, and the support URL on the version page needs to lead to a way to contact you. App Privacy asks what data you and your SDKs collect, including analytics and the AI service.
7. The age rating questionnaire. Apple's ratings are now 4+, 9+, 13+, 16+ and 18+, with questions about user-generated content, messaging and chat, and unrestricted web access. Answer for what the app actually does: a chatbot on its own isn't users messaging each other, but a shared feed or chat between users is. An unrated app can't be published.
8. Export compliance. Every version asks about encryption. If your app only uses HTTPS through the operating system, set ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption to NO in the app's Info.plist and the question goes away.
9. EU trader status. Every developer declares it, even with no EU sales. Since 17 February 2025, apps without it are removed from the EU App Store.
10. Screenshots that show the app in use. Guideline 2.3.3 asks for the app in use, not just title art, a login page or a splash screen. You need 1 to 10 iPhone screenshots at 1206 × 2622 or 1179 × 2556 for the required slot, a 2064 × 2752 iPad set if the app runs on iPad, and, from April 2027 for apps built with the iOS 27.1 SDK or later, iPhone Duo screenshots as well. The App Store screenshot sizes page lists every accepted size.

The App Store Connect release checklist goes field by field through the version page.

How to submit an AI-built app, step by step

With the checklist done, the submission itself happens in App Store Connect, in this order:

1. Create the app record. In Apps, add a new app with its platform, name, primary language, bundle ID and SKU. The bundle ID must match your build.
2. Upload a build. From your builder (Replit, Rork, Bubble and FlutterFlow Studio upload for you), with EAS Submit for an Expo project, or from Xcode for exported code. From April 2027, uploads must be built with the iOS 27 SDK or later.
3. Test it in TestFlight on a real iPhone, signed in with the demo account you'll give App Review.
4. Fill in the version page: screenshots, description, keywords and support URL, plus the privacy policy URL under App Privacy.
5. Answer the app-level questions: App Privacy, the age rating, pricing and availability, and EU trader status.
6. Add App Review information: the demo account, contact details and notes that explain anything a reviewer can't find alone.
7. Select the build, then choose Add for Review and Submit for Review. You can release automatically on approval or by hand.

Apple's App Review page says it typically reviews at least 50% of submissions in less than 24 hours and 90% in less than 48 hours, and emails you on every status change. A rejection adds another round. On Google Play, a new personal account's 14-day closed test usually sets the launch date.

Why AI-built and vibe-coded apps get rejected

If a rejection does arrive, the rejection statuses guide explains what each status means and how to resubmit.

What Google Play needs before you go live

1. A Play Console account. $25 once. Google may ask for a government ID and a card in your legal name.
2. The closed test, if your account is new. Personal accounts created after 13 November 2023 need at least 12 testers opted in to a closed test for 14 days in a row before production access. Internal testing doesn't count, which is where Rork sends your first build. Start recruiting testers the day you upload.
3. The Data safety form and a privacy policy, even if the app collects nothing.
4. App content declarations. The content rating questionnaire, and sign-in details for reviewers if part of the app needs an account. If users can create an account, Google also asks for a way to delete it from inside the app and a web link to request deletion.
5. A current target API level. New apps and updates must target Android 16 (API level 36) since 31 August 2026.
6. Screenshots and a feature graphic. At least 2 screenshots, each no more than twice as long as it is wide, and a 1024 × 500 feature graphic. Most raw phone captures are taller than 2:1, so fit them into 9:16. To be eligible for Google Play's large-format recommendations, provide at least four 9:16 screenshots of 1080 × 1920 or larger. The Google Play sizes page has the details.

What the builders' screenshot tools cover, and what they leave out

Three builders now make store images. Rork's Screenshot Studio, in free beta, outputs iPhone images at 1284 × 2778, a size App Store Connect still accepts. Replit turns real screenshots into marketing images that you upload yourself. FlutterFlow's AI builder makes 1206 × 2622 images, fits copies for Google Play with a feature graphic and sends them to both stores. That gets a first listing submitted. The gaps show up later:

• iPad. If your build supports iPad, App Store Connect won't accept the version without a 13-inch iPad set.
• Google Play. Rork's Play images are a separate job, Replit doesn't publish to Play, and with Bolt, Bubble, Base44 or Lovable the 1024 × 500 feature graphic is yours to make.
• Other languages. A translated caption that runs to three lines on the iPhone size needs a different layout, not just new text. The localized screenshots guide shows how to capture each language.
• The next release. If a tool only gives you finished PNGs, one changed screen means rebuilding the set. Our guide to updating screenshots without a new build covers changes after launch.
• The other store's look. Guideline 2.3.10 bars names, icons or imagery of other mobile platforms in your metadata, so an Android frame made for Google Play doesn't belong in your App Store set.

Whichever tool you use, start from real captures of the app. Apple's guideline 2.3.3 expects screenshots to show the app in use, and allows captions and image overlays on top:

Plain captures and the sets these builders generate can be submitted if they meet the current requirements and show the app accurately; Apple and Google decide approval. Treat a generated set as the baseline to test against, not the finished listing. When Rovio tested combinations of screenshots, captions, icon and orientation for Angry Birds 2, SplitMetrics reports that the best one lifted conversion by 13%, an estimated 2.5 million extra installs in the first week after release. The download math in our ASO guide shows what a lift means at your scale: at 10,000 monthly downloads, a hypothetical 15% lift would be 1,500 extra installs from the same visitors.

AppScreens closes those gaps from one editable project, whichever builder you used. Find your app with AI onboarding, pick a ready-to-go template or start from scratch, upload your real captures, edit the captions, then export the iPhone, iPad and Google Play sizes. A new language (on a paid plan) or the next release is an edit to the same project, not a rebuilt set. On the free plan you upload the files to App Store Connect or Play Console yourself. If your builder's agent can connect to an MCP server, it can do the same work in the same session, as the next section shows.

Finish the listing with the agent you built the app with

Replit Agent, Lovable, Bolt and Base44 (on the Builder plan or higher) can all connect to a remote MCP server by URL and sign in with OAuth, so the agent that wrote your app can also make its screenshots. Add the AppScreens MCP server (AppScreens publishes this guide) as a custom MCP server at https://api.appscreens.com/mcp, sign in, then ask:

Help me make App Store and Google Play screenshots for my app with AppScreens. Ask me what you need.

Each builder documents its own setup. We haven't run AppScreens inside each builder yet, so here is what their documentation says:

• Replit Agent: add a personal MCP server by URL under Settings, Integrations. Test & save runs the server's OAuth sign-in, and the agent can then use its tools in all your projects, asking first for tools that need confirmation.
• Bolt: add a custom MCP server under Settings, Connectors, and choose MCP OAuth to sign in. Bolt calls its tools while you chat, and you switch each connector on per project.
• Base44: custom MCP needs the Builder plan or higher. Add the URL with OAuth; the AI calls the tools from the editor chat, with up to 20 servers per account.
• Lovable: custom MCP servers work on all plans, with OAuth as the default sign-in. Lovable's docs describe the chat reading a server as live context, so check that it can run AppScreens' create and upload steps before you count on it.

The agent asks which stores, devices and languages you need, builds the set from your app captures and shows you a preview. The free plan covers one project of up to five screenshots, with smaller previews, exported from the editor in your browser. On a paid plan the agent exports the set and uploads it to App Store Connect and the Google Play main listing after you approve the upload preview, so you skip downloading the files and adding them size by size in each store. If you downloaded the code, Claude Code, Codex and Cursor work the same way from the project folder; the connect page has the setup for each. The screenshot prompts guide lists a one-line prompt for each step.