GBTC - iOS - Review and publication of a new iOS app by GoodBarber

After completing the mandatory checklist , you have the possibility to access the publication process from the menu Sales Channel > iOS App > Publish .

You can either deal with the publication of your iOS app solo , or ask GoodBarber’s team to take care of the publication process for you.
GoodBarber's review team knows a lot about the App Store Review Guidelines, and their goal is to help you improve your chances of passing Apple's review quickly. 

To delegate the publication process of your new iOS app to GoodBarber:
1. Select the option with the GoodBarber icon 
2. Click the button “Request the review of your iOS app”
3. Click the button “New app”

Note: This content is about the publication of a new iOS app, that was never sent to App Store Connect before.
If your app was already published in the App Store before and if it is visible on your App Store Connect account (even if it's no longer published at the moment), you should select the option "Update" and follow this process instead .

In iOS App > Publish , fill the brief with the required info about your app and submit it to our team.
In order not to waste any time, make sure to fill the brief the right way. Here are a few recommendations to help you:

- Answer every question of the brief accurately, and don’t leave any fields blank. 

- Describe with as many details as possible what your app does (the main features of the app), who the app is for (the audience of the app: general public, people from a specific country, social category, employees of a company, clients of a company…), and what your app will bring to its future users. 
Specify if your app is meant for a restricted audience rather than the general public. 

- Be precise regarding who the app owner is. 
If you are making the app for a company, even a company you are currently working for, the company is the app owner.
If you are making the app for a client, the client is the app owner.
If the app is your very own project, you are the app owner. 

- Make sure the rating matches the actual content of the app. 

- Both Support and Privacy Policy links must be valid. 

- The Support URL is a link to an online platform where your users can contact you, typically a contact form on your website. If you don’t have a website, a social network URL is allowed too.

- The Privacy Policy URL is a link to a page describing your privacy practices in the app.
Note that your privacy policy needs to be adapted to your app content and features. 

- When asked about the use of specific add-ons, explain why they are relevant in your app as a whole and give examples of how your users will use these features.

- Create a client demo account for the review team. 

After submitting your brief, you should receive feedback from the GB Review Team within a business day (Monday to Friday) in the support ticket  dedicated to the review of your app. 

The Review Team will send a list of the elements that might cause a rejection from Apple’s App Review Team.
It will be up to you to fix these elements and inform the team when it's done. 

As soon as you receive the team's feedback:
1. Proceed with the modifications. 
2. Resubmit your brief so the team can review your app again. 

The team may send further feedback in the support ticket for as long as potential issues remain in your app. 
Once the GB Review Team considers your app has good chances of passing Apple’s review, they'll move it to the next step of the review process.

Depending on your type of subscription, you may have to subscribe or to pay a review fee at this step. 
After the payment, you will get 4 submission credits added to your project. (More details about the credits and how they are used in this online help ).

Once the payment has been validated, the GB Review Team will be notified in the support ticket and will contact you back within a business day. 

At this step, if you haven’t got one already, you will have to create an Apple Developer Account .

Based on what you declared in the brief about the app purpose and ownership, the GB Review Team will perform additional verifications to make sure your Apple Developer Account is compliant with the App Store Review Guidelines. 
If your account is not compliant, you may be required to change its type .

To help the team run this verification more quickly:
1. Add GoodBarber to your Developer Account . This way, the team will be able to access your account using GoodBarber’s own Apple ID. 
2. Provide a full-page screenshot of this page in your Apple Developer account: https://developer.apple.com/account/#!/membership/ in the support ticket dedicated to the review of your app. 

The GB Review Team will verify your Apple Developer account and contact you back within a business day.

Once the Review Team is sure that the Apple Developer Account is compliant with Apple's requirements, they will generate a new support ticket  to request that the GoodBarber Takes Care (GBTC) Team takes over with the compilation and publication of your app.

The GBTC team will:
1. Create the certificates that are necessary to compile your native app.
2. Fill the metadata in App Store Connect for you based on the information you provided in the review brief.
3. Submit the binary file to App Store Connect. 
4. Send your app for review to Apple. 

The GBTC team will process this request within a business day (Monday to Friday) and will use this support ticket to communicate with you in case any additional information or action is needed from the Account Owner in order for the team to complete the submission process. 

As soon as the binary file has been processed by Apple, you have the option to test your app with TestFlight. 

The owner of the Apple Developer account will receive an email from Apple with instructions on how to test the app.  
If you’ve requested for internal testers to be registered to test with TestFlight, they will receive an email from Apple after they've been added. 
If you’ve requested for external testers to be registered to test with TestFlight, they will receive an email from Apple after they've been added and after a quick review of the binary file performed by Apple.  

The GBTC team will submit the app for review immediately after the binary has been processed by Apple.
Then, Apple will notify you by email at every step of their review process., which may take up to 7 days: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/ . 

Note that Apple may require additional information from you to complete their review. 
They will contact you directly if they do, so keep an eye on your emails.

In case this happens, you should contact GoodBarber's Support Team so they can help you get your app published in the App Store as quickly as possible.

Depending on the testing option you have selected (publishing as soon as possible or testing with TestFlight first), the publication of the app will be managed differently. 

- If you selected the option to publish the app as soon as possible without testing it, the app will be released automatically right after it's been approved by Apple. 
- If you selected the option to test your app with TestFlight before it's published, the app will have to be manually released in App Store Connect after it's been approved by Apple.  

Once the app is published in the App Store and has been downloaded a few times, the back office will switch status and mark the iOS app as Published. 

Next time you want to send a new version of your app to App Store Connect or renew the certificates, go to Sales Channels > iOS App > Publish,  submit the updated brief and follow the support ticket  that will be generated for the publication process of the new app version.