From TestFlight to the App Store

Newly v2, at app.newly.app and in Newly for Mac, builds your iOS app and uploads it to App Store Connect. Each project’s Deploy tab walks you through the rest, with a readiness check at each step and your store listing text, which you can edit there. Newly doesn’t submit your app for review. You press that button yourself in App Store Connect. In Newly for Mac, the Deploy tab shows when Developer mode is on. If you haven’t uploaded a build yet, start with Ship your iOS app to TestFlight.

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After the upload

When the Ship to TestFlight card shows ”✓ Uploaded to TestFlight”, press Open App Store Connect. The card also reminds you that Apple may still be processing the build. Then: You don’t answer an encryption question for your builds. Newly declares that the app uses only standard encryption unless your project says otherwise.

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What Apple asks a new developer account

Apple often sends back a first submission from a new developer account with a message titled “Guideline 2.1 - Information Needed”. It is a request for information, not a fault in your app. The Deploy tab’s App Store readiness checklist has a row for each thing Apple asks for, and each one saves straight to App Store Connect:

• App Review Notes. What the app is for, how to reach each main feature, the services it relies on, and whether anything differs by region. Press Ask Newly to write it for a draft, which is a normal Newly Agent turn.
• App Review Contact and Sign-in. A name, an email and a phone number that starts with + and its country code. Apple won’t save your notes without them. Say whether reviewers have to sign in, and if they do, give them a demo account that never expires. Apple keeps the password. Newly doesn’t store it.
• Screen Recording for App Review. A recording of your app on your own iPhone. Apple asks for it in that message, so nothing requires it before you submit, but you can add it up front. A simulator recording isn’t what Apple asks for.

To make the recording: Ask Newly what to record in that row gets you a list of the exact taps for your app. That is a normal Newly Agent turn. An organization owner or admin can save these rows. A team that already has an approved app isn’t asked for a recording. If Apple has sent your app back with this message, fill in the three rows, then reply to Apple in App Store Connect with the same notes and the recording attached, and submit again.

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How the agent can help

The agent can’t press buttons in App Store Connect for you, but it can help you get ready:

• Readiness checklist. Ask “check if my app is ready for the App Store”. The agent checks your project against a store readiness checklist and shows the results in the chat, such as a missing app description, privacy policy URL, screenshots, permission descriptions or encryption compliance. You still set the age rating and App Privacy details yourself in App Store Connect.
• Listing copy. Ask for an app description, subtitle, promotional text or keywords, then paste the result into the matching field on the Deploy tab’s readiness checklist, which saves it straight to App Store Connect.
• Rejections. If Apple rejects your app, Newly asks to read Apple’s message the next time you open the project, or you can paste the message into the chat. The agent can explain it and change your code to address it. Then upload a new build and reply to Apple in App Store Connect.

In a Remote chat, each of these is a normal Newly Agent turn, so it uses credits. See How credits work.

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Screenshots for your listing

• In the Deploy tab: open Deploy, pick the App Store or Google Play, and open App Store Screenshots or Play Screenshots in the readiness review. It shows what the store holds now. Add PNG or JPEG images (each App Store screenshot goes into the device size it fits), put App Store screenshots in order, or remove one. Google Play’s Feature Graphic row does the same for the 1024 x 500 feature graphic and the 512 x 512 store icon, one of each, where adding a new one replaces the old. Ask Newly to make them has the agent capture your real app and save the images in your project, and you add them from the same place. Adding, ordering and removing are free; asking the agent is a normal turn.
• From the cloud simulator: open your app in the cloud simulator, go to the screen you want, hover over the simulator to show its controls, and press Save screenshot to Downloads (the camera button). See Using the cloud simulators.
• In Local chats (Mac): the agent can make styled store screenshot sets. AI-generated backgrounds need your own OpenAI API key; without one, the sets use a plain gradient. See Local chats on your Mac.

Check Apple’s current screenshot size requirements before you upload.

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Google Play

The Deploy tab has an Android section for publishing to Google Play. An organization owner or admin connects their Google Play account (their own Google Cloud project and Play Console) and picks or creates the app there. Once that’s done, one press builds, signs and uploads the app to Google Play internal testing. From there you can edit the Play listing, run a readiness check and release to production. Google asks new personal Play Console accounts to run a closed test first, with at least 12 testers who stay opted in for 14 days, before it allows a production release. Organization accounts skip this. In a Remote chat, you can also ask the agent to “publish to Google Play”. This opens a card that either sends your latest saved version to internal testing, or names the setup step you still need to finish. Members can see the card, but only an owner or admin can set up Google Play or send a build. Newly also builds a standalone release APK you can download and install on a phone, separately from Google Play: ask the agent for one. See Download an Android APK. You can also test the Android version on the Android cloud simulator (“Pixel 8 - Android”).

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