Blynk App Publishing Process and Timeline

Photo by Pathum Danthanarayana on Unsplash
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You have built an awesome connected product, created a mobile app prototype on Blynk and now it’s time to put your product into the hands of real customers. But how do you get from a prototype to having your very own branded app published in the app stores?

In this article I will guide you through what happens between your sign up for one of Blynk’s commercial plans and having your app live in App Store and Google Play.App exporting and publishing is a multi-step process done mainly by a Blynk support engineer assigned to you after you sign up, but some actions are needed from you.

Let’s briefly explore the publishing, testing, requirements, and timeline.

Make sure you check all articles about app exporting before starting the exporting process. Pay additional attention to these items:

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On average, the whole process takes 5-10 business days and it's very dependent on how ready your project and hardware are. It also depends on the speed of communication between your company and Blynk.

Launch

‍Duration: 1-2 business days
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1. Your dedicated business server will be launched.
2. We would need a QR-code of your project
3. Blynk engineer will help with transferring this project to your business server.
4. Blynk engineer will review your firmware code (if you'd like) to check that Blynk routines are implemented correctly.

App testing

‍Duration depends on how ready your product is
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5. You will get the test version of the Android app. This will be .apk file that you can install on any Android device.
6. You would need to test that app is working correctly with your device
If you prefer to start with the testing of the iOS version of the app - let your account manager know that.
For testing your iOS app you would need:
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Apple ID - an email address you use to login to Apple services
TestFlight app - which is an app made by Apple to test apps before publishing
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Once you confirm that everything works correctly

App publishing

2-5 business days

Unfortunately, Apple and Google no longer allow publishing apps for other companies under the Blynk developer account. To publish your apps to app stores you would need developer licenses for Apple and Google.

Developer memberships are paid. Check the links below to learn more:
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Android Developer Program: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6112435?hl=en
Apple Developer Program: https://developer.apple.com/support/app-account/
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Once you have the developer accounts set up, Blynk engineer will guide you through the rest of the procedures needed.

7. Usually, we start with publishing your Android app because it's easier. For that you would simply give Blynk engineer permissions to publish Android version of the app under your developer account.

8. To publish iOS version, we would need to go through these steps:
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Add Blynk iOS engineer to your developer account (we will explain how)
Prepare a demo-video for Apple review. Apple requires a short video that shows a real iOS device and your product. Include how a user would add a new device (Dynamic Provisioning) or and a few interactions with it.
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Make sure a real iOS device is in the video with your product. It is not allowed to use video montage or screen recording. You can send a video or a link to it.

Apple will take 2-10 days for a review.Once approved app will be published to app store automatically.