Publish your video channel's app on the App Store

1. Enrol at developer.apple.com/programs with the Apple Account your channel will keep for good.
2. Pick individual to appear on the App Store under your own name, or organization to appear under your company's legal name. An organization needs a D-U-N-S number.
3. Pay Apple's $99 yearly fee. Enrolment is usually approved within a few days, sometimes longer for an organization.

Why it has to be your account: Apple accepts apps made from a template only when the owner of the content submits them (guideline 4.2.6). Your channel, your account: that is exactly what Apple asks for.

1. Install Xcode from the Mac App Store. It's free.
2. Use the newest version. In 2026 Apple accepts only uploads made with Xcode 26 or later, so an older one fails at the upload.
3. Open Xcode and add your Apple Account under Xcode → Settings → Accounts.

No Mac at home? Any Mac that runs the current Xcode will do, including a Mac rented by the hour in the cloud. You only need it when you upload a new version.

1. In your control panel, open Build your apps for your channel, build the iPhone app, then download the Xcode project (.zip) and unzip it on the Mac.
2. Double-click StationApp.xcodeproj. Xcode opens it; there are no plug-ins or extra packages to install.
3. In the left sidebar, select the StationApp project, then the StationApp target, then the Signing & Capabilities tab.
4. Keep Automatically manage signing ticked and choose your team in the Team menu. If you entered your Apple Team ID under Store identifiers in the control panel, it's already chosen. Xcode then registers your app's bundle ID (the iOS bundle ID from Store identifiers) in your developer account.

1. Sign in at appstoreconnect.apple.com, open Apps, press + and choose New App.
2. Platform: iOS. Name: your channel's name, 30 characters at most. Primary language: the language of your store page.
3. Bundle ID: choose yours from the list. SKU: any short reference you like; viewers never see it.

Bundle ID not in the list? At developer.apple.com, open Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles → Identifiers and add it exactly as your control panel shows it.

1. At the top of the Xcode window, set the destination to Any iOS Device.
2. Choose Product → Archive. When it's done, the Organizer window opens on your archive.
3. Choose Distribute App, then App Store Connect, and accept the options Xcode suggests.
4. Apple processes the upload before it appears in App Store Connect, usually within the hour, and emails you when it's ready.

The project already tells Apple it uses no special encryption, so the build won't stop at an export compliance question.

1. App Information: an optional subtitle and a category. Entertainment suits most channels; News, Sports or Music may suit yours better. When Apple asks whether the app shows third-party content, answer for what your channel airs, and only stream what you have the rights to.
2. Pricing and Availability: Free, in the countries you choose.
3. App Privacy: paste the privacy policy address from your control panel, then answer that the app collects no data. Your store page will say Data Not Collected, which matches what's built into the app.
4. The version page: your description, keywords, support address (your website) and the build you uploaded. In the description, say what viewers can watch and what the app does: your live channel in fullscreen, picture in picture while they use other apps, AirPlay to a TV, and playback that starts by itself when you go live.
5. Screenshots: the app runs on iPhone and iPad, so Apple wants both. While your channel is live, run the app in Xcode's Simulator on the largest iPhone and the largest iPad, and save each screen with File → Save Screen. Take the player upright, the player fullscreen and the channel page.
6. Age rating: answer Apple's questions for what your channel shows.

The app icon comes from the build itself, so there's no icon to upload here.

The app plays your live channel. When you're off air it shows "We'll be live soon" and starts playing by itself as soon as you go live. A reviewer who opens it during a quiet hour sees only that screen, and may reject the app as incomplete.

1. Best: keep your channel on air around the clock while the app is in review. Looping a recorded show from your encoder is enough.
2. Otherwise, give your exact broadcast hours with the time zone in the reviewer notes (step 8), and stay on air at those times until Apple answers.
3. You can also attach a short screen recording of the app playing your channel to the review information. It shows the reviewer what the app does even if they open it while you're off air.

Apple turns away apps that feel too thin to be worth installing (guideline 4.2, minimum functionality). A player for one channel can draw that question, so your notes should show the reviewer what the app is for and what it does.

1. Under App Review Information, give a contact name, phone number and email address.
2. Untick Sign-in required: the app has no accounts, so there is no demo login to give.
3. In Notes, say it's your channel's official app, submitted by you as the owner of the content, and list what it does on the phone: native fullscreen playback, picture in picture, AirPlay, sound in the background with the screen off, sharing the channel, and buttons to reach you by email, phone or WhatsApp.
4. Add when you're live (or that you're live around the clock during the review), and where the background sound switch is: Keep the sound playing in the background, on the channel page under the player.
5. Keep proof of your rights to hand. Apple may ask you to show you're allowed to stream what your channel airs.

Make the channel page full: the app shows your logo, description, website, socials and contact details from your channel profile. A complete profile makes a richer app, for reviewers and viewers alike.

1. On the version page, choose Add for Review, then Submit to App Review.
2. Apple reviews most apps within a few days and emails the result.
3. If Apple writes back about minimum functionality or about seeing no video, reply in App Store Connect. Explain that it's your channel's official app, list what it does, and give the times you're live. Most of these are settled by a reply, with no new build.
4. Once it's approved, release it yourself or let it go live by itself.

Later on: your stream, description, logo, links and contact details come from your channel profile, so changing them needs no new version. To change the app's name or icon, build the iPhone app again, upload it as in step 5 and submit a new version.