What the job involves, start to finish
Making a station app is less about programming than about paperwork and patience. Whoever writes the code, every radio app in the App Store and Google Play gets there the same way: someone opens a developer account with each store, uploads a build, fills in the store page and waits for a reviewer to say yes. Here is the whole route in the order it happens:
- Decide who will own the app: you as a person, or your station as a company. This choice decides the name listeners see as the seller.
- Open an Apple Developer Program membership and a Google Play developer account under that name. Start early, because both stores check who you are.
- Get the builds: an Android app bundle, and an iPhone project you build and upload with Xcode on a Mac.
- Write each store page: description, screenshots, category, privacy policy address, age or content rating.
- On Google Play, run the closed test first if your account is a new personal one.
- Send each app for review, answer any questions, and release.
- Ask Apple for CarPlay and switch on Android Auto in Google Play.
Steps 3 and part of 4 are where the Primcast radio station app saves you the most time. The rest stays with you, because the stores want the station itself to be the publisher.
Whose name goes on the store page?
Yours, if you publish from your own accounts, and that is also what the stores expect. Apple shows the account holder as the seller: your personal legal name if you enrol as an individual, or your organisation's name if you enrol as one. Google Play publicly shows details from your developer account too, and they differ by account type.
| Apple App Store | Google Play | |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Apple Developer Program membership, renewed each membership year | Play Console developer account, with a one-time registration fee |
| As a company | Needs a D-U-N-S Number (government bodies excepted) | Needs a D-U-N-S number |
| Shown to listeners | Your legal name, or your organisation's name, as the seller | Personal: legal name, country, developer email. Organisation: legal name, address, developer email and phone |
| Checks | Apple Account with two-factor authentication, legal names | Identity verification, which may ask for a government ID |
A D-U-N-S number comes from Dun & Bradstreet, and Google notes that requesting one there is free. If you go the company route, ask for it before anything else, since both stores wait for it.
Each store sets and charges its own fee directly, and Apple says its amount can vary by region. On our plans, those store fees are the only extra cost of the apps.
Why a template app has to come from your account
Apple will only accept an app built from a template or app generation service if the owner of the content submits it. Its guideline 4.2.6 says such services should not submit apps on behalf of their clients. That is why our apps are built for you but never published by us: you submit from your own Apple account, which is the case Apple allows.
Apple's intellectual property rules (guideline 5.2) also ask you to include only content you created or have a licence to use, and say apps should be submitted by whoever owns or has licensed the rights (5.2.1). For a music station, keep your music licences where you can find them in case a reviewer asks about them.
Getting the builds without writing code
On Premium or Platinum, the apps come from your station profile and the Apps page of your control panel. You add a square logo at least 1,024 pixels across and your contact details, pick the app's name and colours, and press build.
- Android comes back ready to upload to Google Play, from any computer.
- iPhone and iPad come as a ready Xcode project. You open it on a Mac, choose your team, archive it and upload it to App Store Connect.
- Xcode version: since 28 April 2026, Apple only takes uploads built with Xcode 26 or later, so update Xcode before you start.
- Store images for each store come as one download, with the icons and banners each store asks for.
Inside the app, listeners get your live streams with automatic reconnection, lock-screen and car controls, what is playing now and what played before, your weekly schedule, your podcast episodes, AirPlay and Chromecast, and buttons to call or message the studio. There are no ads in it and no sign-in, and it collects no personal data about the people listening.
The App Store side: review and CarPlay
Apple reviews every new app and every update. Its own App Review page says it typically reviews at least half of submissions in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48 hours, and that an incomplete submission can take longer or be turned down. You get the result by email and can reply to the reviewer in App Store Connect.
Two things help a radio app through. Your app needs no sign-in, so there is no demo account to supply. In the reviewer notes, say it is your station's official app and, if you are not live around the clock, when you are. Our App Store publishing guide walks through each screen, from the bundle ID to screenshot sizes.
CarPlay needs Apple's permission for each audio app. The account holder asks for the CarPlay audio entitlement through Apple's request form, and the answer can take one to three weeks. Keep CarPlay off until Apple agrees, then switch on the matching setting in your control panel, build again and send the new version for review.
The Google Play side: twelve testers and Android Auto
If you open a personal Google Play account, your first release cannot go straight to everyone. Google requires personal developer accounts created after 13 November 2023 to run a closed test with at least 12 testers who stay opted in for 14 days without a break. After that you apply for production access from the Play Console Dashboard, and Google says that review usually takes seven days or less. Organisation accounts are not covered by this rule.
- Gather your testers before you build: presenters, regular listeners, friends with Android phones.
- Collect the email address of the Google account each one uses on their phone.
- Ask them to stay opted in to the test for the full 14 days. Anyone who leaves the test and rejoins starts the 14 days again, so keep the count from dipping below twelve.
Android Auto is a setting rather than a request. In Play Console you open the Form factors tab of Advanced settings and add Android Auto; Google then checks the app against its quality rules for car apps, and says that review can take longer than a phone-only one. The Google Play publishing guide covers the store page, Data safety answers and app signing as well.
After launch: what changes without an update
Most of what listeners see updates by itself. The app reads your station's details when it opens and every ten minutes while it runs, so a new stream, this week's schedule, new podcast episodes or a new phone number reach everyone without a store release.
You only build and publish again when the store listing itself changes: a new home-screen icon, a new app name, or a newer version of the app. Each of those is a normal update that goes through review again.
If you are not live all day, Auto DJ automation plays your music to hour clocks and hands over when a DJ connects, so a listener who opens the app between shows still hears your station.
When this is not the right route
- Stations on the free plan: the apps come with Premium and Platinum, and with the older paid radio plans, not with the free plan.
- No Mac anywhere: the Android app needs no Mac, but the iPhone app is built with Xcode, which runs only on a Mac.
- Stations on an older Primcast radio platform: the apps open up once the station moves to the current platform, and our team can talk you through the move in chat.
- Fully unbranded: the player screen carries a small Powered by Primcast line; everything else carries your station's name.
- Song requests in the app need Platinum.
Questions people ask
- Can I make a radio station app without knowing how to code?
- Yes. On Premium and Platinum you fill in your station profile, choose the app's name and colours in the control panel and build. Android comes back ready to upload, and the iPhone app comes as an Xcode project you archive and upload on a Mac. The step-by-step guides show every store screen.
- Why can't Primcast just publish the app for me?
- Apple rejects apps made from a template or app generator unless the owner of the content submits them, so the app has to go out from your account. Publishing from your own accounts also means the store page, the reviews and the download figures belong to your station.
- How long until my app is live in both stores?
- It depends mostly on the stores. Apple says it typically reviews at least half of submissions within 24 hours and 90% within 48. A new personal Google Play account must first run a 14-day closed test with at least 12 testers, then apply for production access, which Google says usually takes seven days or less. CarPlay approval can take one to three weeks on top.
- Does the app work in the car?
- Yes. CarPlay and Android Auto are built in. Apple has to approve CarPlay for your app first, which you request through its form; Android Auto is switched on in Google Play's Advanced settings.