Setting up App Store Connect / Google Play for a new app

This is the tenth part of my journey to build and publish a Flutter based app for the App Store and Google Play.

Read and pause and read again. The decisions you make here will affect your app for its entire lifecycle.

TL:DR – Sensible naming is important for your project consistency on multiple platforms and tools, especially if you have more than one app or client!

Setting up our apps for publication using App Store Connect and Google Play.

In order to get much further with Firebase and Cloud Firestore our app needs to be set up correctly in the App Store and Google Play, so lets do that before we continue.

Heres the list of activities.

• Create an App ID for your iOS app at developer.apple.com
• Create the app listing for iOS that uses this App ID in App Store connect
• Create the app listing for Android that uses the same terminology in Google Play console

Create an App ID for your iOS app

Assuming that you have successfully enrolled in the Apple Developer Program you can access App Store Connect and can set up an iOS App. First of all you will need a App ID to enable you to create your app, to access available services and identify your app in a provisioning profile. You can enable these services later.

Go to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles at developer.apple.com to set this up.

1. Under 'Register a new identifier' Select 'App ID', then Continue

1. Make sure your App ID Prefix is set to your developer team
2. Type a description, for example your App Name
3. Add an explicit bundle ID which is just a reverse-domain name style string (i.e., com.domainname.appname)
4. The App IDs represents your application, using the developer team prefix and the bundle ID search string usually in reverse domain name notation. Be careful to choose something sensible related to the project and its owner.

You'll use this App ID when you create the App itself.

Setting up the new App in App Store Connect

1. Select iOS for the platform,
2. Type the name for your app. this is the name that will eventually appear in the App Store so choose wisely!
3. Choose a Primary Language
4. Select the Bundle ID you created before in Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles. The bundle ID will be used in the project and it cannot be changed after you upload your first build to App Store Connect.
5. Create a stock keeping unit (SKU) Unless you care about these for your own internal use it doesnt matter what this is as long as it is unique.

Listing created

Now you have the starting point for your App Store listing and a destination to which you can upload builds, along with an identifier for use in the code for the app.

Thats all that is needed for the moment.

Create and app listing in Google Play Console

Assuming that you have successfully enrolled in the Google Play developer program you can access Google Play console and can set up an Android App.

1. Choose 'Create Application'
2. Check the Default Language is correct
3. Give your application a name (likely the same name you used for iOS)

Thats it, you have enough information now to connect your app to Firebase.