Checklist before the app goes live

Before your app can go live on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, it must be submitted for review. This is the final step in the publishing process and involves providing the necessary information for your app’s product pages on both platforms.

Use the screenshots below as a reference to understand how your app will appear in the stores, including the required text and visual elements.

Google Play	Apple Store

Please complete the checklist below to ensure all required assets and details are ready for submission.

1. Required. Set up your own Apple and Google developer account. Assign STQRY as an admin with "Access to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles" so we can create and manage the certificates, keys, identifiers, devices, and provisioning profiles your app needs. See Creating developer accounts and inviting STQRY to those accounts.

2. Required if applicable. If you're going to sell your tour or app in the app store, set up your Google payments and iTunes/Apple payment accounts. See Selling your apps and/or tours.

3. Required if applicable. If you sell your tour or app, apply for the small business program with Apple and Google. This program lowers the commission you pay the app stores to 15%.

4. Required. Fill out the app information. Go to Projects, select your app, then Submit to fill out the market details. Notes on each field:

   Primary details

   • Organisation name: the name that appears under your app's name on your app store product page. It typically matches the name on your Google and Apple developer accounts.
   • Primary language of the App Store listing: after you add an app to your account, you can add languages and localized metadata on the App information page. Learn more here.
   • Apple Store category: see the Apple App Store categories.
   • Android Store category: see the Google Play categories.
   • Subdomain: the subdomain you want the mobile web site to appear on, for example myapp.stqry.app.

   Contact details

   • Contact website: required by the app stores for contact purposes.
   • Copyright: your copyright description.
   • Contact: your name, email and phone number for the app submission.

   Translatable details

   • Title: Apple and Google have a 30-character limit for app names.
   • Subtitle: up to 30 characters, and appears below your app's name throughout the App Store.
   • Description: the marketing text that describes your app in the app stores. Guidelines:

     • Make sure it accurately reflects your app's functionality and content; misleading descriptions can get an app rejected or suspended. Learn more here.

     • Highlight what's great about your app, and don't repeat your short description in the full description.

     • Don't reference store performance or ranking (for example "App of the year", "#1", award icons) or pricing and promotions (for example "10% off", "free for a limited time only").

     • Avoid irrelevant keywords, such as mentioning Google Play in an Apple app description, and leave specific prices out.

     • Keep it to 700 characters or fewer. See the official guides from Google and Apple.

       Example, from Parks Canada: "Welcome to the official Parks Canada app, your guide to planning and enhancing your next visit to the iconic destinations administered by Parks Canada. 450 000 km2 of stories at your fingertips! Get on-the-go access to the essentials, easy to use navigation, and exclusive access to self-guided tours on your mobile device. Connect with history and discover nature at national parks, national historic sites, national urban parks, national marine conservation areas, and historic canals and waterways across Canada. Mobile guided tours: explore at your own pace with interactive self-guided experiences. GPS triggered stops feature photos, videos, quizzes, and games. Explore on foot, by car, on a bicycle, or hike a trail. Go behind the scenes and learn about the untold stories of your favourite locations. Discover new places in your own backyard: use the "near me" feature to get a list of locations listed from closest to furthest from your current position. Locations from across Canada: get directions to your Parks Canada destination and plan your visit with site information, hours of operation, facilities and services, activities and experiences, quick facts, and special content like podcast episodes and behind the scenes videos. Accessibility: enjoy in-app accessibility support for screen readers, content in French and English, and more languages available for select tours. Driving directions: get to the right location with GPS coordinates that link to your favourite navigation app on your mobile device. Quick links: looking to book a campsite, or buy a Discovery Pass? Direct links to the Parks Canada website are found throughout the app to make it easy to find the information you may be seeking. Available offline: download the app in advance and use it when you're offline. Download guided tours and use them from anywhere, including locations with no cell service. Learn-to Camp: check out the wide array of workshops and activities to enjoy on site or from the comfort of home and learn practical tips on how to start a campfire, fill a cooler, and more! Nature and science: explore our conservation stories to learn more about how we are protecting species, habitats, and ecosystems in collaboration with Indigenous partners. The Parks Canada app is updated regularly with seasonal content and new mobile guided tours. By using GPS features, you can see your location on maps, get customized lists, and use GPS triggered self-guided tours. Continued use of GPS in the background can significantly decrease battery life."

     • Short description: an 80-character field shown to users in the listing, which expands to the full description on Google Play.

     • Keywords: search terms for the App Store, relevant to your app and likely to be searched, up to 100 characters. Google Play has no separate field and uses the app information instead.

     • Promotional text: up to 170 characters, shown at the top of the description on the Apple Store. You can update it any time without submitting a new app version, so it's a good place for limited-time sales or upcoming features.

     • Privacy policy link: use the STQRY privacy link, or provide your own if it complies with all Google and Apple requirements. See Adding a privacy policy link for your app submission. Your own privacy policy must:

       • Reference location data and your app's use and handling of location data.
       • Clearly label the page as a privacy policy, for example "privacy policy" in the title or "privacy" in the URL and body.
       • Be readable in a standard browser without plug-ins or special handlers (no PDFs, no uncommon MIME types).
       • Be available on an active, visible, non-editable URL.
       • Refer to your app by name.
       • Be linked on your app's store listing page and/or within your app.
       • Link to a single governing privacy policy rather than several.

5. Required. Declare your app information. Both Google and Apple require us to declare app functionality and categorize app content when submitting your app. Help us understand your app by completing this form.

6. Required. Email your Customer Success Manager an app icon, Google Play feature graphic and loading image. The loading image shows for 1-2 seconds after you open the app, before it's ready to use. Dimensions:

   • App icon: 1024px by 1024px.
   • Loading image: 1024px by 1024px. We'll center and scale it, so an image with a transparent background works best; we match the background to the bar title color. See an example at https://stqry.app/projects/3449.
   • Google Play feature graphic: 1024px by 500px. This is the cover image for your preview video, if you provide one, and appears prominently on Google Play. Use graphics that convey the app experience and its core value.
   • General promo graphic: 768px by 432px. This becomes your app icon on the STQRY app directory.

7. Optional. To track your tour downloads with Google Analytics, follow the instructions in Google Analytics: setting up Google Analytics.

8. Optional. STQRY will prepare your app screenshots for submission at no additional cost. If you'd rather provide your own, follow the guidelines in Guide to creating effective app screenshots and preview videos, or request custom screenshots from us with the Custom Screenshot Request Form and reach out to your Customer Success Manager with any questions.

9. Optional. If you publish the app on both web and mobile, we can add a deep link from the web version to the relevant Google Play and Apple App Store download buttons, driving extra traffic to your mobile app. Contact your Customer Success Manager to have this set up.

   

You can update the app content at any time. There are a few things that will require a new version of the app to be built by us if you need to change these. These include:

• App icon
• App loading image
• App description
• Name of app
• Keywords
• Price of app (if any)

Let us know if you need to update any of the items above and we will create a new version of the app for you.

The first app submission will take up to two weeks so please keep us posted if you have a launch date in mind.