✅ Prerequisites

Building and uploading iOS apps locally requires macOS + Xcode.

• Install Xcode from the Mac App Store or developer.apple.com/download — it's a ~12 GB download, so start it now.
• Apple requires uploads built with a recent Xcode/SDK (new App Store submissions must use an SDK version Apple currently accepts — staying on the latest stable Xcode keeps you safe).
• After installing, launch Xcode once to accept the license and install additional components, then verify the command-line tools:

No Mac? If you're on Expo, EAS Build compiles and submits in the cloud — you can ship without ever owning a Mac. Flutter/RN-bare users can use CI services with macOS runners (Codemagic, GitHub Actions macos runners), though debugging without a Mac is painful.

xcode-select --install
xcodebuild -version

Developer Program enrollment requires an Apple ID with two-factor authentication (2FA).

1. Go to account.apple.com → Sign-In and Security and confirm Two-Factor Authentication is on (on-device: Settings → [your name] → Sign-In & Security).
2. Make sure the first and last name on the Apple ID exactly match your government ID — mismatches are the top cause of enrollment getting stuck 'pending'.
3. Consider a dedicated Apple ID for development (e.g. dev@yourdomain.com) if you want to separate personal and business — but remember the legal name must still be your real name for an Individual account.

App Review tests your app like a hostile first-time user. Before going further, audit:

• No placeholder content: no lorem ipsum, no 'coming soon' screens, no dead buttons. Hide unfinished features entirely (Guideline 2.1).
• No crashes: test a clean install (delete + reinstall — review always sees first-run), and test on a real device, not just the simulator.
• Offline-graceful: airplane-mode the device and tap through the app. Show friendly empty/error states instead of spinners-forever or crashes. Reviewers test on flaky networks (and over IPv6 — make sure your backend supports NAT64/IPv6 networks).
• iPad: unless you restrict the device family, reviewers run iPhone apps on iPad too. Launch it once in an iPad simulator.
• Test on the latest iOS version — that's what review uses.

Membership costs $99/year (USD; local-currency equivalents vary), charged at enrollment and auto-renewing annually.

• The fee is the same for Individual and Organization accounts.
• It is not refundable in most regions once apps are published, and if you let it lapse your apps are eventually removed from the App Store until you renew.
• Fee waivers exist for eligible nonprofits, accredited educational institutions, and government entities (US and some other countries).
• You do not need to pay to start coding — the free Apple Developer account lets you run on your own device. The fee is required for TestFlight and App Store distribution.

You need a 1024×1024 px marketing icon — the master from which all sizes derive.

Rules:

• No alpha channel / transparency — the icon must be fully opaque (export PNG without alpha, or flatten onto a solid background).
• No pre-rounded corners — Apple applies the squircle mask itself; baked-in rounding shows dark corner artifacts.
• No transparency-dependent design, and keep important detail away from the corners the mask will clip.
• sRGB or P3 color, PNG or JPEG.

Modern Xcode (and Expo/Flutter tooling) can generate all smaller sizes from this single 1024 image, so invest the time here once.