How do I get my app approved and found on the App Store and Google Play?

What Apple and Google say, in their own words

What that means if you have just launched

• Submit only what is finished. Placeholder text, broken links and a build that crashes all fall under guideline 2.1, which Apple's App Review page ties to over 40% of unresolved issues. Google Play's functionality policy does not allow apps that crash, force close or freeze.
• Give the reviewer a way in. For features behind a sign in, Apple's App Review page asks for a demo account's username and password, and Google's testing page for working login credentials in Play Console.
• Link a privacy policy. Apple's guidelines require every app to link one in App Store Connect and inside the app.
• Describe what it does and nothing else. Apple's guide to the product page calls improper use of keywords a common reason for App Store rejections: no unauthorised trademarked terms, no competing app names. Google's metadata policy also bars emojis in the title and anonymous testimonials in the description.
• On Google Play, plan for the test. Get started with Play Console offers two account types, Personal and Organization, and the testing rule is written for personal ones. Count the 14 days, then Google's review, before any launch date.
• A rejection is not a ban. Cheating is. Google's enforcement page says a rejection does not affect the standing of your developer account, though repeated rejections can lead to suspension. Apple's App Review page says you are shown the guidelines a submission did not follow and can reply or appeal. But its guidelines say that tricking the review process or manipulating ratings gets your work removed from the store and you expelled from the Apple Developer Program.

How many submissions each store turns away is on App store numbers.

The limits, fees and review times, store by store

Google gives a second review time on its testing page: the review of an application for production access usually takes seven days or less. Its rates for those five regions date from 30 June 2026 in the European Economic Area, the UK and the US, and from 30 September 2026 in Australia and Japan. Apple's membership page says different rates and fees may apply for certain apps distributed in Brazil, the European Union, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia and South Korea.

Getting found once you are listed

• App Store. Creating your product page says keywords help determine where a product shows in search results, and that ratings and reviews influence how it ranks. Promotional text does not. With no app preview, the first one to three screenshots appear in search results.
• Google Play. Get discovered on Google Play search says the text of the store listing helps users discover a product, and that apps are ranked on a combination of ratings, reviews, downloads and other factors.
• What backfires. Google's listing page says repetitive or irrelevant keywords can get an app suspended. Apple's guidelines say paid or fake feedback may get you expelled from the Apple Developer Program.

So use the words your buyers type, as on the web. SEO covers search outside the stores.

How Sami uses it

Sami checks the live web before it advises on a store listing. Before you sign up, Sami in the chat can search the web, open a few pages of your site and read a screenshot or a table you send, for that one answer. Once you sign up, your honest read and your ranked plan are free.

Sami ranks the stores against the other channels for your product and says why they are in or out, free methods before paid ones.

AskSami never posts anywhere for you, never spends your money and never writes to your code. You do those things yourself. Submitting a build, answering App Review and publishing the listing stay with you. The installs and ratings you bring back become dated records.