---
title: App Launch Checklist
url: https://tools.usappteam.com/tools/app-launch-checklist/
date: 2026-09-02
---

# App Launch Checklist

A free, filterable checklist covering everything that trips up a first app launch - store listing,
legal, accounts, testing, marketing and post-launch. Filter it to iOS, Android or both, check items
off as you go, and see exactly what's still required before you submit. It runs entirely in the
browser, needs no signup, and stores nothing.

## How to use it

1. Pick **iOS**, **Android** or **Both** at the top so the list only shows what applies to your
   launch.
2. Work through each section in order - store listing and legal first, since store review checks
   those before anything else.
3. Check items off as you finish them; the progress bar and the per-section counts update as you
   go.
4. Watch the **"Still required"** box - it lists anything unchecked that stores actually reject
   apps for, separate from items that are merely worth doing.
5. Use **Reset** to clear every box, for example when you're prepping a second app.

## Why "Required" and "Recommended" are separate

Most launch checklists treat every line the same, which buries the handful of things that will
actually block your submission under a long list of nice-to-haves. This one splits the two:

- **Required** items are things App Store review or Google Play review reject an app for missing
  outright, or that block submission before review even starts - a privacy policy link, a
  completed data safety form, a signed developer agreement, an icon in the wrong size.
- **Recommended** items are strongly worth doing but won't sink a submission on their own - beta
  testing on TestFlight, having a landing page ready, integrating crash reporting.

The "Still required" panel only ever lists the first category, so an experienced team that's
already handled the basics can use it as a final pre-submission scan instead of reading every line.

## What the platform filter actually changes

Most of this checklist applies to any app on any store - a privacy policy is a privacy policy.
A handful of items are genuinely platform-specific:

- **iOS only:** Apple's App Privacy "nutrition label" details, and the Apple Developer Program
  agreements plus tax and banking setup (the Paid Apps agreement in particular blocks paid app and
  in-app purchase approval until it's signed).
- **Android only:** Google Play's Data safety form, and the Google Play Console registration fee.

Selecting iOS or Android hides only those platform-specific lines from the other platform;
everything else stays visible either way, since it applies regardless of where you're launching.

## What this checklist deliberately leaves out

It covers what blocks or trips up a launch, not the ongoing work of running an app afterward.
App Store Optimization keyword research gets one line as a launch-week task, not a deep dive -
that's real, separate work once the app is live and you have actual search data to react to.
Same for long-term things like planning a roadmap or running paid user-acquisition campaigns:
worth doing, but outside the scope of "can this app go live."

## Nothing persists, on purpose

Checking a box here does not save anything anywhere - refresh the page and every item is
unchecked again. That's a direct consequence of running entirely client-side with nothing
uploaded and nothing stored: there's simply nowhere for the state to live. Keep the tab open
while you work through it, or treat a second pass with everything reset as a genuine final
read-through before you actually hit submit.

## Questions

**Is this specific to Apple's App Store, Google Play, or both?** Both, by default. Filtering to
iOS or Android hides only the items that genuinely differ between the two platforms; shared
requirements like a privacy policy stay visible under any filter.

**Does checking items off save my progress?** No, on purpose - nothing here is uploaded or stored,
which also means nothing persists across a refresh.

**I've launched apps before - is this overkill?** Skip straight to the "Still required" box once
you've handled what you already know you need. It only lists what's missing, so it works as a
final scan rather than a step-by-step walkthrough.

**Why no App Store Optimization deep-dive?** This checklist is about what blocks a launch, not
the ongoing work of ranking well afterward - ASO gets a single launch-week line item, and the
deeper work is its own project once the app is live.

**Is anything sent to a server?** No. The whole thing is JavaScript running in your browser.
Nothing is uploaded, nothing is saved, and closing the tab erases every checked box.

## About US APP Team

US APP Team builds custom iOS and Android apps for a fixed price, from one codebase to both
stores. Once your checklist is clear, our store launch service ($749) can take a finished app
through submission end to end - start a brief at https://usappteam.com/app-brief