Create an App Store Connect record first, because no build will upload until it exists.
Open Apps in App Store Connect, click the add button, choose New App, select one or more platforms, enter the app information, set User Access, then click Create. Apple says to do this before you upload a build, which is why a first upload fails when the record is missing. Those steps are from Apple's App Store Connect Help page for adding a new app, read 3 October 2026. The record holds every later stage of publishing to the App Store, and two values on it never change again.
Know which two before you click Create. The SKU is sealed the moment the record exists, and removing the app does not release it inside the same organization. The bundle ID is sealed by your first build upload, not by the record, a narrower window than most pages describe. Google Play does not ask for the identifier at creation at all.
Check what is already lockedThe short version
The record comes first, and two of its fields are one-way doors.
The order is not negotiable. Apple says to create an app record in App Store Connect before uploading a build. The Account Holder also has to have signed the latest agreement in the Business section, or the account cannot add an app at all. The role required is Account Holder, App Manager, or Admin.
Then the doors. Apple's App information property reference says the SKU cannot change after you add the app to your account, and the bundle ID cannot change after you upload a build. Its page on removing an app adds the part people find out late: deleting the app never hands back the SKU inside the same organization, and hands back the bundle ID only if no build ever went up. All three pages read 3 October 2026.
Create the record in App Store Connect
Go to Apps and click the add button, the plus at the top left. Apple notes the Apps page is blank until you create your first record, so there is nothing else to click. Select New App from the pop-up menu, then select one or more platforms and enter the app information. Companies also get the option to set a developer name.
Next is User Access: Limited Access or Full Access. Limited Access means you then pick who can see this app. It is not a full lock: the Account Holder, Admin, Finance, and Access to Reports roles cannot have their app access limited, so they see every app. Click Create, then read whatever comes back about missing information. The record appears in Apps with the status Prepare for Submission.
Two prerequisites sit in front of all of it. The Account Holder must have signed the latest agreement in the Business section, and you need a paid membership first, which means apple developer program enrollment. Two details from the same page save a rebuild: watch-only apps count as part of the iOS platform here, and one purchase across several platforms means a single record, with the platform-specific information added separately, because every platform on one record shares the bundle ID.
Which fields lock, and the exact moment each one does
The bundle ID is the field people search for twice, and the usual answer is wrong by one step. Apple's App information property reference, read 3 October 2026, says the bundle ID cannot change after you upload a build. Creating the record does not seal it. That window is real, and it closes when you upload a build to app store connect. The same reference says the Bundle ID must match the bundle ID set in your Xcode project.
The SKU closes earlier. It is an internal tracking ID customers never see. It takes letters, numbers, hyphens, periods and underscores, cannot start with a hyphen, period or underscore, and Apple says it cannot change after you add the app to your account. The app's Apple ID is generated at the same moment, cannot be edited, and is the number in the desktop App Store URL. Apple's removal page shuts the back door: the SKU cannot be reused in the same organization, and nor can the bundle ID if a build went up.
Names behave differently. Apple puts the app name at two characters minimum and 30 maximum, editable until you submit to App Review, then changeable when you create a new version or when the version status permits it. The subtitle caps at 30 characters. The primary language can change at any time. A privacy policy URL is required for iOS and macOS apps.
To register a bundle ID you leave App Store Connect. In Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, click Identifiers, then the add button, select App IDs and continue, confirm the App ID type, and enter a description. An explicit App ID takes the app's bundle ID and covers one app; a wildcard App ID takes a bundle ID suffix and covers a set. Tick the capabilities, then register. Two notes from Apple's account help: In-App Purchase is on by default for an explicit App ID, and since Xcode 11.4 one App ID can build iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS apps. The role here is Account Holder or Admin, narrower than the role that adds the record.
Check first
What is already locked
Tick whatever is already true. Each one closes a door, and the list underneath is what you can no longer change.
0 of 6 doors closed
Nothing is locked yet, which is the useful moment. Get the bundle ID and the SKU right now, because deleting the record later does not hand either of them back.
Google Play asks for different things, in a different order
Play Console does not mirror this. You select Home, then Create app. The form asks for a default language, the app name as it should appear on Google Play, whether the application is an app or a game, whether it is free or paid, and a contact email for Play Store users. Then Declarations: the Developer Program Policies and US export laws declarations, plus the Play App Signing Terms of Service. Then Create app. Google says the language, the name and the app or game choice can all change later.
The identifier is not in that form. On Play the package name arrives with your first app bundle, and Play Console Help says package names for app files are unique and permanent and cannot be deleted or reused in future. Google's build documentation, read 3 October 2026, calls this the application ID, set by the applicationId property in the module build file. Package name is the older term, still sitting in API names such as Context.getPackageName, which actually returns the application ID. Its rules are stricter than a Java package name: at least two segments, each starting with a letter, and only alphanumerics and underscores.
Play has its own one-way door, and it is the price. Play Console Help's pricing article, read 3 October 2026, says an app can go from paid to free, but once offered free it cannot be made paid, and charging for it means a new app with a new package name. So that answer is reversible in one direction only. Apple does not ask for a price at creation at all. One more gate catches new accounts: developers with personal accounts created after 13 November 2023 must meet specific testing requirements before they can make an app available on Google Play.
Where this goes wrong, and who is allowed to fix it
The commonest block is the app name. Apple allows one app name per localization. If an app in your account already holds the name, two options are documented: update that app to change its name, or remove it from App Store Connect to free the name. Removal costs more than it looks. Apple says you lose ownership of the name, that a removed app can only be restored if no other account is using that name, and that it must first be removed from the App Store for all countries and regions, even if it was never released.
The second block is permissions, which the stores model differently. Apple uses fixed roles: Account Holder, App Manager, or Admin can add a new app, while registering an App ID or removing one needs Account Holder or Admin. Google uses granular permissions instead. A new draft app needs the account-level Create, edit, and delete draft apps permission, and Play Console Help, read 3 October 2026, adds that the user also needs the read-only permission to view app information. Neither Play permission lets anyone publish.
Then what nobody publishes. Apple's App Store Connect Help states no limit on how many app records an account can hold, and no expiry for one left in Prepare for Submission, so this page gives no number for either. Apple also does not enumerate the fields of the New App dialog on the page that documents it; it says to select one or more platforms and enter the app information, so that is all this page claims about that screen. After the record exists and the build lands, the work left is getting it to testers, which has its own gates.
What each store asks for when you create the record
| What you set | App Store Connect | Google Play Console | Changeable afterwards |
|---|---|---|---|
| App name | 2 to 30 characters, required | 30 characters, required | Yes, on Apple only when the version status permits |
| The app identifier | Bundle ID, part of the app record | Not in the form, arrives with the first app bundle | No on either store |
| Internal tracking code | SKU, required, never shown to customers | Not requested | No, Apple seals the SKU on Create |
| Free or paid | Not asked at creation, set in pricing later | Chosen in the Create app form | Play allows paid to free, never free to paid |
| Who may create it | Account Holder, App Manager or Admin | The create, edit and delete draft apps permission | Yes, both are account settings |
Where an AI app builder fits around the record
A builder can hand you the binary. It cannot hand you the record. Apple's instruction is to create the app record before a build is uploaded, so whatever produces the build, the record, the bundle ID and the SKU are yours and live in your own App Store Connect account.
Newly is an AI app builder. You describe an app in plain English and it writes a real React Native and TypeScript project you own, runs it on cloud iOS and Android simulators while it builds, then uploads to App Store Connect and TestFlight, publishes to Google Play internal testing, and builds a standalone production APK. It is $25 a month with no free plan, and the upload step is owner or admin only.
What it deliberately does not do is press Submit for Review. Apple's guideline 4.2.6 is why: an app made with a template or an app generation service has to be submitted by the person whose app it is. So the build goes into the record you created, and the submission stays with you.
Questions about creating the app record
Yes. Apple's App Store Connect Help, read 3 October 2026, says to create an app record in your App Store Connect account before uploading a build of your app. Two things gate it. The Account Holder must have signed the latest agreement in the Business section, or no app can be added to the account at all. And adding one requires the Account Holder, App Manager, or Admin role.
Get the two permanent fields right before you build
Write down the bundle ID and the SKU you can keep for the life of the app, register the explicit App ID, create the record, and only then upload. Then describe the app and have a real project ready for that upload.
Start building