iPhone App - Approval & Versioning

Question

I was hoping someone can answer a simple question for me...

If you create an iphone app and get it approved for sale, what happens if you add updates to it? Do you have to submit this for approval too?

How does the whole process of updating existing apps work?

Assistance would be very much appreciated, thanks

Answer 1

Yes, every update requires a new round of approval. Once your first app is live, the management page for your app offers an "Add Version" button, which takes you through a similar process to the original app, but with options to document changes.

Answer 2

You do indeed need to have updates approved. So once your initial application is created in iTunes Connect, uploaded and approved by apple and available through the store, you can easily submit new versions.

• You log into iTunes Connect and click Manage my Applications.
• Select the application and click the Add Version button.
• Fill out details of the update (such as the new version number, what's changed, any new screenshots, etc).
• Upload your new binary via the application loader.
• Wait for review.

The process of update is almost exactly like the process of creating and pushing out the first release. It's really quite simple, tbh.

Answer 3

The update process is nearly identical to the original submission, except that you don't have to reenter all the metadata (but you can modify almost all of it, except for the app ID, during update submission).

Update review times have historically varied by large amounts, either slower or faster than the original app's approval time, on the order of 1 day to 1 month. Don't count on it being any less.