5 Things I Always Do Before Launching a New App | Code with Beto

Day 1 of my app launch: Apple approved it. They even boosted it.

Then I got the email nobody wants to get.

A bug in production was blocking every paying customer from unlocking the app.

I shipped a fix immediately, but Apple review took 2 days. By the time the update went live, the boost was gone.

Zero downloads.

That mistake cost me thousands.

Here are the 5 things I now do before launching any app so it never happens again.

Research a unique, searchable name

When I first launched my AI tattoo app, I was so excited about getting it into the App Store that when Apple asked me for the app name, I came up with it on the spot.

AI Tattoo Generator.

I thought, "I'm a genius. Everyone is searching for that. I'll definitely get downloads for free."

Wrong.

After the app was approved, it was almost impossible to find. I had to scroll past 100 competitor apps with basically the same name.

The name made the app invisible.

Your app name can be the difference between success and failure. When you tell people to search for your app, they should be able to find it as the first result.

So I renamed it to Inkigo.

Coming up with the name took about a day. My rules now are simple:

Make it short, ideally 3 to 10 letters.
Make it easy to remember, pronounce, and type.
Google it first to make sure nobody else is using it.
Check if the domain is available.
Keep the searchable keywords in the subtitle.

The final name became:

Inkigo - AI Tattoo Try-On

That gives me the best of both worlds.

People searching for an AI tattoo generator can still find the app, but more importantly, when I tell someone to download it, they can search for "Inkigo" and it shows up first.

Set up OTA Updates

OTA stands for Over-the-Air updates.

Because I build my apps with React Native, I can ship certain bug fixes directly to users without waiting for App Store review.

My app checks for new updates, downloads them in the background, and applies them the next time the user opens the app.

That is a huge advantage.

After the launch incident I mentioned at the beginning, I don't ship any app unless it supports OTA updates.

Waiting 2 days for review while your app is broken in production is painful. Waiting 2 days while Apple is actively boosting your launch is even worse.

It's also worth mentioning that you can request an expedited review from Apple. I honestly didn't know that at the time. I've requested expedited reviews a couple of times since then, and in my experience, they were usually approved in around 5 minutes.

But I still don't want my entire launch depending on that.

Track analytics & onboarding

Analytics are crucial when you're building an app.

They show you how people are actually using your product.

You can't just launch an app and wait for someone to email you saying, "Hey, you should add this feature."

Most people won't do that.

You need to track what users do inside the app, both with standard analytics and custom events.

At minimum, I want to know:

How many people start onboarding.
How many people finish onboarding.
Where users drop off.
How many people sign up.
How many people hit the paywall.
How many people purchase.
Whether paying users can actually access what they paid for.

That last one sounds obvious, but it is exactly the thing that broke for me.

Analytics give you conversion data and a concrete way to improve the app instead of guessing.

I personally use Vexo for analytics. It works well for me, but there are plenty of other options like PostHog and Firebase Analytics.

The tool matters less than the habit.

Track the critical flow from the first session to the first successful paid action.

Build a landing page

A landing page is crucial because the App Store is usually not enough to explain, sell, and build trust around your app.

The App Store page is limited. A landing page gives you more room to show people why your app exists and why they should care.

It gives visitors one clear action:

Download the app.

But more importantly, it builds trust.

People are more likely to download and pay when they can see:

Screenshots
Demo videos
Testimonials
Pricing
FAQs
Privacy information
Who made the app
A clear explanation of what problem the app solves

It is also useful for marketing.

Instead of telling people, "Search for my app in the App Store," you can send them to one clean URL.

A landing page is also useful before the app is ready. You can collect emails, validate demand, and start building an audience before spending months building the product.

Honestly, I always recommend you start validating your app idea before you even finish building it. Build a simple landing page with a hero, a clear pitch, and an email waitlist form. It builds momentum, it builds urgency, and once the app is ready you just email everyone on the list and tell them where to download it.

Create a strong logo and brand

First impressions matter. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

People are used to using polished apps from companies with huge budgets. Your app doesn't need to look like it came from Apple, but it does need to feel real.

That is why I always launch with a clean logo and consistent branding.

A good icon makes the app feel more trustworthy before the user even opens it.

Here are the rules I use when designing logos and branding for my apps:

Pick a small set of colors and use them across the icon, landing page, and app.
Keep the icon minimal and clean. It will be displayed very small, so don't add too much detail.
It's okay if your icon feels similar to other high-quality apps. You want people to associate your app with quality.
If you don't have a designer or you're new to branding, study successful apps in your niche. Use them as inspiration, not as an exact copy.
Keep everything consistent and simple.

Before going live, I always walk through the entire user journey with a fresh-user mindset:

Search for the app on Google → click the landing page → evaluate the offer → click download → watch the App Store video → look at the screenshots → download → complete onboarding → pay → confirm the paid feature works.

That flow reveals a lot.

If something feels confusing, low-quality, or broken, users will feel it too.

Bonus: Add a contact/support button

This one didn't make the main list because it seems obvious, but it has saved me multiple times.

No matter how much you test, once your app is in production, you don't really know what is going to happen.

I still remember my first paying user for Inkigo.

I got the push notification that someone had paid $20 to use my app. It was a great moment.

About 5 minutes later, I got an email from the same customer saying they couldn't generate tattoos even though they had already paid.

That is a tough spot to be in.

You get the ticket with almost no context. You don't know what is wrong yet. But you know you need to fix it as fast as possible.

In that case, the quick fix was updating the database so the user could access the feature they paid for.

The long-term fix was shipping a proper update.

But the only reason I could save the situation was because the user had a way to contact me.

Without that support button, I probably would have lost the customer, issued a refund, and gotten a bad review.

A contact button won't fix your bugs, but it gives users a way to tell you when something is wrong before they leave a one-star review.

Launching an app is not just about submitting it to the App Store and hoping for the best.

You need to make sure people can find it, trust it, use it, pay for it, and contact you when something goes wrong.

If you want a head start on a lot of this, payments, branding, and store assets are already wired up in Platano. It's a launch-ready React Native template I built so you can ship a real app in a weekend instead of spending months on the boring infrastructure. One command to start.

PlatanoShip a launch-ready React Native app this weekend

Payments, branding, store assets, and the boring infrastructure, already wired up. One command to start.

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