Build my app

Build it, step by step

Press Get my app, then Build my app. The build has six steps. Each one opens when the one before it is done.

1. Sign in. Builds belong to your account.
2. Save this app to your account. A build is made from the saved app.
3. Subscribe. This step shows the price before you set anything up.
4. Connect your free Expo account. Expo is the service that turns your app into a file a phone can install. You do this once, in about 5 minutes. Connecting Expo, step by step.
5. Your app: name, icon and id. Check the app’s name, its icon and its id, such as com.yourname.yourapp.
6. Build it. Press Build for Android.

How long it takes: about 35 minutes in the one run we measured; Expo's free queue can pass an hour. You can close the dialog and keep designing. To see your builds later, open the App menu and choose Builds.

Install it on your Android phone

When the build is ready, scan its QR code with your Android phone’s camera, or open its link on the phone. Then:

1. Your phone downloads the app. Press Open, or find it in your downloads.
2. Your phone says it isn't allowed to install apps from this source. Press Settings, turn on Allow from this source, then go back and open the file again.
3. Play Protect may warn about an app from an unknown developer. Choose to install anyway.
4. Press Install. The app appears on your home screen.

Each build has its own link, and the link stops working after a while. To get a new one, build again.

Change it and build again

Keep designing, then press Get my app, Build my app and Build a new version. Your subscription includes a number of builds each month, and the build step shows how many are left. A build that fails on our side does not count. Your free Expo account gives up to 15 Android builds a month. A build with a new id installs as a second app, beside the one already on your phone.

Build my app and the code together

Send app to agent hands the code to you. Your agent gets the code. From then on the code is yours to edit, and Build my app turns off for this project, because a new build would not have your edits.

Want both? Duplicate the project first. The copy stays with us to build, and this one goes to your agent.

Build my app makes the Android app for now. For the iPhone app, use Send app to agent and build it on a Mac.