You need a design, or ten minutes to start one, and for the iPhone build, a Mac.
Days for the app, weeks for the stores
Most “how long does an app take” answers are about building a product: months, a team, a budget. A first version is smaller than that. Five screens, one job, sample content. The build of that is days. What fills the calendar is Apple’s review and Google’s testing rule, and neither moves faster because you worked harder.
| Step | Time |
|---|---|
| See a starter on your phone | about 15 seconds |
| Design five screens from a starter | a morning to two days |
| Set up your computer, once | a few hours, mostly downloads |
| The agent writes the project | one session |
| The first build | tens of minutes, then seconds per change |
| Google Play, new personal account | 14 days with 12 testers, then up to a week of review |
| Apple App Store | about a day per review round, often two or three for a first app |
1. Seconds: see it before you design it
On opointo.com, pick a kind of app, type its name and scan the QR code. Your app opens full screen in your phone’s browser, labelled as a preview. Seeing your design on your phone has the steps and what the preview is not.
Check: your app’s name is on your phone’s screen.
2. A morning to two days: the design
Start from the starter closest to your app, not a blank screen: an ordering app, a members app, an inspection app. Each opens in the App Builder with its tabs, screens and arrows already drawn. Rename the lists and buttons in your own words, delete what you do not need, add the screen it lacks, and draw the arrows: this button opens that screen, this tab shows that list.
Then share it from the App menu (Share a link) with two people who have the problem, and fix what they trip on. That loop is the cheapest one you will ever run.
Check: press Preview and tap through every screen without hitting a dead end. If this takes a week, you have more than five screens.
3. A few hours, once: the setup
- You need a Mac with Xcode 26 to build the iOS app. Android needs only the Android SDK. Xcode is a large download, so start it first.
- For Android, Android Studio installs the Android SDK, on a Mac, Windows or Linux.
- Node, from nodejs.org. Exports target Expo SDK 57 and React Native 0.86.3; building one needs Node 22.13 or later.
- A coding agent such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, VS Code or Gemini CLI, connected once from the Connect your agent page.
The trap: the Mac App Store updates Xcode by itself, so run xcodebuild -version before the first build. Xcode 27 support is in progress: an Expo app built with Xcode 27 crashes at launch on iOS 27 unless it opts into the UIKit scene life cycle, which takes expo 57.0.23 or later and expo-build-properties 57.0.20 or later, with ios.enableSceneSupport. Expo SDK 56 and earlier cannot opt in; new exports turn it on, and Xcode 26 stays the requirement until we have run an Xcode 27 build on iOS 27. Why your Expo app crashes at launch on iOS 27 has the detail.
Check: node --version prints a version, and your agent shows opointo as connected.
4. One session: the agent writes the app
Press Send app to agent. The App Builder checks every screen in the order people reach it and flags anything unfinished, then gives you one line to paste into your agent. The agent calls emit_app, writes a normal Expo project into your repo with your screens, the navigation and an app shell we tested on both platforms, and calls verify_app to check its own work.
Check: the agent reports that verify_app found nothing missing. If emit_app refused, it names the unfinished screen: fix it in the App Builder and send again.
5. Tens of minutes: the first build
npx expo run:ios
npx expo run:android
Expo Go cannot run the app, because several components use real native controls, so it needs a development build. The first build compiles the whole app from source, so expect it to take a while, often half an hour for both platforms. After that, a change to a screen shows on your phone in seconds.
Check: the app opens on the simulator or your phone with your name on it. On iOS you get Apple’s own controls with Liquid Glass; on Android, Material 3 Expressive.
6. Two to four weeks: the stores
- Google Play: $25 once. A personal account created after 13 November 2023 must run a closed test with at least 12 testers opted in for 14 days straight before it can apply for production access, which Google says usually takes seven days or less. Google Play’s 12-tester rule explains how to find the twelve.
- Apple: $99 a year. Apple says 90% of submissions are reviewed in less than 24 hours, but a first app is often rejected once or twice for unfinished things. Why Apple rejected your first app lists the usual ones.
Open both accounts on the day you start designing. Their identity checks take days of their own, and the 14-day clock can only start once you have something to install.
What turns days into months
Your data, sign-in, payments and push notifications are yours to add, usually with the same agent, and each one is days on its own. So are features nobody has asked for yet. Ship the five screens to your testers first, then add the backend when someone other than you is entering data.
Verified on iOS 26 and on Android 16 with Material 3 Expressive. iOS 27 support is in progress. Generating the code is part of the subscription: $15 a seat a month, or $12 billed yearly, at the beta price (usually $25 and $20). Designing is free.
Open the App Builder, pick the starter closest to your app, and put it on your phone today. The store clock starts when you have something to install.