App launch checklist for the App Store and Google Play (2026)

Updated on October 19, 2026: Adtek rewrote the entire article with the latest data, platform features and rules for 2025 to 2026.

A successful app launch means that on day one in the store, the app has already passed review, its product page is ready with Vietnamese keywords, screenshots and video, and a group of people is already waiting to download it. Most of that work has to be finished 3 to 4 weeks before release day. This article gives you an app launch checklist for 2026 covering the App Store and Google Play, a 30-day plan around launch day, and the metrics to track afterward. For the build submission itself, Apple and Google already publish their own official guides.

Review is not a formality. In 2024, Apple reviewed 7.77 million submissions and rejected 1,931,400 of them, roughly a quarter (App Store Transparency Report 2024, published May 2025). The most common reason for rejection was performance, with 1,235,471 cases.

The Vietnam market: launch on both stores

In July 2026, Android accounted for 60.4% of mobile usage in Vietnam and iOS for 39.6% (StatCounter, July 2026). At the end of 2025, Vietnam had 85.6 million internet users, or 84.2% of the population (DataReportal, Digital 2026 Vietnam).

Skip one store and you give up 40% or 60% of users. You also lose the word of mouth from people who hear about the app but cannot install it because they are on the other operating system.

What has changed since 2021

The previous version of this article was written in 2021. These are the biggest changes since then:

App launch checklist for 2026

1. Store listing

The store listing is your app’s landing page inside the store. Each text field has its own character limit, and not every field counts toward search ranking:

The Apple limits come from the Apple Developer Product Page guidelines. The subtitle can only be changed when you submit a new version, so lock it down carefully before launch day.

2. Vietnamese ASO

ASO (App Store Optimization) is the work of optimizing an app’s name, keywords, images and ratings so that it gets found and downloaded more often in the store. For an app aimed at Vietnamese users, the main job is to pick the exact words Vietnamese people type, not to translate English keywords.

Say I am getting ready to release a spa booking app called Lumi (a made-up name):

• Step 1. List 15 to 20 phrases customers would type: “đặt lịch spa” (book a spa appointment), “làm nail” (get your nails done), “gội đầu dưỡng sinh” (therapeutic head spa), “nối mi” (eyelash extensions). Try typing each one both with and without Vietnamese diacritics on both stores.
• Step 2. For each phrase, note the 5 apps ranking at the top. Read their 1 and 2 star reviews and pull out what worries customers: (1) they book, show up and still have to wait, (2) the price in the app differs from the price at the salon, (3) canceling a booking is difficult.
• Step 3. Put the most important phrase in the name. App Store name: “Lumi: Đặt lịch spa, làm nail” (28 characters). Subtitle: “Gội đầu dưỡng sinh gần bạn” (therapeutic head spa near you, 26 characters).
• Step 4. Use the keyword field for the remaining phrases, without repeating words already in the name and subtitle: massage,nối mi,chăm sóc da,salon,ưu đãi,tóc (massage, eyelash extensions, skincare, salon, deals, hair).
• Step 5. On Google Play, work these phrases into the short description and the long description, written as normal sentences.

The app name formula I use most often: [Brand name]: [Main keyword], [Secondary keyword], kept within 30 characters.

What to avoid:

• Stuffing keywords into the name, as in “Lumi Spa Nail Massage Gội Đầu Rẻ Nhất” (cheapest head spa). Both stores may reject it.
• Careless abbreviations or dropped diacritics, as in “Đặt lịch spa ko cần chờ” (book a spa, no waiting, with “không” shortened to “ko”).
• Using a competitor’s name in your app name or keyword field.

3. Screenshots and video

The App Store allows up to 10 screenshots and 3 app previews, each preview up to 30 seconds long (Apple Developer). Google Play accepts a promo video through a YouTube link.

The first screenshot matters most, because customers see it right in the search results. Back to the Lumi example: screenshot 1 answers worry (1) with a screen that says “Walk in and get served, no waiting”. Screenshot 2 answers worry (2) with each salon’s listed price table. Screenshot 3 answers worry (3) with a one-tap cancel button. The text on each screenshot is in Vietnamese, short, and readable on a phone screen.

4. Pre-order and pre-registration

These two features let you build a waiting list before launch day:

• App Store pre-order: the release date must be between 2 and 180 days from now. People who pre-order get the app downloaded automatically when it is released (App Store Connect Help).
• Google Play pre-registration: runs for up to 90 days per country, and Google recommends turning it on 3 to 6 weeks before launch. People who register get a notification when the app launches, and eligible devices can install it automatically if the user has agreed to that (Play Console Help). Personal accounts have to finish the closed test before they can turn on pre-registration.

5. In-App Events and Promotional content

In-App Events are event cards that appear right on your app’s page, in search results and in the App Store’s Today tab. You can publish up to 10 events at once, each event can last up to 31 days, and it can be promoted up to 14 days before it starts (Apple Developer). For a new app, a “Launch Week” event with an offer gives people browsing the store a reason to tap.

Google Play has a similar feature called Promotional content (formerly LiveOps). How much visibility it gets depends on the quality of the content and of the app itself.

6. Custom product pages and custom store listings

Apple lets you create up to 70 custom product pages per app. Each page can be assigned its own set of keywords so it appears in search results in place of the default page, and it can carry a deep link that opens the right screen in the app for the person who downloads it, starting with iOS 18 (Apple Developer).

Google Play allows up to 50 custom store listings, shown by country, install state, search keyword or Google Ads ad group. For Lumi, I would build three pages for three customer groups (nails, therapeutic head spa, skincare), with each ad group sending people to its own page.

7. Store page testing

Apple’s Product Page Optimization can run once the app is ready for distribution, including a version that is open for pre-order. Each test can have up to 3 variants, can change the icon, screenshots and video, and runs for up to 90 days (Apple Developer).

Store listing experiments on Google Play allow up to 2 variants against the current listing in each test. You can run one test at a time on the default graphics, or up to 5 localized tests by language. Localized tests can also test the description, so I usually try messaging on Google Play first and then carry the winning version over to the App Store.

8. App Review

Apple says App Review typically reviews at least 50% of submissions in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48 hours (Apple Developer). These are the issues that most often push back a launch date in 2026:

• Since April 28, 2026, apps uploaded to App Store Connect must be built with Xcode 26 using the iOS 26 SDK or later.
• Apple requires every app to answer the new age rating questionnaire (with ratings of 4+, 9+, 13+, 16+ and 18+). The deadline for existing apps was January 31, 2026. New apps answer it before submitting.
• Apps with a login must include a demo account. Broken links, placeholder content and crashes are familiar reasons for an app to be sent back.
• Google Play: from August 31, 2026, new apps and updates must target Android 16 (API level 36) or higher (Android Developers). Google says some apps and accounts may face longer reviews, of up to 7 days or more.

A 30-day plan around app launch day

Before D-21, you need to have finished the 14-day closed test on Google Play (for personal accounts) and have a build that has passed TestFlight. D0 is release day.

If the app has no ad budget, stretch the D-21 to D-8 stage by another 2 weeks to collect more sign-ups. To choose the channels for your first week, see our article on app marketing strategy.

Measuring results after launch

These are the four groups of metrics I watch in the first 30 days:

• Store page conversion rate = first-time downloads / page views. If 1,000 people view the page and 35 download, the rate is 3.5%. This metric tells you whether the name, screenshots and video are working.
• Stability: Google Play lowers the visibility of apps whose user-perceived crash rate is above 1.09% or whose ANR rate (app not responding) is above 0.47% (Android vitals).
• User retention: day 1 and day 7 retention rate. If 100 people download today and 30 of them open the app tomorrow, day 1 retention is 30%.
• Install source: separate organic downloads from downloads driven by ads. Apps that advertise across several channels should set up an MMP before launch day.

Since March 2026, Analytics in App Store Connect has added more than 100 metrics, viewable by user cohort split by download date and download source, along with benchmarks against similar apps for conversion to paid (9to5Mac, March 2026). How to set a target for each metric is covered in our article on app marketing KPIs.

Adtek’s take: 8 questions before you hit Submit

For any question where the answer is still “not yet”, fix it now or move the launch date:

1. Do the name and subtitle contain your main Vietnamese keyword phrase, within 30 characters?
2. Does the first screenshot answer the customer’s biggest worry, and is it readable on a 6 inch screen?
3. Has pre-order or pre-registration been live for at least 3 weeks?
4. Has the Google Play closed test had 12 testers for 14 consecutive days (personal accounts)?
5. Does the build use the required SDK, and have you answered the new age rating questionnaire?
6. Does the reviewer have a demo account, and does every link in the app and on the store page open?
7. Do you have at least one In-App Event or Promotional content item for launch week?
8. Have you assigned someone to check store page conversion rate, crashes and retention every day?

If you are getting ready to launch an app and need someone to review your store listing, Vietnamese keywords and first-week ad plan, contact Adtek.

This article was adapted and updated by Adtek in 2026, drawing on original content by Adjust (a guest post on App Radar, 2021).