To change the icon, splash screen or phone features (camera, push notifications and the like), ask the AI Builder to “make it work as a mobile app”.
Jump to a section
The screen is made of seven sections, listed below in the order you’ll use them. Pick one to jump straight to its explanation:Getting ready
What’s already done and what’s still missing.
New build
Pick a platform and a build type, then start it.
Builds
Watch a build, download the file, read its log.
Store uploads
Everything you’ve sent to Google Play or TestFlight.
App details
The name under the icon and the send-to-stores switch.
Signing keys
The keys that let stores accept your updates.
Store connections
Link your Google Play and App Store accounts.
Who can do what
What you can do as the owner or an admin.
Which route are you on?
- Just try it on your phone. Publish the app, build a test file, install it. No signing key, no store account needed. Start at New build.
- Get it into a store. Add a signing key, connect the store, build the store file, send it. Start at Signing keys, then Store connections.
How it works
- Publish your app. Mobile builds need a live app — the phone app loads your published address.
- Add signing keys (the app owner or an admin). Stores only accept updates signed with the same key, so you set this up once. → Signing keys
- Connect your store accounts (the app owner or an admin) if you want automatic uploads to Google Play or TestFlight. → Store connections
- Build, download, and send to the store — all from the same screen. → New build
Getting ready
What this is: the checklist at the top of the screen. It tells you, at a glance, which of the four steps above are done and which are still open. Nothing here needs configuring — it just reads your app’s state.
Test builds need only a published app. Store releases need a signing key and a store connection.
New build
What this is: the form where you start a build. You pick a platform, then what to build — the line under the boxes explains, in one sentence, what the file you’re about to get is for.
Test builds need only a published app. Signed builds need the platform’s signing key first — the Build button stays disabled until one is saved.
Build time is billed by the minute (about 1.5–3 build-service credits per minute; a 13.3-credit hold is placed and released after the build). Builds are limited to one per hour per app unless you connect your own Codemagic account, in which case Codemagic runs the build and bills you directly instead of using build-service credits.
Builds
What this is: the history of every mobile build for this app, newest first, with what happened to each one and what you can still do with it. Each row shows its status: Waiting in line (with your position), Building, Uploading, Store is processing, Ready, Failed, or Cancelled. The small line under the title gives the date, version, file size and how long the file is kept.- Download — grabs the finished file. Download links work for 15 minutes; build files are kept about 30 days.
- Log — opens the full build log, and failed builds show the error plus a log excerpt inline.
- Send to store — available on signed Play Store bundles and App Store builds.
- Cancel — available while a build is still waiting in line; the credit hold is released. Builds that already started can’t be cancelled.
Store uploads
What this is: the record of everything you’ve sent to a store, with a link to open that store’s console. This is where you check whether a build actually landed at Google or Apple, and what they did with it.
- Google Play uploads go to the internal testing track. Uploads are free, but Google requires an app’s very first upload to be done by hand in the Play Console — the upload shows “First upload must be manual” with instructions. After that one manual upload, everything is automatic.
- App Store uploads go to TestFlight. Upload time is billed like a build.
- Store uploads are limited to 10 per day.
App details
What this is: the two things people change most often — what the app is called on the phone, and whether stores get a new build automatically.- Name under the icon — the label shown on the phone’s home screen (up to 30 characters). Leave it empty to use your app’s name.
- Send to stores on every publish — when on, each publish automatically starts a mobile build and uploads it to your connected stores. Needs at least one store connected. Builds are billed by the minute.
Signing keys
What this is: the private keys that prove a build came from you. Stores only accept updates signed with the same key, so treat these as permanent. Keys are stored by the build service; passwords are never shown again after you save them. Android — click Create key and optionally add your name, organization and country. Aura creates a key that lasts 25 years. The key file opens in a new tab and its alias and passwords are shown exactly once — copy them somewhere safe immediately. Without a backup of this key you can never update your app on Google Play again. Apple (App Store Connect key) — paste your .p8 key contents, Key ID (10 characters), Issuer ID and bundle ID from App Store Connect. Codemagic (optional) — connect your own Codemagic account with an API token to skip the shared queue and the one-build-per-hour limit. Codemagic bills you directly. Removing a key or disconnecting a store asks you to type the app ID to confirm, so it can’t happen by accident.Store connections
What this is: the link between Aura and your developer accounts, so a finished build can be uploaded for you instead of being sent by hand. Google Play — enter your package name (for examplecom.example.app) and paste a Google Play service account key (JSON). If the app isn’t found in the Play Console yet, create it there first.
App Store — uses the Apple signing key you saved above, so add that first. The Apple app ID is optional.
Who can do what
Everyone on the project can see builds and the readiness checklist. The app owner and admins can start builds, download them, send them to stores, add signing keys, connect store accounts and edit app details — a build an admin starts is still billed to the app owner. Only the app owner can remove a signing key or disconnect a store account. Those cut off your app’s update history — without a backup of the key you can never update that app on the store again — so they need the person who owns the app.If something goes wrong
Every message on this screen is written out in plain language. What they mean, and what to do:Next steps
- Publishing — get a live address to build against.
- Domains — put your app on your own web address.
- Data and history — snapshots and restores for the app behind your mobile build.