Private App Distribution: How To Distribute Custom iOS Apps

The App Store empowers iOS users worldwide to discover a plethora of trusted apps for their personal and professional use. But, not every app present on the Apple App Store is meant for everyone. Did you know that there are unrepealable merchantry apps present on the App Store that are tailor-made to meet the merchantry needs of specific organizations? These apps are tabbed custom iOS apps.

Generally, the Apple App Store reviews all apps thoroughly surpassing making them misogynist for users. The App Store review guidelines oppose having in-house B2B apps on the App Store. The intention overdue it is that every app on the App Store should be such that it can be leveraged by the mass audience. Yet, there is a way to distribute your private apps using the Apple App Store. This vendible tells you how.

What Are Custom iOS Apps?

Custom iOS apps are specially designed by you or a third party vendor for your organization and can be explicitly distributed via the Apple App Store to people of your organization without making the custom apps public for all. Regular users cannot view these apps on the App Store. Only specific people in your organization, such as IT admins and content managers have the power to locate and distribute these apps.

How Do Custom Apps Work?

Custom iOS apps can be submitted to the App Store via App Store Connect which is a portal for the management of apps sold on the Apple App Store. The App Store Connect reviews an organization’s custom apps through its stringent guidelines and once approved, it can be made misogynist to selective organizations on their Apple Merchantry Manager/Apple School Manager accounts. 

To indulge the distribution of custom apps using the App Store, it has to undergo a stringent review process. Your enterprise app is checked for its security framework, such as an hallmark mechanism for your sensitive merchantry information. Further, Apple signs into your app and operates the app to test it for compliance with its review guidelines. Once approved, the members of your organization can view your app under the Apps & Books section of the ABM/ASM.

Private App Distribution Using Apple App Store Connect

You can pinpoint specific organizations and the private status of your enterprise apps, as well as make them misogynist on ABM/ASM finance using App Store Connect in just a few simple steps.

1. Log in to the Apple Store Connect portal.
2. Navigate to the Apps section and add your enterprise app using the ‘new app’ option.
3. Enter app details such as the app name, platform, user wangle type, etc.
4. Under the pricing & availability section, segregate ‘private’ as the app distribution method.
5. Specify the organization IDs to which your app must be visible on the ABM account.
6. Allow your app to undergo the review process.
7. Once approved, your app will be visible on the ABM worth to the pre-selected organizations.

Scalefusion for Private iOS App Distribution

Scalefusion empowers IT admins to silently distribute their enterprise iOS apps on multiple devices effortlessly. You can hands upload an IPA file or a plist file and push it on all the device profiles of your choice.

Pre-requisites:

1. Your enterprise app
2. Scalefusion account
3. Apple Store Connect account
4. Access to the Apple Merchantry Manager portal
5. Apple VPP setup on the Scalefusion dashboard

How to distribute private iOS apps using the Scalefusion dashboard:

1. Once you have created your enterprise app on the App Store Connect and processed it through App Store’s review, your private app will be visible on the ABM worth to your organization, or any other organization that you have specified.
2. You can log into your ABM worth and navigate to the custom apps section.
3. You need to purchase the app of your nomination from the list of misogynist custom apps by inward details in the ‘buy licenses’ section.
4. Log into your Scalefusion account.
5. Visit the Application Management section misogynist on the left-hand side full-length list.
6. Click on the Enterprise Store and click on upload new app > upload iOS app.
7. Scalefusion gives you the option to upload or waif your IPA file or a plist link.
8. Once the upload is complete, Scalefusion validates the file to ensure that the enterprise app is packaged using an over-the-air distribution method and has a valid enterprise distribution certificate.
9. Once your IPA file is tried by Scalefusion you can view the app on your dashboard.
10. You can then segregate to publish this app to all the device profiles of your choice.
11. You can moreover update apps to the latest versions using the same method or uninstall them.
12. The app installation and updating are washed-up silently on the user’s end.

Closing Lines

Private app distribution saves time and effort for your IT admins. With Scalefusion MDM, you can simplify your private app distribution and streamline the deployment and management of your enterprise apps on your managed iOS devices.