After launch: what to update in your app's first year

In the first year after launch, an app needs three kinds of updates: fixes for the errors your reports show, updates the app stores require, and changes based on what people actually do in the app. The first two can't wait. The third is what separates an app people use from one that sits forgotten on their phone.

The first few weeks: crashes

However much you test, real people find phones and situations you never thought of. That's why we add a crash reporting tool from day one, one that records the phone, the OS version and the screen where it happened.

On Android, Google also tracks this on its own, in Android vitals. The thresholds where Google calls the behavior "bad" are public: a user-perceived crash rate of 1.09% averaged across devices, or 8% on a single phone model, and 0.47% for apps that stop responding. Google Play looks at the last 28 days. Above the threshold, it may lower your app's visibility in the store and show a warning on its listing.

In practice, the first update usually ships within two or three weeks and fixes what the reports turned up.

Store rules, on the calendar

The stores change their requirements every year, and the dates are announced well ahead:

• Google Play: starting August 31, 2026, new apps and updates must target Android 16 (API 36). Existing apps that don't target at least Android 15 stop showing up for new users on phones running newer Android versions. You can request an extension to November 1, 2026.
• App Store: since April 28, 2026, every app uploaded to App Store Connect must be built with Xcode 26 and the SDK for iOS 26 or iPadOS 26.

That means at least one update a year just to stay compliant, and sometimes it brings real work. With Android 16, for example, apps can no longer stay locked to portrait on tablets, which we covered in our article on phones and tablets. Web apps are a different story: an app that runs in the phone's browser, with nothing to install, gets updated without going through the stores.

Reviews: when to ask

On iPhone, the system window asking for a rating shows up for a given person no more than three times a year. Apple recommends showing it after someone has successfully finished something, not when the app opens and not in response to a button tap. For a booking app, the right moment is after the second or third successful booking, not on first launch.

What to change based on real use

After the first few months you have real data: where people give up, which screens nobody opens, what questions you get on the phone. We change one thing at a time so we can see what worked. Dropping a single field from a form often does more than a new feature.

The first-year calendar

We wrote more about what maintenance covers in general in our article on app maintenance.

What drives the cost

How many platforms the app runs on (Android, iOS, web), how many other systems it connects to (payments, invoicing, maps), and whether you pick a monthly plan or pay per job. The price comes in the quote. You can see how we work after launch on our App Dev services page.