App maintenance after launch: what it covers

App maintenance is everything you do after launch to keep the app in the stores, working on new phones, and not quietly breaking. The stores change their rules every year, iOS and Android ship new versions, and the libraries and server behind the app get updates too. An app left alone for a year doesn't stay the same. It falls behind.

Store requirements change every year

Google Play requires new apps and updates to target a recent version of Android. Since August 31, 2025, every new app or update has to target Android 15 (API level 35). Apps that fall behind stop being available to new users on phones running newer Android versions. In other words, the app doesn't vanish overnight, but it stops gaining users.

Raising the target level means changing one number in the config, then checking everything that changed: each Android version changes rules around permissions, notifications and background work, and the app has to be checked against all of them.

The App Store has its own list of requirements. A few examples from recent years:

• since April 29, 2024, uploaded apps must be built with Xcode 15, and Apple raises this bar periodically, in the spring;
• since February 17, 2025, apps without a declared trader status, required under the EU Digital Services Act, are removed from the App Store in the EU until it's verified;
• every so often Apple rotates the certificates for its services, such as push notifications, and the app or server has to be ready ahead of time.

The annoying part: these deadlines ignore your schedule. If the app needs an urgent fix and doesn't meet the new requirement, you can't ship the fix until you've caught up.

New iOS and Android versions

Apple and Google each release one major OS version a year, plus smaller updates. With every one, we test the app on the beta versions before they reach people's phones. What usually breaks: layout on new screens, permissions that are requested differently, notifications, and access to photos and location.

The crashes nobody reports

Most people don't write in when an app crashes. They delete it. That's why maintenance includes tracking errors in the reports.

On Android, Google Play tracks through Android vitals what share of daily active users hit a crash or a freeze (the app stops responding). The bad behavior thresholds are:

Above these thresholds, Google Play may reduce the app's visibility and show a warning on its store listing. The calculation uses the last 28 days, so a problem left for two or three weeks already shows up.

The server and the parts behind the app

Almost every app has a server: accounts, orders, notifications, payments. Maintaining it means:

• security updates for the server's operating system and software;
• HTTPS certificates renewed on time;
• database backups and an occasional test restore;
• the libraries and SDKs inside the app (maps, payments, analytics) kept on supported versions;
• API keys and third-party service accounts checked so they don't expire by surprise.

We wrote about what to check monthly on a website in our article on website maintenance; the server list looks much the same.

What a maintenance contract includes

A good contract spells out what's in and what's out. Usually:

1. Keeping up with store requirements, once or twice a year.
2. Testing on new iOS and Android versions before they ship.
3. Tracking errors and fixing the ones that affect many users.
4. Server maintenance: updates, certificates, backups.
5. A response time for urgent problems (the app won't start, payments fail).

New features usually aren't part of maintenance. They get estimated separately.

What drives the cost: how many platforms you have (Android only, iOS only, or both), how big the app is, how many external services it uses, how fast you need emergency response, and whether the server is hosted by us or by you. The price comes in the quote, after we've looked at the app.

See how we work after launch on our App Dev services page.