From a0f678a2a31c4176674e6e9db80ecd98fa6595b8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Dylan Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:45:09 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] Add LAUNCH.md: from sideloading to the app stores, in stages Written for where the app actually is -- you and friends riding -- rather than jumping straight to a store listing. Stage 0 is today: on Android, messaging friends the APK is a complete answer and may always be. On iOS it is not, because free signing gives 7-day builds and needs your Mac each time, so anyone riding with an iPhone forces the next stage. Stage 1 is the one that fits a riding group: $99/yr for TestFlight turns install into one tap with 90-day builds, and $25 once covers Play internal testing. Both need a privacy policy URL before any tester touches them, since the app records location. Stage 2 covers public listings, and flags that background location is the common rejection on both stores -- pre-empt it with a demo video of a real ride. Stage 3 lays out monetization honestly: paid up front, a one-time unlock for local extras, or a subscription for cloud features. The last one is the only model that justifies recurring money and the only one that brings servers, accounts, GDPR deletion and Apple's in-app account deletion requirement. Recommendation is to stay free now, and reach for a one-time unlock before a subscription. Also noted a positioning question worth settling before any store listing: the pipeline is activity-agnostic, and whether Rippr is a motorcycle app or a general ride recorder decides the category, the screenshots and the audience. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 --- README.md | 2 + docs/LAUNCH.md | 195 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 197 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/LAUNCH.md diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 4cdf472..db69760 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -72,6 +72,8 @@ speed-derived values, where Kotlin's 32-bit `Float` widens with artefacts Dart's | Document | Contents | |---|---| | [docs/ARCHITECTURE.md](docs/ARCHITECTURE.md) | Why it is built this way, and what changed from the native app | +| [docs/LAUNCH.md](docs/LAUNCH.md) | Getting from "on my phone" to the app stores, in stages, with costs | +| [docs/port/IOS-VERIFICATION.md](docs/port/IOS-VERIFICATION.md) | What a Mac can prove about the iPhone build, and what cannot | | [docs/port/PLAN.md](docs/port/PLAN.md) | The 28-task migration plan | | [docs/port/PROGRESS.md](docs/port/PROGRESS.md) | What actually happened, including every bug found | | [docs/port/PARITY-AUDIT.md](docs/port/PARITY-AUDIT.md) | Feature-by-feature, with the evidence behind each claim | diff --git a/docs/LAUNCH.md b/docs/LAUNCH.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..28ef2b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/LAUNCH.md @@ -0,0 +1,195 @@ +# Launch + +How Rippr gets from "on my phone" to "on the App Store with money coming in" — in stages, +because the jump is much bigger than it looks and most of it is not code. + +**Where things stand:** the app is feature-complete on both platforms and has never +recorded a real ride. Nothing below should start before +[port/REAL-RIDE-CHECKLIST.md](port/REAL-RIDE-CHECKLIST.md) is done. + +--- + +## Stage 0 — you and your friends *(today, free)* + +What works right now, with no accounts and no stores. + +### Android — genuinely easy + +Send them the APK. That's it. + +```bash +adb install -r rippr-flutter-1.0-debug.apk # or just message them the file +``` + +They tap it in Files and allow "install unknown apps". It works, it keeps working, and it +costs nothing. **For riding buddies on Android, this is a complete answer** — you may +never need the Play Store. + +Worth switching to a **release build** before handing it round: the debug APK is ~172 MB +and slower. That needs a keystore, kept somewhere you will not lose it: + +```bash +keytool -genkey -v -keystore ~/rippr-release.jks -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 \ + -validity 10000 -alias rippr +flutter build apk --release --split-per-abi # ~3 files, ~20 MB each +``` + +> **Back that keystore up.** Lose it and you can never update an app that shipped with it. + +### iOS — awkward, and the awkwardness is the point + +Free signing (see `INSTALL.md` in the samplez repo, alongside the APK) gives **7-day +builds**, three apps at a time, and needs your Mac every time. Fine for you. Miserable for +a friend who just wants to ride. + +There is no free way around it. Apple deliberately does not allow casual iPhone +sideloading. + +**If any of your friends ride with an iPhone, Stage 1 is not optional.** + +--- + +## Stage 1 — a real group of testers *(~$99/yr + $25 once)* + +This is the stage that actually fits "me and my friends", and it is a big quality-of-life +jump over Stage 0. + +### TestFlight — the single best upgrade + +Requires the **Apple Developer Program, $99/yr**. + +- Builds last **90 days**, not 7 +- **100 internal testers** and up to **10,000 external** via a public link +- Friends install the TestFlight app and tap once — no Mac, no cables, no trust dialogs +- Updates push automatically +- External testers need a light App Review pass (usually a day); internal testers do not + +For a riding group this is effectively "the app store, for people I choose". Many projects +happily live here forever and never publish publicly. + +### Google Play internal testing — optional + +**$25, one time, forever.** Up to 100 testers, no review for the internal track. Worth it +mainly if handing out APKs starts to annoy you, or you want automatic updates on Android +too. + +### What you must add before either + +- **A privacy policy URL.** Both stores require one for anything touching location, even + in testing. It can be a single static page: what is collected (GPS while recording), + where it goes (nowhere — stays on the device), and how to delete it (delete the ride, or + the app). +- Switch the bundle id from `com.rippr.port` to something you own, e.g. `com.dylan.rippr`. +- A release build, on both platforms. + +--- + +## Stage 2 — public launch + +Everything in Stage 1, plus the parts that are genuinely work. + +### Apple + +- **Privacy nutrition labels** — Location → Precise, *not* linked to identity, App + Functionality only. Details in [port/RELEASE-IOS.md](port/RELEASE-IOS.md). +- **Expect to justify background location.** It is the most common rejection for apps like + this. Head it off with a **demo video of a real ride** in the review notes, showing the + user pressing Start. +- App name, subtitle, keywords, screenshots at several device sizes, a support URL. +- Review is typically 24–48 hours, and a rejection round is normal. Budget two weeks. + +### Google + +- **Data Safety form** — the Play equivalent of nutrition labels, and it must match + reality. +- Background location gets **extra scrutiny on Play**: a written justification and often a + video. Rippr's case is strong (a ride recorder is the textbook example), but it is a real + review step. +- Store listing, feature graphic, screenshots. + +### Things that only matter once strangers use it + +- **Crash reporting.** Currently none — the v3 backlog notes a recorder that dies mid-ride + leaves no trace beyond logcat. Sentry or Crashlytics before public launch. +- **A support address** people can actually reach. +- Whatever the real ride teaches you about battery. Strangers will not forgive what a + friend would. + +--- + +## A positioning note, since you ride bikes *and* motorcycles + +Everything user-facing currently says motorcycle, but the recording pipeline is entirely +activity-agnostic — it records positions and speeds, and nothing in it cares what you are +sitting on. `V3-BACKLOG.md` already carries **activity type per ride** as an idea. + +That matters here rather than only in the backlog, because it decides the store category, +the screenshots and who finds the app. Cyclists are a far larger audience than +motorcyclists and are already used to paying for ride apps. Deciding whether Rippr is a +motorcycle app or a ride recorder is a positioning question worth settling **before** +writing a store listing, not after. + +It is also cheap: an activity column on `Trip` and a picker. It needs a real `Migration`, +since the destructive fallback is gone. + +--- + +## Stage 3 — monetization + +Only worth designing once people are actually riding with it. But the shape matters +because it changes the architecture, and it is worth knowing which door you are opening. + +### The options, from least to most commitment + +**Paid up front — a few dollars, once.** +Simplest possible. No servers, no accounts, no recurring obligation. Sells poorly in a +category where Strava is free, but the cost to you is nearly zero and it fits an app that +works entirely offline. + +**Free, with a one-time unlock.** +Recording free forever; pay once for extras — export formats, unlimited history, themes. +No servers needed if the extras are local. Good match for Rippr as it exists today. + +**Subscription for cloud features.** +The v3 backlog already points here: accounts, cloud backup, group rides. This is the only +model that justifies recurring money, because **you have recurring costs**. It is also the +biggest jump: a server, authentication, a privacy stance, and an obligation to keep +someone's ride history alive. + +> Note the coupling. Cloud backup needs accounts; accounts need a privacy policy with +> teeth, GDPR-style deletion, and — on iOS — **in-app account deletion**, which Apple +> requires of any app that lets you create an account. Group rides need all of that plus +> live location sharing between people, which is a consent question, not a technical one. + +### The numbers + +- **Apple and Google both take 30%**, dropping to **15%** under their small-business + programmes (under $1M/yr). Enrol; it is not automatic on Apple's side. +- Apple: $99/yr. Google: $25 once. +- Server costs are yours. A modest VPS runs a group-ride backend for single-digit dollars + a month until it doesn't. +- Payments are handled by the stores for digital goods — you may not route around them for + in-app features. + +### What I would actually do + +Keep it free while it is you and your friends. If it grows, the honest first step is a +**one-time unlock** for local extras — no servers, no obligations, no privacy surface. + +Only build the subscription once someone who is not your friend asks for cloud backup. +Paid storage of other people's location history is a commitment that outlives your +interest in maintaining it, and that is worth entering deliberately. + +--- + +## The order of operations + +1. **Ride with it.** [port/REAL-RIDE-CHECKLIST.md](port/REAL-RIDE-CHECKLIST.md). Nothing + else matters until the numbers are right — and iOS background suspension (item I3) may + still force a change of GPS engine. +2. Release builds, real bundle id, a keystore you have backed up. +3. A one-page privacy policy. +4. $99 Apple → TestFlight. Your friends stop needing your Mac. +5. Live with it for a season. Let real use decide what is missing. +6. Only then: public listings, crash reporting, and a monetization model chosen from + evidence rather than from a table like this one.