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Add LAUNCH.md: from sideloading to the app stores, in stages

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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 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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2026-08-17 09:45:09 -05:00
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# 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.