Sometimes you want to submit mobile apps for review, but you want to manually control when they are released. This can be helpful if you have a new feature that you want to release on Android and iOS around the same time, but your app doesn't have any kind of feature flagging. This article will walk you through how to do that in both Google Play Console and App Store Connect.
NOTE: This article was written in January 2025. If you are reading this article in the distant future, details have likely changed.
Google Play Console (Android)
On Google Play Console, manual releases (called "managed publishing" on the platform) is an app-level setting that applies to all releases for that app.
After selecting the app in Google Play Console, navigate to Publishing overview in the sidebar, then click Turn on managed publishing. Confirm the changes in the modal, then click Save. This will hold all approved app changes until the developer manually releases them.
App Store Connect (iOS)
On App Store Connect, manual releases is a setting that is configured on each release version of the app.
After creating a new version of the app, scroll down to the section titled App Store Version Release and select Manually release this version. This will hold that specific approved app version until the developer manually releases it.
Hopefully this article helps you as you build your mobile applications. If at all possible, opt for implementing feature flagging instead of manually releasing your apps.
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