I recently shipped my first native mobile app: Confirmation Saints to the App Store and Google Play. The app helps people preparing for Confirmation explore saints and choose a patron saint, with bilingual English and Spanish content.
What made this experience different was how much of it I built with GitHub Copilot CLI and Squad, my AI team running inside the repo. Instead of working completely alone, I had specialized agents helping with architecture, iOS, Android, content, testing, and release tasks. It felt less like using autocomplete and more like coordinating a small software team.
Development started on April 12, 2026, with the initial Squad setup and the first app structure. By April 17, the first iOS release tag was ready. The iOS app went live around April 21, so the first native iOS version went from project start to App Store release in roughly nine days.
The first iOS submission was not perfectly smooth. Apple rejected it and asked for additional details, likely because I had not published through TestFlight first. Once I handled that and resubmitted, approval was fast, usually within a day. Since then, I have submitted several minor iOS updates, and that process has been much smoother.
The iOS cost was straightforward: $99 per year for the Apple Developer Program. I already had the required hardware: a MacBook and an iPhone, so there was no extra device cost for me.
Android was a different story. The Google Play Store account fee is much cheaper: about $30 one time. But the approval process has been significantly slower because of the closed testing requirement. Before production release, Google required 14 days of closed testing with 12 testers (for new personal developer accounts created after November 2023).
That was the most painful part. I only know a few friends who own Android phones, maybe two or three. I thought about asking my LinkedIn network, and I also found services like TestersCommunity, where for about $15 you can get 12 testers for 15 days, including feedback to use in the app submission.
I also realized I needed an Android device myself. I was tempted to ask a friend to test for me, but that felt like the wrong long-term move. If I was going to support Android, I should own an Android phone and test the app myself. I found a new Samsung Galaxy A07 for under $100 on Amazon. It seems like a great little backup or emergency phone. The only caveat is that it works in the U.S. with T-Mobile and it is 4G, not 5G, but for App testing, it does the job.
Last Friday, I finally met the closed testing requirement and submitted the Android app for production. Google said review may take up to seven days. It was approved by Sunday evening. I was expecting it would auto promote the listing, but it didn't, instead I had to promote the build which trigger the publishing review process again. This review was completed within 12-24 hours and that point the app finally went live on Monday May 11, which took almost 3 weeks more compared to the initial App Store submission.
Here’s the rough comparison:
- Store Account Cost
- iOS: $99/year
- Android: $30/one time (winner)
- Required Hardware
- MacBook + iPhone
- Laptop/MacBook + Android device (winner)
- Extra hardware cost (for me)
- iOS: $0 (winner)
- Android: $100
- First release path
- iOS: within 24 hrs after resubmission (winner)
- Android: 2-3 weeks slower due to closed testing requirement
- Testing requirement
- iOS: TestFlight strongly recommended (winner)
- Android: 12 testers for 14 days
- Review timing
- iOS: within 24 hours in most cases (winner)
- Android: 24-28hrs in most cases after closed testing
The biggest surprise was that Android looked cheaper at first, but the release process took more calendar time. iOS cost more upfront and annually, but once I got through the first rejection, the review cycle felt much faster.
The biggest lesson from the whole project is that AI coding tools are now good enough to help with more than snippets. With GitHub Copilot CLI and Squad, I was able to coordinate real work across iOS, Android, content, testing, screenshots, and release preparation. It still required judgment, testing, and ownership, especially around app store submission, but the velocity was completely different from building alone.
Now the app is live both in the App Store and Google Play. In my experience, the 12 testers/14 days requirement acted as red tape, specially in this age of Agentic AI development. I feel Google should relax this requirement specially for simpler applications.
