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More app development is a challenging task as itself and coding itself is only the tip of the iceberg. Any mobile app, whether developed by an individual developer or developed by an enterprise, has the same set of needs to survive and shine in the crowded space.

Any app you develop is actually not compared with their counterparts but with the apps that occupy the top 10 downloaded apps in the app stores. For this reason, having a well-tested, high quality and high performance and app with a healthy release frequency is crucial for any app.

Managing the full lifecycle of a mobile app after development may be cumbersome and complicated with different set of tools from different vendors, all requiring manual effort to move from one step to another. This may lead to some steps being skipped or not given sufficient attention or causing delays, which in turn causes negative store reviews or user dissatisfaction.

AWS and Appcircle eliminates all these issues and isolates you from the complexities of the mobile app code storage, backend management, build, automated testing, user testing, user tracking and deployment.

You can automate the full lifecycle of a mobile app end-to-end in a fully integrated and automated manner without the need for expertise in all these fields or for separate tools.

You can just develop your app and leave the rest to the experts from code to the store (from AWS CodeCommit to Appcircle Store Submission).

With AWS and Appcircle, you can manage your mobile app lifecycle on a unified platform with the best-in-class solutions.

Regardless of the development framework such as platform-based native or Flutter and the target operating system such as iOS and Android, AWS and Appcircle provides high productivity and security.

The 8 Steps

1. Host your source code in AWS CodeCommit

Once you start developing your app, you will need a source control system to keep track of your changes and collaborate with a streamlined and centralized source.

AWS CodeCommit provides a fully-managed source control service for Git repositories. With its high performance, collaborative and secure structure, you can confidently use it for any project for storing source code or even binaries.

2. Easily deploy a powerful backend with AWS Amplify

Almost every mobile app has fundamental backend needs along with specific ones and AWS Amplify provides an all-in-one solution for all backend needs.

Amplify supports popular web frameworks including JavaScript, React, Angular, Vue, Next.js, and mobile platforms including Android, iOS, React Native, Ionic, Flutter. You can configure and deploy your backends quickly just by incorporating the Amplify SDK in your apps.

AWS Amplify brings the power of the AWS cloud services to the mobile and web apps. You will not need any other platform.

You can use

• Authentication for creating seamless on-boarding flows with a fully-managed user directory and pre-built sign-up, sign-in, forgot password, and multi-factor auth workflows along with social login
• DataStore for multi-platform (iOS/Android/React Native/Web) on-device persistent storage that automatically synchronizes data between mobile/web apps and the cloud.
• Analytics to understand the behavior of your web, iOS or Android users.
• Push notifications to improve customer engagement by using marketing and analytics capabilities.

Or you can develop your own scalable backend with

• API to make secure HTTP requests to GraphQL and REST endpoints to access, manipulate, and combine data from one or more data sources such Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Aurora Serverless, and your custom data sources.
• Functions to add a Lambda function to your project which you can use alongside a REST API or as a datasource in your GraphQL API.
• Interactions to build interactive and engaging conversational bots with the same deep learning technologies that power Amazon Alexa with just a single line of code.
• Predictions to enhance your app by adding AI/ML capabilities.
• Storage to store and manage user generated content such as photos, videos securely on device or in the cloud.

3. Build your app with Appcircle Build

As you continue coding, you will need to build your app to see how it is progressing. For the best quality output with the highest productivity, you need to establish a CI/CD pipeline, and this is possible with Appcircle powered by AWS.

With Appcircle, you can build your iOS and Android apps developed with Objective-C/Swift, Java/Kotlin, React Native or Flutter. Just connect your repository on AWS CodeCommit and build your apps with the power of the cloud.

You can quickly and easily set up builds and then take advantage of the build workflows for advanced tasks. It is a breeze to establish a full CI/CD pipeline with Appcircle.

4. Store your AWS keys in the Appcircle Variables Module

An important part of a well-established CI/CD pipeline is the easy management of environment switches and secure storage of sensitive keys.

With the Appcircle Variables module, you can create different target environments for different branches and build multiple versions of your app for different target environments.

The configuration and integration keys for all AWS services can be stored securely in this module. They will not be accessible externally, but they can be used for the builds.

5. Test your app automatically with AWS Device Farm

AWS Device Farm is an application testing service that enables you to run your tests concurrently on multiple mobile devices to speed up the execution of your tests and generates videos and logs to help you quickly identify issues with your app.

Appcircle is integrated with AWS Device Farm for continuous testing. You can build your app in Appcircle and deploy it directly to AWS Device Farm to run automated tests.

With AWS Device Farm, you can ensure that you ship your app with the highest quality.

6. Distribute your app to the testers with Appcircle Distribute and Appcircle Emulator

User testing is as crucial as automated testing and Appcircle provides the Distribute module for this purpose where you can share any version of your app with the testers and keep track of the testers.

Moreover, the testers do not even need to have actual mobile devices to test the app. With the Appcircle in-browser Emulator/Simulator, you can just send app preview links for any tester to run your app without any installation directly in their browsers.

7. Deploy your app to the public app stores with Appcircle Store Submit

Once the app is developed, built and tested, it is ready for primetime. You can use the Appcircle Store Submit module to upload your app directly to App Store and Google Play without the need for any other tools.

You can even automate the public app store deployment process, enabling a fully automated pipeline from code to the end user binary.

8. Track your audience and increase engagement with Amazon Pinpoint

The app is now live, and even if your app is of the highest quality, you may still need to focus on increasing the engagement of the app.

With Amazon Pinpoint, you can use mobile analytics to track your audience and increase engagement with targeted messages on different channels such as push notifications or email.

Amazon Pinpoint is a scalable marketing platform that is easy to set up, easy to use, and is flexible for all marketing communication scenarios.

Conclusion

With the power of AWS Mobile and Appcircle DevOps, you can simplify and streamline the full mobile lifecycle on a unified platform.

The full lifecycle can be automated with continuous integration, continuous delivery and continuous testing with the integrated suite of adept solutions from AWS and Appcircle for any type of mobile app for iOS and Android.