The app on this post's cover is Longwave, a logbook for amateur-radio listeners. One prompt in, and out the other end came an Android bundle, a browser extension, and desktop installers for three operating systems, with store submissions already staged against real developer accounts. Nobody opened a form. Here's what people actually ask us about that process.
Why bother automating app stores when the web build already works?
Because a URL is only half a distribution story. People still go looking for utilities inside app stores, and store shipping is a pile of picky, low-difficulty chores — packaging formats, versioned uploads, listing copy, screenshot sizes, privacy questionnaires. None of it is hard. All of it is tedious, and tedious-but-picky is exactly the work that should belong to an agent instead of you.
What does the agent actually build for Google Play?
A signed .aab, produced by the real Gradle toolchain — not an export that hopes the store doesn't notice. From that same artifact it writes the listing title and description, generates screenshots from the running app, and fills out the privacy questionnaire.
Can I trust the privacy answers, or should I still check them myself?
Check them if you want, but here's how they're produced: the agents read the source before answering. A "this app collects no data" claim only goes on the form when the code genuinely makes no network calls and bundles no analytics SDK. Given the choice, the system under-claims rather than over-claims — a listing flagged later for a questionnaire mismatch is a much worse day than a slightly conservative answer today.
What's different across Google Play, Chrome, and Firefox?
| Store | Artifact | Agents handle | You handle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Play | Signed .aab | Upload, listing, graphics, privacy declarations, staging a draft release | One-time $25 fee, first-app console steps, the rollout click |
| Chrome Web Store | Extension .zip | Package, listing copy, screenshots, permission justifications, privacy-tab autofill | Account connection, publish confirmation |
| Firefox Add-ons | Extension .zip | Everything — upload, validation, version, listing. No console visit at all | Account connection |
Firefox is the cleanest case, honestly — Mozilla's submission flow just doesn't demand the manual hand-holding the other two do, so the agent's job there is closer to "finish it" than "prepare it."
What about people who don't want an app-store install at all?
Desktop installers ship as direct downloads from your build page: a Windows installer, a Linux package, and a macOS disk image built universal so it runs on Apple Silicon and Intel alike. The install dialog even detects your OS and shows the right steps for it — we got tired of "it says the developer can't be verified" being a support ticket instead of a sentence on the download page.
Whose name ends up on the listing — Longwave's, or the platform's?
Yours. Every submission goes through your own developer accounts, not ours. That's deliberate: the publisher of record for your product should be you, with your reviews and your relationship to the store. We'd rather be invisible staff than a landlord with a name on the lease.
What can go wrong, and who's actually responsible for it?
Two things sit outside what any platform can promise. Store review is the store's call — the agents prepare the strongest submission they can, but approval isn't guaranteed, and you should be skeptical of anyone who says otherwise. And developer registration, along with whatever fee comes with it, is a relationship between you and the store, not us. Everything in between those two edges — the afternoon of forms, sized screenshots, and questionnaire checkboxes — is agent work now.
