Thinking about turning your web app into real iPhone and Android apps? Here's everything that happens, in five steps: create your project, set up your app, pay once, prepare your store accounts, and get your apps. Here's who does what. You describe your app and set up your own Apple and Google developer accounts. BDK builds your apps, signed and ready for the stores. Then you test them, and submit them yourself. To start, sign in at thebdk.com and press New project.
Made a free preview of your app first? Its Create my app button does this for you, with your icon, status bar and screens carried over. A new project needs three things: a name, just for you, the link your app opens, and your email, already there. Press Create Project, and it gets a short code. Keep it handy if you ever need help. Open the project, and you're on its Dashboard. The bar across the top shows where you are, from purchase to delivery.
One card always tells you what to do next. Whenever you're unsure, come back here. Prefer help? Pick your AI assistant here. It can fill in many of your settings with you. Then it walks you through the rest. Build Settings is where you describe your app, before or after you pay. Its first question, how your web app is built, only changes which settings you see. The app name sits under the icon on the home screen.
Keep it short. Upload a square icon. And the launch link, the page your app opens on, is already filled in. The status bar is the strip at the very top of the phone. It shows the time and battery. Pick its colour and style. You can change both later, without a rebuild. The Screens tab designs your app's first seconds: a splash screen the moment someone taps your icon, a loading screen while your first page loads, and a transition screen while a new page slides in.
Upload an image for each one. Check it on the phone preview, and press Save. Every build needs your own image on all three. Started from a preview? Your artwork is already there. On iPhone, the phone asks before your app uses things like the camera or location, and shows your reason. Write one plain sentence for each of the six, like this: Acme Store uses the camera to scan product barcodes. Next, a few quick choices.
Upright or sideways. iPhone, iPad, or both. And background sound. Android asks a few of its own. Already in a store? Say so, add its details, and your build updates that listing. Push notifications are your choice. Leave them on, and you'll connect OneSignal, a notification service with a free plan. If your app never sends any, turn them off, and you won't need notification keys. Most native features need no setting here. Face ID, a buzz, the share sheet, screens that slide in: add them to your web app with a little code, or just ask your AI.
Then try them free in BDK Preview, before you pay. A few do need a switch here: deep links, NFC tags, health data, and sharing into your app. Leave them off unless you use them. Then tick the terms, and press Save Build Settings. Before you pay, one thing to know: payments are final. That's what the free preview is for. Try your app, Face ID and all, on your own phone first. Scan a code here to get BDK Preview.
Back on the Dashboard, pick iPhone and Android together, or just one. Each shows its price right there. It's one payment, with no subscription, and your choice is locked in once you pay. Press Complete checkout, and you pay on Stripe's secure page, so your card details never touch BDK. Then you're straight back in your project. Purchases shows what you bought: your build, plus four rebuilds for changes to the app later, good for a year.
Need more? You can buy extra rebuilds here. Once you've paid, the Dashboard card becomes a checklist of what's left. A new tab, Before the Build, walks you through each item, one service at a time. For iPhone, you join the Apple Developer Program, accept Apple's agreements, and start your app's listing in App Store Connect, with just the basics for now. Apple's yearly fee goes to Apple, not to BDK. For Android, you open a Google Play developer account.
There's a one-time fee to Google. Then start a listing there too. Screenshots and a description can wait until your apps arrive. What you collect ends up in one tab: Accounts and Keys. The card at the top shows what's missing. Each button jumps to the right field. For Apple, that's a few team details and one App Store Connect key. That key lets BDK upload your iPhone build into your account. Each one has a step-by-step guide link, right beside it.
Google needs nothing here. A new Android app is signed with BDK's standard key. If push is on, OneSignal, Apple and Firebase each need one key, so your notifications reach every phone. Each has its own guide. Your keys only ever go into your project page. BDK never asks for them by email or in a chat. When the checklist is done, the card says you're ready. Press Request Build. The card changes to Build request received, and there's nothing for you to do.
It typically takes 24–48 hours, and BDK emails you when your build is ready. If something's missing along the way, like a key, the card says exactly what. A button takes you straight to the fix. When it's done, the card says your builds are ready. Your icon sits on a little home screen. Your Builds lists them: one for iPhone, one for Android. Your iPhone build is already in your own App Store Connect account.
Test it with TestFlight on your phone, then submit it for review. Apple decides. Your Android build downloads from Your Builds. Upload it to Google Play, test it on your own phone, then send it for review. Google decides. You don't need to remember any of this. The After the Build tab walks you through both stores, step-by-step. And if you're stuck, there's a helpdesk and a chat. After launch, keep changing your web app as usual.
Your apps show the change the next time they open. No rebuild, and no store review. Three app settings change without a rebuild too, from Additional Tools: the launch link, the status bar colour, and when your app asks about notifications. Changing the app itself, like its icon, its screens or turning on NFC, takes a rebuild. Save it in Build Settings, then press Request rebuild. That's the whole journey. You set things up, BDK builds and signs your apps, and you test and submit them yourself.
Try your app free in BDK Preview first. Then start your project at thebdk.com.