Building and Deploying

Deploying Your Flutter App

Building and shipping your app is the final step. Flutter simplifies this with built-in commands for both Android and iOS.

Before building, configure your app icons. Replace the default icon in android/app/src/main/res/ and ios/Runner/Assets.xcassets/. You can use the flutter_launcher_icons package to generate all sizes automatically:

dev_dependencies:
  flutter_launcher_icons: ^0.13.0

flutter_launcher_icons:
  android: true
  ios: true
  image_path: "assets/icon/app_icon.png"

Run the generator to create all icon sizes:

dart run flutter_launcher_icons

For splash screens, use the splash_screen or flutter_native_splash package to create a branded loading screen.

To build a release APK for Android:

flutter build apk --release

The APK file will be at build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-release.apk.

For Android App Bundle (recommended for Play Store):

flutter build appbundle --release

The AAB file will be at build/app/outputs/bundle/release/app-release.aab.

To build for iOS:

flutter build ipa --release

This creates an IPA file you can upload through Xcode or Transporter.

For the Play Store, you'll need to:

1. Create a developer account at play.google.com/console
2. Complete the store listing with screenshots and descriptions
3. Upload your AAB file
4. Set up pricing and distribution
5. Submit for review

For the App Store:

1. Enroll in the Apple Developer Program
2. Create an App Store Connect listing
3. Upload your build through Xcode
4. Fill in metadata and screenshots
5. Submit for Apple's review

Always test on real devices before submitting. Use flutter build apk --release to test your release build locally.