Continuous deployment and continuous delivery became a natural process for web-based applications over the last years. Companies are now able to deploy product changes or bug fixes to the production system multiple times a day. With the help of web deployment tools and a solid deployment infrastructure setup, this task became much more reliable and easier. But how does it look for native mobile apps? Is it possible to release a new mobile app at any point in time while having the app store submission process in place for some app stores?
The answer is yes, and in this article, I will describe the possible options for native mobile apps.
Invest in Mobile Infrastructure
Continuous deployment and delivery don’t come free. Nor for web applications nor for native mobile apps. A company needs to invest time and money in its own mobile app infrastructure to be able to ship a new version of the native mobile app at any point in time. However, from the software and tooling perspective, a mobile app delivery infrastructure can be build up really easily. For example with the help of open-source software like Jenkins as continuous integration system and fastlane as build and signing software, the infrastructure setup can be lean, easy and powerful. Last but not least a company should set up a mobile app distribution channel e.g. with the help of software like Testflight, AppCenter or Firebase. Tools like that help to distribute the mobile app to test devices during the development and testing phase.