App Store Pre-Order: How to Set It Up for Your First Expo App (and When It Is Worth It)

An App Store pre-order is a limited version of your product page that Apple publishes before your release date. People can search for it, open it, and tap Pre-Order instead of Get. On release day the app downloads automatically to the device they ordered from, they get a notification, and if they have automatic downloads turned on it lands on their other eligible devices too. Apple's pre-order page also says a pre-ordered app is discoverable in search results and, if it is being actively featured, on the Today, Games and Apps tabs. The product page shows an expected release date: the full date when release is under 180 days away, and only the month and year when it is further out than that.

Eligibility is broader than most people assume. App Store Connect Help states that both free and paid apps across all Apple platforms can be offered for pre-order, in any country or region where the app has not yet been released. Two things are not eligible. In-app purchases cannot be pre-ordered, although you can set them up, promotional metadata included, before and during the pre-order period so they are ready on release; promoted in-app purchases simply do not display on the product page until the app is released for download. App bundles are also excluded. The device floor is low: customers can pre-order on iOS 11.2, iPadOS 13, macOS 10.13.2, tvOS 11.2 and watchOS 6 or later, and on older systems the Buy button is disabled with a prompt to update.

Inside App Store Launch Club I call the decision the Runway Test, because a pre-order is a runway: it only helps if you have something to run down it. Three questions, in order. First, is the build approved-ready today? If it is not, the pre-order cannot exist yet, and any planning around it is premature. Second, do you have somewhere to send people during the window: a waitlist, a community, a creator audience, an email list? A pre-order page with no traffic is a product page that earns nothing for a few weeks. Third, is there a date-based reason to wait, such as a launch stream, a conference, a school term, or a partner going live on the same day? A yes to all three means turn it on. A no to the second question means skip it, release manually, and put the same hours into [getting your first 100 app users](/blog/how-to-get-your-first-100-app-users).

There is a second reason I am cautious with pre-orders for the typical member app. Most apps built in this community are a free download with a subscription behind a paywall, and Apple hides promoted in-app purchases until release. So the pre-order page for a free app is thinner than the launch-day page, and the person who pre-orders pays nothing until they hit the paywall weeks later. For a paid-up-front app the maths is different: a pre-order locks in a buyer at the price they accepted, and Apple charges them on release day. If you are still deciding between the two models, [the pricing and free trial primer](/free-resources/app-store-pricing-and-free-trials) is the place to settle it, because the value of a pre-order follows from it.

My own default is a short runway. Apple's minimum is two days and the maximum for a first release is 180. I do not use a long window unless the audience already exists, because the release date is printed on the product page and Apple does not notify customers if it moves. A short window with a list to email beats a long window with a hope.

Two guidelines govern pre-orders and both are short. Guideline 2.1(a) on App Completeness says submissions to App Review, including apps you make available for pre-order, should be final versions with all necessary metadata and fully functional URLs, with placeholder text, empty websites and other temporary content scrubbed before submission. Guideline 2.3.11 says apps you submit for pre-order must be complete and deliverable as submitted, that the app you ultimately release must not be materially different from what you advertised during the pre-order state, and that if you make material changes, its example is changing business models, you should restart your pre-order sales. That last clause is the one to plan around: switching from paid to free-with-subscription mid-window means starting over.

Then there are the App Store Connect mechanics. You need the Account Holder, Admin or App Manager role. If the app has never been released anywhere, App Store Connect forces manual release: the App Store Version Release section is dimmed and Release the app yourself is selected for you, so an approved build sits in Pending Developer Release until you click. Apple emails a reminder if a version stays in Pending Developer Release for more than 30 days. Practically, that means the order of operations is the ordinary one: get through [TestFlight beta testing](/blog/testflight-beta-testing-guide-for-expo-apps), run [the App Store submission checklist](/guides/app-store-submission-checklist), pass [App Review](/blog/how-to-pass-apple-app-review), and only then does the pre-order become a button you can press.

These are the steps App Store Connect Help gives for an app that has never been published anywhere. If you have not created the app record yet, [setting up App Store Connect for your first app](/blog/how-to-set-up-app-store-connect-for-your-first-app) comes first.

The status column tells you where you are. Processing to Pre-Order means Apple is publishing it and it should appear within 24 hours. Pre-Order with a scheduled release date in brackets means it is live and customers in that region can order. Pre-Order Pending Developer Release means the pre-order is configured but waiting on you to release a version. If a status sits in processing for more than 24 hours, Apple's own guidance is to contact them rather than wait.

If the app is already live in at least one country and you want a pre-order for a new region, the path is slightly different: App Availability, then Manage, then Set Up Pre-Order, and the release date can be two to 365 days out. The pre-order publishes immediately using whichever version is currently Ready for Distribution.

Nothing about a pre-order changes the Expo side. You create a production build with EAS Build, then run eas submit for iOS. Expo's documentation says the build appears in TestFlight after processing, usually 10 to 15 minutes, and that to release to production you log in to App Store Connect and submit the build for App Review. EAS Submit works on macOS, Linux and Windows, so you do not need a Mac for any of this. The pre-order is layered on top of the approved version in App Store Connect; the binary is the same one you would ship without it.

You can keep improving the app during the window. App Store Connect Help says you can update an app while it is available for pre-order by creating and submitting a new version, and customers receive the latest version you have released for distribution. After approval you choose manual release, automatic release, or automatic release no earlier than a date. When you click Release This Version on a new build during a pre-order, it is published for pre-order in the enabled regions but does not go live until the pre-order release date. The routine for that is the same as [submitting any app update](/blog/how-to-submit-an-app-update-to-the-app-store).

One thing Claude Code cannot do is make the screenshots honest for you. It can catch a mismatch, but the fix is real captures of the real build, which is the whole of [App Store screenshots that convert](/blog/app-store-screenshots-that-convert).

Money moves on release day, not order day. App Store Connect Help states that customers who pre-order a paid app are not charged until the official release date, and that you may adjust the price during the pre-order phase, with the customer always charged the lower amount: either the pre-order price they accepted or the price on release day. So a price cut during the window applies to everyone who already ordered, and a price rise does not. Customers can cancel a pre-order at any time from their App Store settings on iOS and macOS, or from a Windows PC.

The reporting rule follows the same logic. Apple's Sales and Trends help says a pre-order is counted as an app unit when it is fulfilled to a customer, and for a paid pre-order the sale is recorded at fulfilment. Nothing shows up as a unit or a sale on the day someone taps Pre-Order. Plan your launch numbers around release day, not the window.

Apple gives you a Pre-order on the App Store badge for your own channels and recommends a clear call to action with a direct link to the product page, on your website, mailing list and social accounts. Apple Ads can run against a pre-order product page too, which is the one place [Apple Search Ads for indie apps](/blog/apple-search-ads-for-indie-apps) and a pre-order overlap. Apple's own advice on the date is worth repeating: the product page displays the expected release date, and if there is any chance that date will shift, leave it out of your marketing materials. On release day, update every badge and piece of copy to say the app is available to download.

Custom product pages and product page optimization tests are available on a pre-order product page, but Apple's pre-order page states that for existing apps. A brand-new app gets the standard page, which makes [the description](/blog/how-to-write-an-app-store-description) and the first three screenshots the whole pitch. Apple also documents a preorder_date field in the receipt that identifies people who pre-ordered, so you can thank them in-app or unlock something for them on first launch; that is a small piece of work for Claude Code once the app reads its receipt.

Measurement lives in two places. App Analytics shows the number of pre-orders broken down by date, region and source type, which is how you learn whether the email or the post did the work. Sales and Trends has a Pre-Orders view with purchased pre-orders and cancellations, and the downloadable Pre-Order Report carries Ordered, Canceled, Cumulative Ordered and Cumulative Canceled per period, with country code and device. Watch cancellations against orders; a rising cancel count during a long window is the clearest signal that the runway was too long.

An App Store pre-order publishes your product page ahead of a release date you set, two to 180 days out for a brand-new app and two to 365 for a new region of an existing app, and on release day the app downloads automatically to everyone who ordered. Apple publishes it only after the version has passed App Review and you click Release This Version, Guideline 2.3.11 requires the app to be complete and deliverable as submitted, and a material change such as a new business model means restarting pre-order sales. Free and paid apps qualify, in-app purchases and bundles do not, paid customers are charged on release day at the lower of the accepted or release-day price, and Apple never notifies them if you move the date or remove the offer. Run the Runway Test: approved-ready build, somewhere to send people, a date-based reason to wait. Two out of three is not enough.

The Runway Test came out of watching members set a 90-day pre-order for an app with no audience, then wonder why the counter stayed at zero. Inside App Store Launch Club you can post your release date, your list size and your build status and get a straight answer on whether the pre-order is worth it before you commit to a date on your product page. Join at applaunchclub.co for $9 a month and bring your launch plan.