Emergent App to APK and iPhone App: Two Routes That Work

Emergent builds two kinds of apps, and they leave Emergent by different doors. A web app deploys to a permanent HTTPS address such as yourapp.emergent.app; that address can be wrapped into an Android APK or AAB and an iPhone IPA without touching the code. A project from Emergent's Mobile Agent is Expo (React Native) code, which Emergent leaves to Expo's EAS to compile and submit. Pick the route that matches what you built.

Which Emergent app do you have?

Source: Emergent's help pages on deployment and mobile app development, checked October 2, 2026. Emergent says its Mobile Agent supports Expo only, not Flutter, Kotlin or Swift, and needs a paid plan.

Route 1: turn a deployed web app into a phone app

1. Deploy it. Use Emergent's deployment, not a preview link: Emergent describes the deployed URL as permanent and always on, which is what an installed app needs to load.
2. See it as an app first. Paste the deployed address into the free website-to-app preview and check the layout, navigation and sign-in screens in a phone frame. No account needed.
3. Build the files. Build one Preview APK with a Code2Native watermark. No card required. For a release, an App license ($69, one-time) gives an APK and an AAB for that website without the watermark. iPhone builds produce an IPA on our Mac, unsigned by default; Pro can sign it in the cloud with your Apple certificate and provisioning profile.
4. Test on a real phone. Sign in, sign out, upload a file, follow a link to another site, and turn on airplane mode: the app shows an offline page instead of a browser error.

The two things that break wrapped AI apps

Google sign-in. Google refuses its sign-in page inside embedded WebViews; users see 403: disallowed_useragent. If your Emergent app offers “Sign in with Google”, that step has to finish in the system browser, so test it before anyone else does. Email and password sign-in inside the page is not affected.

Selling digital goods. In an app distributed through Google Play or the App Store, the stores' billing rules apply to digital content and subscriptions. Physical goods and services can keep the payment provider your web app already uses.

Publishing to Google Play and the App Store

Both stores need your own developer account: Google Play charges $25 once and Apple $99 a year. Google Play takes the AAB, and sets a minimum Android API level for new apps and updates. Google Play has required API 36 for new apps and updates since August 31, 2026. Our website template targets API 35 until its update ships, so request Google's extension in Play Console; it runs to November 1, 2026. Direct APKs are not affected. A new personal Play account must also run a closed test with 12 testers for 14 days before it can publish.

Apple reviews wrapped apps under Guideline 4.2 (minimum functionality): an app that is only a website in a frame can be rejected, so it has to offer something beyond the site. See how to answer a 4.2 rejection. A build is never an approval, from either store.

Route 2: Emergent's Mobile Agent projects

If you built with the Mobile Agent, you have Expo code. Emergent's documentation sends you to Expo Application Services (EAS): download the project, configure EAS, and it builds the APK, AAB and IPA on Expo's servers and can submit them to the stores. Code2Native does not compile Expo or React Native projects today, so EAS is the right tool for this route. If the same app also has a deployed web version, Route 1 still works for that.