Tutorial

How to ship a Lovable app to the App Store & Play Store

You built an app in Lovable and it works in the browser. Here is the complete, no-fluff path to turn it into a real native iOS and Android app and publish it to the App Store and Google Play — including how to build iOS without owning a Mac.

The short version

Push your Lovable app to GitHub, use Nativize to generate a standard Capacitor 8 native project into that repo, run the included GitHub Actions build to get installable iOS and Android artifacts, then submit them to the App Store and Google Play. Total hands-on time is usually under 30 minutes.

What you need first

  • A Lovable app that builds and runs (any Vite/React web build works).
  • A GitHub account — this is where your native project will live.
  • An Apple Developer account (99 USD/yr) to publish on the App Store.
  • A Google Play Developer account (25 USD one-time) to publish on Google Play.

You do not need a Mac, Xcode, or Android Studio installed — the builds run in the cloud on GitHub Actions.

Step 1 — Get your Lovable app into GitHub

Lovable can connect your project to a GitHub repository. Once your web app is in a repo, Nativize can read the build output and wrap it. If you already push your Lovable project to GitHub, you are ready.

Step 2 — Generate the native kit with Nativize

  1. Open Nativize Studio and connect your GitHub repository.
  2. Set your app identity — app name, bundle identifier (for example com.yourcompany.yourapp), icon, and splash screen.
  3. Generate. Nativize builds a Capacitor 8 project in your browser and commits it back to your repo. The output is plain Capacitor you fully own.

Step 3 — Configure native features

Before building, turn on what your app needs directly in Nativize: push notifications, camera and location permissions, deep links, and social sign-in. These are written into the Capacitor config so the stores see a complete, well-formed app.

Step 4 — Run the cloud build

The generated repo includes GitHub Actions workflows. Trigger them to produce installable artifacts:

  • Android — an .aab for Google Play (and an .apk for testing).
  • iOS — an .ipa built on a macOS runner, so no local Mac is required.
  • macOS and Windows — desktop builds if you want them.

Step 5 — Submit to the stores

  1. App Store: create the app in App Store Connect, upload the .ipa, add screenshots and a privacy label, then submit for review.
  2. Google Play: create the app in the Play Console, upload the .aab, complete the content rating and data-safety forms, then roll out to production.

Review typically takes a day or two on each store. After approval, your Lovable app is live as a real native app.

Common questions

  • Is it a real native app or a wrapper? It is a real Capacitor native app — the same technology used by many production App Store apps — running your web UI inside a native shell with native APIs.
  • Do I keep the code? Yes. Everything lives in your GitHub repo as standard Capacitor. No lock-in.
  • Can I update the app later? Yes. Re-run generation after changes in Lovable, rebuild with GitHub Actions, and ship the update.

Ready to ship?

Nativize is the fastest, easiest way to take a Lovable or GitHub app all the way to the App Store and Play Store while keeping ownership of the native project.

Open Nativize StudioSee how it works

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