Run your first build
A build compiles your configuration into a real Flutter app. This page takes you from pressing Build to opening the app on an Android phone. On Pro and Unlimited the same press also builds your iPhone app, when your app is set up for iOS — see Getting ready for iOS builds.
Before you build
Section titled “Before you build”Check these, because each one is easier to fix now than after a fifteen-minute compile:
- The preview shows your own content, not sample data.
- Your app has a name and an icon, both under Settings → General.
- Your navigation has at least one feature on it.
Build it
Section titled “Build it”Press Build on the canvas. The app moves to pending, then to running.
Expect five to fifteen minutes. The job has a twenty-minute ceiling, and it does not retry — a half-finished Gradle workspace is not safe to resume, so a failed build is a failed build and you start another.
You do not have to wait on the page. The build continues if you close the tab.
Reading the log
Section titled “Reading the log”Expand a build row to see its log. It narrates each step: checking the Flutter version, creating the project, generating Dart source from your configuration, copying your icons, setting the Android application ID, fetching packages and compiling.
When a build fails, the log line before the failure is almost always the useful one. See When a build fails.
What you get
Section titled “What you get”Two files, or three when iOS builds as well:
| File | What it is for |
|---|---|
.apk | Installing directly on a phone, for testing and for sharing with your team |
.aab | Uploading to Google Play. Play accepts this format, not the APK |
.ipa | Your signed iPhone app. It goes to TestFlight on its own when you have added an App Store Connect key |
Download any of them from the build row.
Put it on a phone
Section titled “Put it on a phone”- Transfer the
.apkto an Android phone — email, cloud drive or USB. - Open it on the phone.
- Android will ask you to allow installs from that source. Allow it.
- Open the app.
Your build allowance
Section titled “Your build allowance”Builds are metered per month across your whole account, not per app.
| Plan | Builds per month |
|---|---|
| Free | 3 |
| Pro | 30 |
| Unlimited | 100, fair use |
One press counts once, even when it produces an Android build and an iOS build. A press where everything failed does not count. The badge in the builder header shows what is left. Running out returns a clear message with the date the allowance resets, and a build pack adds more on any plan. See Build allowance.
About iOS
Section titled “About iOS”There is no platform to choose. One Build press builds both, and the pair counts as one build.
On Free, iOS is not in the plan and nothing asks you about it. On Pro and Unlimited, iOS builds whenever your app meets every iOS requirement. When it does not, the Android half builds as normal and the iOS setup window opens at the first thing to fix.
Getting there takes an Apple Developer account, a certificate and a provisioning profile, which is an afternoon the first time. Getting ready for iOS builds walks through it, and How iOS builds work covers what happens afterwards.
When it does not work
Section titled “When it does not work”| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
The build sits at pending and never starts | The queue worker is not running on the Memberside side | Get in touch — this is not something you can fix |
| Build limit reached | You have used this month’s allowance | Wait for the reset date shown, or ask about a top-up |
| The build fails partway | Usually a bad icon file or an invalid setting | When a build fails |
| The app installs but shows a white screen | It cannot reach your site | Confirm the site is public and serving over HTTPS |
You have a working app. From here:
- Shape the navigation properly in The app builder.
- Add more screens from the feature catalogue.
- Get it into the stores with Android signing and the Play Store.
- Set up the iPhone half with Getting ready for iOS builds.