Bitrise Immerse

Pipeline Stages

Release Stage

Releasing your approved app to the App Store, including phased release configuration.

The Release stage is the final step in the version pipeline. This is where you publish your approved app to the App Store for users to download.

Prerequisites

What You’ll See

When you reach this stage, you’ll see:

  • A banner: “Ready to release” with the note: “You can release your app for distribution in the App Store”
  • Release Settings — Options for how and when to release
  • A “Release Version” button

release-stage-ready

The Release stage in Ready to Release state

Releasing Your App

Immediate Release

  1. Review the release settings

    Confirm your phased release and version release preferences are set correctly.

  2. Click Release Version

    Click the “Release Version” button.

  3. Confirm the release

    The Version Release modal appears asking you to confirm. Click Confirm to release.

    release-confirm

    The release confirmation dialog

Your app is now live on the App Store. The version status changes to Completed.

To release your app on the App Store, you need to have the Release Manager role for your connected app.

Phased Release

If phased release is enabled (configured in the App Store Review stage or in release settings):

  • Your app rolls out gradually over 7 days
  • Apple automatically increases the percentage of users who can see the update each day
  • You can monitor rollout progress
Google calls this feature a staged rollout while Apple calls it a phased release. This is different from the Rollout product name.

Phased release schedule (approximate):

DayPercentage of Users
11%
22%
35%
410%
520%
650%
7100%
Phased release lets you monitor crash reports and user feedback at each tier before the update reaches all users. This is recommended for significant updates.

Configuring Phased Release

  1. Find the Phased release card

    On the App Store Review stage or Release stage, find the Phased release for automatic updates card and click Change.

  2. Choose your release strategy

    Select either Release update to all users at once or Release update over 7-day period using phased release.

    phased-release-settings

    The phased release configuration dialog

  3. Save changes

    Click Save changes.

Pausing and Resuming Phased Release

While your app is in phased release, you can choose to pause the release for a total of 30 days. There’s no limit to the number of pauses.

  1. Pause the release

    On the Release stage, click the Pause phased release button to pause the release.

  2. Resume when ready

    To resume the release, click the Resume phased release button.

Scheduled Release

You can also set a specific release date and time:

  1. In the release settings, select a date/time for the release
  2. The app will be released automatically at the scheduled time after Apple’s approval
  3. This is useful for coordinating releases with marketing campaigns or announcements
You can change the date on the Release page if you selected Automatically release this version after App Review, no earlier than in the App Store Review stage.

Canceling a Release

If you need to stop a release that’s in progress (e.g., a critical issue is discovered during phased rollout):

  1. Find the cancel option

    Look for the info banner: “You can cancel the release if needed”.

  2. Click Cancel release

    Click “Cancel release”. The Cancel Release modal appears.

  3. Confirm cancellation

    Optionally provide a reason for cancellation, then confirm.

Canceling a release stops the phased rollout. Users who already received the update will keep it, but no new users will get it.

After Release

Once your app is released:

  • The version status changes to Completed
  • The pipeline shows all five stages as complete
  • The version appears in your version list with a completed status
  • Your app is available for download on the App Store

What’s Next