Setting Up Your App Stores for Amego
Introduction & Background
Amego offers branded apps for companies to publish under their own app store accounts. Your branded icon is on the user’s device and you have total control over the app’s appearance and behavior: it’s a representation of your brand on the attendee’s device. Moreover, the app can be used year round to support your whole event portfolio, adding efficiency for how your event team can bring events online.
Apple and Google app stores require that apps like Amego are not published byAmego, but by the company they’re representing: you! In fact, if anyone but you tried to publish your app it would be flagged for ‘impersonation’. This is a protection for you and your brand - you would not want random apps being created that seem to imply they are yours.
For that reason, Amego cannot publish your event apps in the Amego store. Each Amego customer needs to provide a way to help Amego publish your app on your app store. We provide 3 methods in this document, in order of ease and convenience. Please review these options and once we’ve heard from you, we will work with your team to get the apps set up immediately. Once initially set up, subsequent steps are greatly reduced.
Don’t have any app store presence yet? For more information on how to establish your app store presence, see Appendix A at the end of this document for more information.
Understanding Amego’s Role
Amego will be the app administrator in both app stores. You grant access to our user account –appdeveloper@amego.com – using the instructions below, one time. With these instructions and permissions, Amego will be able to administer your published app moving forward.
Amego manages your app store listing, screenshots, and distributes new releases on your behalf. In some cases, Amego may need your input for branding decisions, marketing copy, etc., and Amego will be responsible for communicating with any app store personnel. Amego does not respond to app store reviews on your behalf.
How We Publish Apps
Amego sets up your initial app store presence with a combination of manual and automatic activities. Items that require app store releases include:
- New Amego functionality, which is rolled out on a regular basis
- Changes to your app icon or app icon label
- Changes to fonts inside your app
- Some changes to your app store listing
Almost every other element of your app is dynamically updated through the AmegoCMS of your app. After your app’s initial release, every submission is automated. Our typical screenshots* included are:
- Home
- Agenda
- Library
- Session Detail
*Changes to screenshots require new app builds.
Restricting Our Access
Once your apps are initially set up, you can edit our user record and remove any access to apps other than the Amego app, where we will need to remain an app manager indefinitely.
If your organization prohibits third parties from accessing your app stores, the process becomes much more complicated. Please refer to Appendix B - manual app setup.
Distributing Your App Store Links
Once your apps are live, you can view their status and get links at https://app.amego.com/app-status
Steps to Create App Store Access
Each app store follows a different process, and we’ve outlined both below.
Apple iTunes Store (https://appstoreconnect.apple.com)
With Apple, you grant us access and we create the app for you.
STEP 1: Sign in to App Store Connect and click on Users and Access |
STEP 2: Click on the plus sign to add a New User |
STEP 3: Fill in the New User section |
Fill in our info:
|
✅ Apple setup is completed.
Google Play Store (https://play.google.com/console)
With Google, you create your app first, then give us access to only that specific app.
STEP 1: Go to Google Play Console and Create an App
Click on All apps, then click Create app. |
STEP 2: Edit App Details |
Complete the form, using the app name preferred by your events marketing team. |
STEP 3: Go to Users and Permissions to invite our user |
Go back to All apps on the left, and click Users and permissions, then Invite newusers. |
STEP 4: Invite our email address |
At the top of the form, enter appdeveloper@amego.com as the email and leavethe box unchecked. In App permissions, select the app you created in Step 1 by clicking Add app at the bottom. |
STEP 5: Make our user an admin for the Amego app |
In Account permissions, check the Admin box, then click Invite user on the bottom-right of the screen. |
✅ Google setup is completed.
Appendix A: Creating Apple and Google Accounts
Apple:
1 - Join the developer program for your organization https://developer.apple.com/programs/enroll/
2 - Return to the above instructions, log into App Store Connect, and proceed
Google:
1 - Create a developer account for your organization
https://play.google.com/console/u/0/signup
2 - Review their 4 step checklist:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6112435?hl=en#zippy=
3 - Return to the above instructions, log into Google Play Console, and proceed
Appendix B: Manual App Setup
Requirements
- Amego account
- Apple Developer account
Apple Account Setup
Create App Identifiers
Note: the AMEGO_APP_ID can be any text string you want to use and is usually a shortened version of your app/event name.
1. Go to https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/identifiers and create new “App Group” with name: group.com.amego.app{{AMEGO_APP_ID}}.onesignal
2. Go to https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/identifiers/add/bundleId and create new app identifier with name: com.amego.app{{AMEGO_APP_ID}}
Create and go back to newly created identifier and select capabilities:
- AppGroups, click configure and select newly created app group
group.com.amego.app{{AMEGO_APP_ID}}.onesignal
- Associated Domains
- Push Notifications
3. Create New App Identifier for OneSignal with name:
com.amego.app{{AMEGO_APP_ID}}.OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension
Create and go back to newly created identifier and select capabilities:
AppGroups, click it and select newly created app group
group.com.amego.app{{AMEGO_APP_ID}}.onesignal
Create new app in Appstore Connect
1. Go to https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/apps and click plus button
2. Fill in everything in opened modal
- Platform: iOS
- Bundle id: com.amego.app{{AMEGO_APP_ID}}
- SKU: Amego app id or any value you want
Create Apple Distribution signing certificate
- Go to https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/certificates/list and create new certificate
- Select “Apple Distribution” under the Software section
- Upload a Signing Certificate Request (How To Create Signing Request)
- Download .cer file
Extract .p12 key from .cer file
- Open .cer file (Keychain Access app will be opened)
- Find newly imported Apple Distribution certificate
- Click expand button and right click to expanded key
- Click Export “Key Name”
- Enter new password for your and click save (save your key password somewhere it will be needed later)
Create Provision Profiles
1. Go to https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/profiles and create provision profile for identifier: com.amego.app{{AMEGO_APP_ID}}
- Click plus button
- Select “App Store” under Distribution section
- Select com.amego.app{{AMEGO_APP_ID}} identifier from list
- Select signing certificate that we create earlier
- Enter Provision profile name e.g. “YourAppName”
- Download .mobileprovision file
- Create second provision profile for OneSignalidentifier: com.amego.app{{AMEGO_APP_ID}}.OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension
- Click plus button
- Select “App Store” under Distribution section
- Select com.amego.app{{AMEGO_APP_ID}}.OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension identifier from list
- Select signing certificate that we create earlier
- Enter Provision profile name e.g. “YourAppNameOneSignal”
- Download .mobileprovision file
Create Key for Push Notifications
- Go to https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/authkeys/list and create new key
- Select “Apple Push Notifications service (APNs)”
- Download .p8 file
- Send the .p8 file to Amego at appdeveloper@amego.com or through the secure file transfer system of your choice