LaunchKit

Tools, Features, and Support

[launchkit]

We’ve got some news...

Read the full story here!

[launchkit]

Custom Waiting List Button Labels in App Websites

We previously launched the Waiting List feature to let you start collecting email addresses from interested people, in case you wanted to launch your website before your app was ready.

Today, we’re adding a useful detail to this feature. Pro users can now customize the label of the button, changing it from “Join Waiting List” to whatever they like! 

You’ll now see the following field in the website editor.

Whatever you add to that field is displayed in the button on your website!

Simple and easy. We hope you like it.

Set up your App Website today!

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New Device Colors in Screenshot Builder

Screenshot Builder now supports Gold and Rose Gold devices, as well as the classic white and black! 

Head over to your dashboard to check the new colors out!

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Create gorgeous images for Google Play using Screenshot Builder!

We’re so excited to finally release our far and away most requested feature: Android support for Screenshot Builder!

Now you can create a set of gorgeous screenshots for both platforms in the same workflow. Using it is easy. When you go to create a new screenshot set, you’ll now see an option to create an Android set in addition to iOS.

The rest of the process is the exact same as it is for iOS. Customizable colors, backgrounds, fonts, layouts. And yes, you can create a set for your Android Tablet app as well!

If you already have an iOS set that you want to make an Android set for, we’ve made that easy too! Just hit “Clone” and you can create a new set for Android with one click.

It’s fast and easy. And the final result is awesome. We’re starting out by offering Nexus 5x, Nexus 6P, and Nexus 9, but will add more devices as requested.

Now go get started building your first Android set!

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Take your App Website to the next level

Thousands of app websites are hosted on LaunchKit, and recently we quietly released a big upgrade to the platform. Introducing App Websites Pro!

Here are some of the features that are included when you upgrade:

Remove LaunchKit Branding

Upgraded pages don’t include the “Website by LaunchKit” text in the footer

Google Analytics Support

Simply add your Tracking ID to the dashboard and send all visitor data for your website to the GA 

iTunes Campaign Support

Enter custom link codes readable by iTunes Connect to track visitors are coming from your homepage.

Custom Footer Links

Add additional links to your footer for whatever you want

Hosted Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, & Support Page

This is the simplest way to add legal and support pages for your app. Just fill out a quick form and the pages will be generated instantly.

Mixpanel Badge Support

Do you want to get more free credits from Mixpanel? Now your can add your Mixpanel Partner badge with one click.

Custom CSS

Take control of the look and feel of your site by adding your own custom CSS.

We hope you love the new features! To upgrade, just head over to https://launchkit.io/websites/dashboard and click “Upgrade to Pro” on one of your websites.

[launchkit]

iPad Support (and more) are here for Screenshot Builder!

We've recently made a major upgrade to Screenshot Builder, adding iPad support, more layouts, higher resolution exporting in PNG, and more! Read on for more details about all the awesome new features — we can't wait for you to try it!

iPad Support Creating screenshots for your universal app has never been easier. Just upload iPad screenshots when editing your screenshot set, and iPad and iPad Pro sizes will be included when you export!

More Layouts You've always been able to set your screenshot on a white or black device with text or above or below it. With Pro, we added two new layouts!

Higher resolution exporting in PNG Your screenshots look great in JPG. They'll look even better in PNG. Re-export your old shots and see how crisp and beautiful they can be!

Device specific overrides Do parts of your app not scale correctly when you use the same screenshot for different sizes? You can now override specific devices, so you can upload a custom image for the giant iPhone 6s Plus, or the tiny iPhone 4.

Clone existing sets New version coming out but you don't want to start over? Now easily clone a set into a new one.

All these new features are part of Screenshot Builder ​Pro. We think you'll love it.

You can upgrade here!

[launchkit]

A tiny change we hope you’ll find useful

We rolled out a micro-improvement to our Sales Reporter emails today. It’s the type of change that isn’t glaring or flashy, but will hopefully save you a tiny bit of time each day.

Starting today, in most email clients, you’ll be able to see the previous day’s download and revenue figures before even opening the daily Sales Reporter email. In many cases, this might make it possible to get all the info you need from the email without opening it at all. 

Time to celebrate our open rates plummeting!

Here’s some examples from a test account of this morning’s email vs the old format in a few popular email clients:

Gmail

Outlook for iPhone

Sparrow for Mac

Sign up for Sales Reporter here.

[launchkit]

Waiting List for App Websites

One of the biggest pieces of feedback we got after launching Instant App Websites was that some people wanted to set up a website, but their app wasn’t released yet. Instead of a “Download App” link, they wanted a way to collect info from people who were interested. Today, we’ve added a way to do that!

Starting today, if you haven’t added an App Store or Google Play ID, you can add a URL for your waiting list signup form. Use whatever service you want. Google Forms is a favorite of ours, but any service that gives you a URL where people can fill out a form will work. 

Just add a URL and there will instantly be a new button on your website that says “Join Waiting List”. When your app launches, just add your App Store or Google Play ID and the button will be replaced by your download badge!

This should solve the main need for the users who requested it, but obviously we’ll keep iterating this over time. As always, send us feedback!

[launchkit]

We are so honored to be mentioned in this week’s iOS Dev Weekly newsletter! Thanks Dave for including us!

[launchkit]

How to setup your domain to show your LaunchKit website

Here’s a quick guide to set your domain name to point to your LaunchKit Website.

Log into the place that manages your domain’s DNS settings. This is probably your registrar, like GoDaddy or Domainr.

Add a CNAME record that points to domains.launchkit.io for www or whatever subdomain you’d like.

If using www as the CNAME, add a redirect from yourdomain.com to www.yourdomain.com.

Then on LaunchKit:

Go to the Websites Dashboard.

Click Edit on for the website you’d like to set the domain name for.

Enter your CNAME + domain (e.g. www.yourwebsite.com or landingpage.yourwebsite.com) in the “Domain” field.

Click “Test Domain.”

Correct problems if the test finds any, and click “Test Domain” until the test is successful. It might take up to 24 hours after adding the CNAME for your domain name to update. Most of the time it happens within an hour.

Hit Save

FAQs

What is a CNAME?

A CNAME, or Canonical Name, is an entry within the Domain Name System (DNS) that specifies where someone can find your web pages. You'll use the CNAME to associate your custom domain with your website.

After registering your domain, decide if you want to use a particular subdomain for your website. For example, website.mydomain.com instead of www.mydomain.com.

How do I set up a CNAME with my registrar?

Because there are so many, we can’t list how to do it with every registrar. The best thing to do is google “Adding a CNAME on my [insert registrar name] domain name”

How do I get rid of the www in my domain name?

Like setting a CNAME, it’s different for every registrar. You need to add a redirect from mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com. Here’s how to do it on GoDaddy. Search google for other registrars.

It’s not working and I’m frustrated!

Please wait at least 24 hours for the domain name to forward, and if it’s not working, email us and we’ll help!

Thanks to Tumblr and Google for inspiring parts of this guide.

[launchkit]

TechCrunch did an amazing writeup of Instant App Websites!

[launchkit]

Introducing Instant App Websites

The main goal of any mobile app website is simple: get visitors to download the app.

After releasing 7 apps into the App Store and 6 to Google Play, our team has tried many different methods to accomplish this goal. Today, we’re sharing what we’ve learned through a product that will ease this process for app developers everywhere.

LaunchKit’s Instant App Website tool creates and hosts a mobile-ready, smart solution for anyone who needs to quickly launch a website for their app. You don’t need to spend days or weeks working on and launching a website. With LaunchKit, you just need to fill out a few fields, choose a template, and hit save.

Read more here...

[launchkit]

Check out the new LaunchKit Library for a collection of all the writing we’ve done about iOS development and LaunchKit.

[launchkit]

Introducing Sales Reporter

Keeping your team up to date with how many people are downloading and paying for your apps is incredibly important. Everyone should have a general idea of how the app is performing and how it’s trending.

Up to this point for iOS, this information has been accessible by visiting iTunes Connect’s Sales and Trends section. There are also a number of third party services that will collect this data for you and send it to you in a dense email. But what we wanted was this information to be posted in the place our team communicated all the time: Slack. Today we’re releasing a tool that makes iTunes Connect to Slack integration absurdly easy.

LaunchKit’s Sales Reporter posts your apps’ daily download and sales summaries into your team’s Slack channel. It takes a couple minutes to set up and then posts reports every morning when they become available on iTunes Connect (usually around 7am PST).

Read more..

[launchkit]

Share your 5-star reviews automatically with your Twitter followers

Review Monitor can now seamlessly connect to your app’s Twitter account and post a tweet every time you get a great review. The image of the review will be included in the tweet.

Start Auto-tweeting great app reviews here

[launchkit]

Review Monitor: Added to Slack as an official integration!

New integration! Track iOS & Mac apps in @launchkit and get app reviews in Slack https://t.co/r2SAYF079Y #changelog pic.twitter.com/sMd1QCstOY

— Slack (@SlackHQ) April 3, 2015

[launchkit]

Review Monitor: Slack Webhook Support

@launchkit Review Monitor looks awesome. Is there a way to use it without giving access to "Read your Slack messages and files"?

— Ilya Baryshev (@coagulant)

March 2, 2015

Since launching Review Monitor, we’ve gotten consistent feedback from users concerned about the level of access they needed to grant in Slack in order to use the integration. Specifically, they asked why we were asking for Read access to their Slack account. 

We strive to make products that are incredibly easy to use. To make setting up Review Monitor simple for people of all technical abilities, we have users connect LaunchKit to Slack through Slack's OAuth flow.

Unfortunately, Slack's OAuth scopes are tiered: you can't get "post" access without "read" access. So in order to post to your Slack channel, "read" permission is a prerequisite.

This is obviously broken, and the good news is that they are working very hard to remedy the situation. We’ve been in close contact with them during the process and the next version of their API will have some big improvements. The minute we have the ability to turn off Read access, we will for every account. 

In the meantime, we understand there are some users who just don’t feel comfortable granting any application full access. So today, we’re happy to announce we have added the ability to connect Review Monitor to Slack via a webhook.

Now new users who deny access to Slack will be shown an option to connect via webhook.

Existing users can take advantage of this new option as well, and can setup your webhook here.