What happens after the app launches?

It needs maintaining, and that is not an upsell — iOS and Android both change every year, and an app nobody updates stops working on somebody else’s schedule rather than on yours.

What actually breaks, and when

Apple ships a major iOS release every September and Google ships Android in the autumn. Each one deprecates something. Most years nothing visible happens; some years a screen misbehaves, a permission prompt changes, or a payment sheet needs updating. Separately, both stores raise their minimum requirements and refuse updates from apps that have not kept up.

None of this is dramatic and all of it is inevitable. An app left alone for two years is usually still installable and increasingly unable to receive an update, which is the worse of the two states.

What maintenance covers

• Keeping up with iOS and Android releases so the app keeps building and submitting.
• Fixing what breaks, including things that break because Shopify changed rather than because we did.
• Resubmitting when a store raises its requirements.
• Being reachable when something is wrong.

What it does not cover is new features. A new screen or a new capability is a piece of work with its own scope, and calling that maintenance is how a monthly figure quietly becomes a development retainer.

The first month is different

Most of what needs fixing surfaces in the first four weeks, when real customers use the app in ways nobody predicted. Expect a small number of updates in that period and very few afterwards — and treat a supplier who disappears after launch as having told you what the next two years look like.