# Bubble Mobile App Builder: Native iOS and Android, Step by Step > How Bubble builds native iOS and Android apps on React Native (beta): the pricing tab you need, testing, App Store and Google Play publishing, OTA updates. _Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/bubble-mobile-app-builder — The Professional's Toolkit · updated November 2026_ --- Bubble (bubble.io) builds native iOS and Android apps on React Native, in the same editor and project as a web app, and it still labels this mobile builder beta as of November 2026. You can design, build and test a phone app on Bubble's Free plan at no charge. Publishing is another matter. A live mobile version, TestFlight, Google Play testing and any store release need a paid plan on the Mobile or Web & Mobile tab: Bubble's Starter plan (Mobile) is $42 per month billed annually or $49 per month billed monthly, per app. [1] Apple and Google then charge their own developer fees on top. **$42/mo Mobile** — Bubble's Starter plan (Mobile), per app, per month billed annually ($49 per month billed monthly). - **5 / 10 / 20** — Mobile builds a month on Bubble's Starter, Growth and Team plans - **3 / 5 / 8** — Concurrent live mobile versions on Starter, Growth and Team - **5-10 min** — Typical time for an over-the-air update to reach the latest build ## What a Bubble phone app is made of A mobile app here is not a web page squeezed into a store wrapper. The builder produces React Native apps that run on iOS 15.1 and later and Android 12 and later, sharing the database, backend workflows, users and API connections with any web app in the same project. The building blocks differ from the web editor. Views with tab, stack and modal navigation replace pages, sheets replace popups, and native lists replace repeating groups. **Web pages do not carry over.** Each screen you already have on the web gets rebuilt for the phone. Device access covers the camera and photo library, location services, push notifications, deep and universal links, and Sign in with Apple, which arrived in August 2026. Two gaps decide some projects outright. At the September 2026 founder AMA, Face ID and Touch ID were unsupported with no timeline, and offline functionality was not a current focus. Stop here if either matters. Android support also means Google Play alone, so an app aimed at another Android store needs a different builder. ## Choosing the project type and the pricing tab Every project is Web, Mobile or Web & Mobile, and one plan covers the whole project. Choose by how many front ends must read the same data. A phone-only product belongs on the Mobile tab. A product with a browser dashboard plus a phone app usually belongs on the Web & Mobile tab, because both apps then use one database and draw on one pool of workload units (WU), which Bubble counts cumulatively across web and mobile inside a project. | Tab and term (per app, per month) | Starter | Growth | Team | |---|---|---|---| | Mobile, billed annually | $42 | $169 | $449 | | Mobile, billed monthly | $49 | $199 | $529 | | Web & Mobile, billed annually | $59 | $209 | $549 | | Web & Mobile, billed monthly | $69 | $249 | $649 | | Mobile builds a month | 5 | 10 | 20 | | Concurrent live mobile versions | 3 | 5 | 8 | The Free plan costs $0 on every tab and includes no builds or live versions; Enterprise is quoted by sales. The mobile tabs cost more than Web on every plan. By our arithmetic, Bubble's Starter plan costs $10 more per month on the Mobile tab than on the Web tab, on either billing term. Splitting one product into a separate Web project and Mobile project on Starter costs $74 per month billed annually against $59 per month billed annually for a single Web & Mobile project, and only the single project shares data and workload. Ten projects mean ten plans, as our [Bubble pricing guide](/articles/bubble-pricing) explains. Builds are the scarce allowance. Failed builds, and builds Bubble requires after its own native code updates, do not count against the monthly figure, but every deliberate release does. Workload follows the plan rather than the tab: past the monthly allowance (Starter 175K WU, Growth 250K, Team 500K), overages run at $0.30 per 1K WU and are on by default, and switching them off takes the app offline at its limit until the next billing period, a tier purchase or re-enabled overages. > 💡 **Test on the Simulated device first:** The Simulated device streams a real cloud build into your browser on Bubble's Free plan; move to a paid Mobile or Web & Mobile plan, and connect an App Store or Google Play account, only when you need camera, push or a real phone. ## Building the app by hand or with Bubble AI The mobile editor sits inside the same workspace as your web pages, with workflows and the data tab shared. You can lay views out by hand or start from a prompt. Bubble's mobile page says AI generation produces the interface, dynamic expressions and sample data for a native app, with workflows and data then connected visually or by the AI Agent. Native mobile app generation still carries a beta label. Since August 2026 the Agent can edit mobile workflows and data as well, and Agent 2 left beta in October 2026. Two cautions come with that help. The Agent spends AI credits, while the running app spends workload units; the allowances are separate, as our [Bubble AI guide](/articles/bubble-ai-app-builder) explains. The second caution concerns data. Bubble says privacy rules are generated automatically when the AI creates data types for a mobile app, and it advises checking them before launch. Review them anyway. Without privacy rules, any data sent to a device can be read. Bubble's preliminary root-cause analysis (November 2026) says the attacker in its October 2026 security incident got partial access to Bubble's production systems and some user data, including private plugin data such as credentials plugin developers had saved. It says the attacker also targeted individual apps through platform issues that reached stored credentials or data even in correctly set-up apps, and through settings such as privacy rules that granted access, with affected owners contacted; a final RCA will follow. Securing the app stays your job, as our [Bubble review](/articles/bubble-review) explains. Plugins differ on the phone. Mobile plugin actions are built on React Native libraries, and each plugin declares whether it targets web, native mobile or both. Bubble says nearly 700 native mobile plugins were in its marketplace by September 2026, when the mobile plugin editor moved to public beta. Check the platform filter in the plugin directory before you design a screen around a web plugin you already own. ## Testing on screens before the stores see anything The Simulated device, released in September 2026, streams an actual cloud build of your app into the browser and runs on the Free plan without a phone or a store connection. Plugins that use native libraries work there. Camera, push notifications and device sensors do not. For those you need a dev build, launched in August 2026, which installs on a real phone, mimics native behavior including deep links and push, and requires a paid plan plus a connected App Store or Google Play account. BubbleGo is the odd one out. The pricing page still lists it on every plan, yet the manual calls it deprecated, and Bubble retired it from the App Store because Apple does not allow apps that exist to test other apps. Treat that row as a leftover. The last stage, TestFlight on iOS and testing tracks on Google Play, already counts as a live mobile version, which the Free plan cannot have, as our [guide to Bubble's Free plan](/articles/is-bubble-free) explains. Simulate on Free first, then pay when the app needs real hardware. ## Getting into the App Store and Google Play ### Apple Publishing to iOS needs an Apple Developer Program membership at $99 a year, paid to Apple, and you remain the developer of record. [2] Bubble cannot create the store listing, so you set up the app record in App Store Connect yourself and generate an App Store Connect API key: a .p8 file, a Key ID and an Issuer ID. The .p8 file downloads only once. A key tied to a user with developer rights instead of admin rights can break builds, and iOS push needs a separate APNs key. **No Mac or Xcode is needed.** Bubble packages the build, icons and splash screens and delivers each build to App Store Connect, while you manage TestFlight testers and submit for review. After setup, the manual puts building, uploading to TestFlight and submitting at about 45 minutes. Apple's guideline 4.8 is the common trap: an app that offers Google or another social login must also offer an equivalent such as Sign in with Apple, and Bubble's manual names that omission as a frequent rejection cause. ### Google Play Android publishing needs a Google Play Console account with a one-time $25 registration fee, an app created in Play Console, and a Google Cloud project whose service account JSON key lets Bubble upload builds directly. [3] Bubble produces an Android App Bundle, and the first release may still need a manual upload. Before each build Bubble checks for setup faults such as version conflicts, expired agreements or a mismatched google-services.json; a build then takes about 20 minutes, as of October 2026. Google's common rejections are a missing privacy policy, placeholder pages, undisclosed sensitive permissions and login apps without a reviewer test account. The editor warns when camera or microphone access is switched on but the Play Console listing has no privacy policy URL. One detail costs builds. If Google rejects an upload only for a missing privacy policy URL, the build still counts as successful, so fill in that URL before you press build. > 💡 **Add Sign in with Apple early:** If your iOS app offers Google or another social login, Apple's guideline 4.8 requires an equivalent such as Sign in with Apple, a frequent rejection cause according to Bubble's manual. ## Updates, live versions and payments after launch Most changes never touch the stores again. Over-the-air (OTA) updates carry text, design and workflow changes to users on the latest build, typically within 5 to 10 minutes and without review, and the plan cards list unlimited OTAs on every mobile plan. Older builds miss them. Anything in the native shell, such as a new icon, splash screen, plugin or device permission, needs a fresh build and another store review. Between August and October 2026 Bubble shipped fixes for a bug that made some Android apps ignore OTA updates and load the original store version. Live versions need housekeeping. Bubble does not retire older builds automatically, so at the plan's limit you deprecate one or upgrade, and support can recover a removed version within 14 days. Removing the mobile plan pauses every live mobile version until the plan is reinstated, and after 14 days a new build is required. [4] Bubble refunds no plan charges, and an annual plan binds you for the year. > ⚠ **Dropping the mobile plan pauses the app:** Removing a project's mobile plan pauses its live mobile versions until the plan is reinstated, and after 14 days a new build is required. Money inside the app follows store rules. Bubble's in-app purchases support subscriptions only, through Apple StoreKit and Google Play Billing; Apple and Google process every payment, while Bubble validates receipts and keeps a subscription purchases table your backend workflows can react to. One-time digital purchases, such as consumable credits, are not supported. Physical goods and real-world services may use Stripe instead. Bubble's Android guide adds that Google takes a service fee of 15% or 30% on digital goods. ## FAQ **Can a Bubble mobile app be published to the Amazon Appstore or other Android stores?** No. Bubble's manual says only the Google Play Store is supported for Android; Amazon Appstore and other Android stores are not officially supported. **Do universal links in a Bubble mobile app need a custom domain?** No. Bubble hosts the apple-app-site-association and assetlinks.json files on the live domain automatically, and a bubbleapps.io domain works too. Apple caches the file, so changes can take up to 24 hours to reach new installs, and changing the live domain needs a new build. **Can a Bubble mobile app store data on the phone?** Offline mode is not supported, but Bubble describes a Local Storage for Bubble Mobile plugin that keeps key-value data on the device, with optional encryption backed by iOS Keychain and Android Keystore; the storage is per device, not per Bubble user. **Which app icon formats does a Bubble mobile build accept?** Bubble's manual asks for a PNG or SVG icon; some formats such as AVIF are not supported and can make the build fail. ## The bottom line Bubble suits a team that wants one backend for a web app and a real native phone app, built visually and shipped from the editor without a Mac. The costs are visible before you start: a Mobile or Web & Mobile plan above the Web price, the Apple and Google developer fees, and a monthly build allowance that rewards pushing most fixes over the air. Check the gaps first. No biometric sign-in, no offline mode, Google Play as the only Android store, no one-time digital purchases and a beta label all apply as of November 2026. ## Sources [1] Bubble Pricing — Start Free, Scale as You Grow — https://bubble.io/pricing (2026-11) [2] What Is Bubble AI? FAQ — Pricing, Features & More - Bubble — https://bubble.io/faq (2026-11) [3] Bubble Manual: Native mobile app — https://manual.bubble.io/help-guides/publishing-your-app/native-mobile-app (2026-11) [4] Bubble Manual: Pricing and plans — https://manual.bubble.io/account-and-marketplace/account-and-billing/pricing-plans (2026-11) [5] Bubble Terms of Service — https://bubble.io/terms [6] Bubble Privacy Policy — https://bubble.io/privacy