How to give a developer access without giving up your app

The safest way to hand your app to a developer is also the simplest: the app lives in your store accounts, and the developer is a guest in them. You keep ownership. They get exactly the access the work needs, and you can remove it in a minute when it's done.

We keep 17 apps of our own in these two consoles and run the store side of every release ourselves, so the setup below is how our own accounts are arranged and what we ask for when invited into someone else's. Most ownership problems start with skipping it: the developer says "we'll publish it under our account for now," and "for now" becomes forever. Here is how to invite a developer on both stores without giving up your app.

Rule one: the store accounts are yours

Register the Apple Developer Program and the Google Play developer account in your own name (or your company's), with an email address you control and will still control in five years. Pay the fees from your own card. Then invite the developer.

Why it matters: on Apple, the Account Holder renews the membership and accepts legal agreements for an organization (Apple: Program roles), and initiating an app transfer requires that role (Apple: Initiate an app transfer). On Google, the account owner is the first registered account, the only one with the linked payments profile (Play Console: Add users and manage permissions), and the only one who can hand the owner role to someone else (Transferring ownership of a Play Console developer account). If a developer holds either, they hold your app.

Apple: App Store Connect roles

Apple's roles are documented on the Program roles page. The short version for an owner:

• Account Holder. You. Renews the membership, accepts agreements, is the required role for starting an app transfer. Never give this away, and never share the Apple Account password behind it.
• Admin. Can manage Users and Access, create and revoke distribution certificates, and submit apps. Only give it to someone you would trust with the keys.
• App Manager. Can submit apps and remove or restore apps from sale. This is a reasonable role for a lead developer who ships releases.
• Developer. Apple's table says a Developer can submit only if there is no app binary in the submission. Fine for someone who codes but doesn't run releases.
• Marketing manages marketing materials and promotional artwork; Customer Support analyzes and responds to customer reviews.

Our suggestion: give a freelancer Developer, and upgrade to App Manager if you want them to press "submit" for you. If they say they need Admin, ask what they can't do without it. Sometimes the honest answer is certificates, and Apple lists access to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles as something that can be granted on its own.

Two more things are tied to the Account Holder, so plan for them: transferring the Account Holder role itself (to another team member who has the legal authority to bind your organization; Apple: Transfer the Account Holder role), and initiating or accepting an app transfer (Apple: Overview of app transfer).

Google Play: Users and permissions

In Play Console, open Users and permissions, enter the developer's email, pick permissions, and set an access expiry date if the engagement has an end; without one, Google says access is ongoing indefinitely (help page).

The distinction that matters is account-level versus app-level permissions. Account permissions apply to every app in your account. App permissions apply to one app. Give a developer app-level permissions for the app they are working on, not the whole account.

Users with "Admin (all permissions)" can invite users, manage other users' permissions, and remove users. Only give that if you mean it.

About the owner role: Google says organization accounts and non-monetizing personal accounts may switch account owners after identity verification, and only the current owner can do it; individual developers who monetize must instead create a new account and transfer their apps to it. Either way the owner decides, so the owner should be you.

Keys and code

Store access is half of ownership. The other half is what the developer holds on their laptop.

Android signing. With Play App Signing, Google manages and protects the app signing key. The developer uses a separate upload key, and Google says that if the upload key is lost or compromised you are not locked out of your app; a new one can be registered through Play Console (Play App Signing). The key that matters lives with Google, in your account.

iOS signing. Distribution certificates are created and revoked by Admins and the Account Holder. If a developer created one under your account, you can revoke it from your side. Keep one of those roles.

Source code. Ask that the code live in a repository you own (GitHub, GitLab, or similar) with the developer invited as a collaborator. Not "it's in our company repo, we'll send it when you ask." If the developer leaves, you remove their access, not the other way round.

Everything else. Firebase, Supabase, analytics, push services, domain names. Each should be created under an account you own, with the developer invited. Google notes that when an app is transferred, linked services such as Firebase, Google Analytics, and AdMob do not move with it and must be reconnected (Transfer apps to a different developer account).

If the app is already in the developer's account

It can be moved, but the current owner has to cooperate.

• Apple. The developer's Account Holder initiates the transfer; your Account Holder accepts. The app keeps its reviews, ratings, and bundle ID, and users keep receiving updates. The app must have at least one released version and can't be in review (App transfer criteria).
• Google. Both accounts must be registered and active, you need both registration transaction IDs, and Google says its support team reviews and replies to transfer requests within two business days. User data, ratings, reviews, subscriptions, and the store listing move with the app (Transfer apps).

Do this while the relationship is good. Once a developer has stopped responding, there is no button on either store that moves the app without them.

What to do this week

• Check whose name and email are on the Apple Account Holder and the Google Play account owner. If it isn't yours, start a transfer conversation now.
• List every user in App Store Connect (Users and Access) and Play Console (Users and permissions). Remove anyone who no longer works on the app.
• Downgrade any Admin who doesn't need it.
• Confirm the source code is in a repository you own and that you can log in to it.
• Write down where Firebase, push, and analytics accounts live and who owns them.

This is also how App Care works: you invite us into your accounts as a user, never the owner, and your app stays in your name, the same way our own 17 apps are run from the same two consoles.

Sources

• Apple, Program roles: https://developer.apple.com/support/roles/
• Apple, Initiate an app transfer: https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/transfer-an-app/initiate-an-app-transfer
• Apple, Transfer the Account Holder role: https://developer.apple.com/help/account/access/transfer-the-account-holder-role
• Apple, Overview of app transfer: https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/transfer-an-app/overview-of-app-transfer
• Apple, App transfer criteria: https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/transfer-an-app/app-transfer-criteria
• Google Play Console, Add developer account users and manage permissions: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9844686
• Google Play Console, Transferring ownership of a Play Console developer account: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/16909862
• Google Play Console, Transfer apps to a different developer account: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6230247
• Google Play Console, Use Play App Signing: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9842756