App care
App maintenance that keeps your app shipping
An app in production is never finished. Apple and Google change their requirements every year, frameworks reach end of life, payments fail at 2 a.m. Care is the monthly arrangement that keeps all of that handled before it turns into an outage or a store warning.
What app care covers
The same scope whether the app is Flutter, native, React Native, Laravel, Rails or something else.
OS and SDK updates
Each year brings a new iOS and Android release, new SDK requirements and new behavior changes. We raise the target SDK, adjust the code for the changes that affect you and test on current devices before the stores make it mandatory.
Store policy deadlines
We track Apple and Google Play requirements, read policy warnings in the consoles and fix them before they block an update or limit who can install your app.
Dependency upgrades
Frameworks, runtimes and packages are upgraded on a schedule, not in a panic. That includes backend runtimes: PHP and Rails versions have published end-of-support dates, and we plan upgrades around them.
Monitoring and on-call
Crash reporting, error tracking and uptime checks with alerts that reach a person. When something breaks, we look at it, fix it or roll back, and tell you what happened in plain words.
Payments and renewals
Subscription renewals, failed payments, refunds and disputes are where money quietly leaks. We watch the webhook handlers and reconcile the payment provider with what the app actually grants.
Small features
A block of hours each month for the things users ask for: a new field, a settings screen, a report, a change to onboarding. Larger features are scoped separately.
Why maintenance is not optional
A few of the requirements an app in production has to keep up with, from the official sources, checked on September 27, 2026.
- Google Play target API
- New apps and app updates must target Android 16 (API level 36) by August 31, 2026, with an extension available to November 1, 2026. Existing apps must target at least API 35 to stay available to users on newer Android versions. Google Play Console Help: Target API level requirements for Google Play apps
- App Store SDK
- Since April 28, 2026, uploads to App Store Connect must be built with Xcode 26 or later using the iOS 26 SDK. Apple Developer: Upcoming requirements
- 16 KB page sizes
- From February 1, 2027, Google Play updates that do not support 16 KB memory page sizes cannot be released. Apps with native code or native SDKs are affected. Android Developers: Support 16 KB page sizes
- PHP 8.2
- Security support ends December 31, 2026. PHP: Supported versions
- Rails 8.0
- Security fixes end November 7, 2026. Ruby on Rails: Maintenance policy
Crash rates and Android vitals thresholds
Google Play measures stability for every Android app. If an app exceeds a bad behavior threshold, Play may reduce its visibility and may show users a warning on the store listing. These are the core thresholds we watch.
| Metric | Overall threshold | Per phone model |
|---|---|---|
| User-perceived crash rate | 1.09% | 8% |
| User-perceived ANR rate | 0.47% | 8% |
Source: Android Developers, Android vitals (developer.android.com/topic/performance/vitals), checked September 27, 2026.
How a month of care works
Start of the month: plan
We review upcoming store deadlines, dependency updates, open alerts and your requests, and agree on what goes into the month.
During the month: ship
Updates and small features go out through the normal release process: code review, CI, staged rollout on Google Play and phased release on the App Store where it makes sense.
All month: watch
Monitoring runs continuously. Incidents are handled as they happen; payments and webhook failures are checked as part of the routine.
End of the month: report
A short written summary: what shipped, what broke and how it was fixed, the stability numbers, what is coming next month and how many hours were used.
What care does not include
Large new features, redesigns and migrations to a new platform are scoped and priced as separate projects, so the monthly hours are not quietly swallowed by one big item.
Third-party costs stay on your accounts: hosting, store fees, monitoring subscriptions and paid APIs. We recommend and configure them; you own and pay for them.
We do not take over content moderation, customer support inboxes or marketing. Care is engineering work on the product and its infrastructure.
Who is behind it
Apollo Tech Studio builds and runs apps together with their founders. Dilizy, a dealer platform taking subscription payments, and Qovo, a marketplace with split payouts through Stripe Connect, are both in production with us: we deploy them, monitor them and are on call for them. Care is the same work, offered for your app.
Questions about app maintenance and support
Do you maintain apps you did not build?
Yes, that is most of the work. We usually start with an audit so we know what we are taking responsibility for, then move to monthly care.
How much does app care cost?
Care starts at $990/month. What a month covers for your app, including the hours and the response times, is agreed before the first month starts. If we have not worked on the app before, we usually start with a fixed-price audit from $750, credited if you continue with us within 30 days.
What happens with unused hours?
We agree on that when the plan is set up. The report at the end of each month shows exactly how the hours were used, so there are no surprises.
How fast do you respond to an outage?
Response times depend on the plan and are written into the agreement. Alerts go to engineers, not to a ticket queue.
Can we cancel?
Yes. Care is monthly. The code, accounts and documentation are yours throughout, so ending care does not lock you out of anything.
Do you handle App Store and Google Play submissions?
Yes. Releases, review notes, rejections and policy warnings are part of care.
Next step
30 minutes with an engineer, not a sales rep. You leave knowing what we'd fix first — or that you don't need us. The call is free; care itself starts after an audit or a takeover, so we know what we are taking responsibility for.
Care starts at $990/month. What a month covers for your app is agreed before it starts.
Sources
- Google Play Console Help: Target API level requirements for Google Play apps
- Apple Developer: Upcoming requirements
- Android Developers: Support 16 KB page sizes
- PHP: Supported versions
- Ruby on Rails: Maintenance policy
- Android Developers: Android vitals
- Stripe Docs: Using webhooks with subscriptions
Checked September 27, 2026.