Getting a taxi app into the App Store and Google Play

Building the app is only half the job. Before a driver or a passenger can download it, Apple and Google both have to accept it, and each has its own accounts, forms and review. This guide walks through what you need to publish a taxi app on the App Store and Google Play, how long review takes according to Apple and Google, and the mistakes that get taxi apps sent back.

Whose account should the taxi app be published from?

Publish from your own firm's developer accounts if you want the app in your name. Apple's App Review Guideline 4.2.6 says apps built from a commercial template "will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app's content", and guideline 5.2.1 says apps should be submitted by whoever owns or has licensed the rights in them. For a taxi firm's own app, that's the firm.

The account also decides the name under your app in the store. Apple shows an organisation's legal entity name as the seller. A sole trader enrols as an individual, and Apple shows their personal legal name. On Google Play the developer name is shown on the listing and can be changed at any time.

If a supplier is building the app for you, our guide to white-label taxi apps covers who should own which account and what to ask.

What do you need before you submit a taxi app?

Get the accounts and the paperwork ready first, because enrolment checks take time. Here's what Apple and Google ask for:

A D-U-N-S number is a free nine-digit business identifier from Dun & Bradstreet. Apply for it before anything else, because Apple and Google both use it to check your firm.

Apple's enrolment page also asks for a work email on your firm's domain and for the person enrolling to have authority to sign for the firm.

How do you publish a taxi app, step by step?

Do it in this order and you'll avoid the usual dead ends:

1. Get a D-U-N-S number from Dun & Bradstreet, in your company's registered name.
2. Enrol in the Apple Developer Program as an organisation, and open a Google Play organisation account. A personal Google account created after 13 November 2023 has to run a closed test with at least 12 testers, opted in for 14 days in a row, before it can publish to production.
3. Choose the names. Apple allows 30 characters for the app name and 30 for the subtitle. Google allows 30 for the name and 80 for the short description.
4. Test with real drivers or passengers. Apple's TestFlight takes up to 100 internal testers and up to 10,000 external testers, and the first build for external testers goes through review. On Google Play, use a closed test track.
5. Fill in the privacy answers. Apple's app privacy details and Google's Data safety form both ask what data the app collects and why, including data collected by code from other companies inside your app.
6. Add account deletion if passengers or drivers can create an account in the app. Apple's guideline 5.1.1(v) requires deletion inside the app. Google requires an in-app path and a web link where users can ask for their account and data to be deleted.
7. Declare location use. If the app uses location while closed, Google asks for a declaration in Play Console and a short video showing the feature.
8. Submit, with a working demo login and your back end switched on. Apple's guideline 2.1 asks for exactly that.
9. Release. Google's managed publishing lets you choose when an approved update goes live, which helps when you're training drivers on a new version.

How long do Apple and Google take to review an app?

Apple says it reviews at least 50% of submissions in under 24 hours and 90% in under two days. Google says that for certain developer accounts review can take "up to seven days or longer in exceptional cases".

Those are review times, not total times. On a new personal Google account, add the 14-day closed test. On a first submission, add time for any back and forth with the reviewer. Apple offers an expedited review for a critical bug fix or an app tied to an event, and lets you appeal a rejection to the App Review Board.

So plan for weeks, not days, from the first upload to an app your drivers can download. Your booking line and your office don't need to wait for the stores.

Why do taxi apps get rejected?

A taxi app gets sent back when it breaks one of these App Review rules or Google Play policies:

The last row surprises people. Apple says apps selling physical services used outside the app "must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase", and Google says its billing system must not be used for physical services such as transportation.

What should the privacy labels say for a taxi app?

The privacy answers must match what the app really collects, including code from maps, payments and analytics providers. Apple says you must identify the data "you or your third-party partners collect", which includes analytics tools and SDKs added to your app, and Google says the same about libraries and SDKs.

A taxi app usually collects some of these:

• Contact details: name, phone number, email address.
• Precise location, for pickups or for drivers on shift.
• Payment information, if cards are taken in the app.
• A user ID, if passengers or drivers have accounts.

For each one, Apple asks whether it's linked to the person and whether it's used for tracking, which Apple defines as linking it with other companies' data for targeted advertising or sharing it with a data broker. Answer honestly. If you're not sure what an SDK collects, ask the supplier in writing before you submit.

Who owns the listing once the app is live?

Whoever holds the developer account owns the listing, so keep the account holder inside your firm. On Apple, the Account Holder starts any transfer of the app to another account, and the receiving Account Holder accepts it. Apple says a transferred app keeps its reviews and ratings. Google Play's transfer moves the users, ratings and reviews, and needs both accounts registered and active.

Keep the app current after launch, too. Apple has required uploads to be built with Xcode 26 and the iOS 26 SDK since 28 April 2026. Google requires new apps and updates to target Android 16 (API level 36) from 31 August 2026. Miss those and you can't ship a fix.

Where does Dispatch AI fit?

Dispatch AI is booking and dispatch software for taxi and private hire firms, and jobs go straight to your drivers on your own branded app. Apple and Google usually approve the app within one to two weeks. If you're still deciding what the app should do, see our guide to ride-hailing app features or the wider ride-hailing app guides.