Many companies find out late that their app is listed under the developer's or the agency's account. Everything works until that person leaves, stops answering or sends a final invoice. Then a routine update needs someone else's password.
Platform rules checked against Apple's and Google's help pages on 8 October 2026.
What "owning your app" means in practice
Four things have to sit with your company, not with a person:
- The store listing: the app in App Store Connect and in the Google Play Console.
- The developer accounts: Apple Developer Program and Google Play Console, registered to your company.
- The source code: a repository in your company's account, with its full history.
- The keys and services behind it: signing keys, server, database, domain, payment and email accounts.
Apple: transferring an app in App Store Connect
An app moves between Apple developer accounts through an app transfer. The Account Holder of the current account starts it in App Store Connect, under App Information, and enters the Apple Account and Team ID of the receiving Account Holder. Your Account Holder accepts it. Until then the request stays open for up to 60 days.
Apple lists the conditions in its app transfer criteria. The ones that most often hold things up:
- Both accounts have accepted the latest paid and free apps agreements.
- At least one version of the app was released to the App Store.
- No version is waiting for review, in review or pending release.
- The app's in-app purchase product IDs do not already exist in your account.
The app stays available for download during the transfer, keeps its reviews and ratings, and users keep receiving updates. Some parts need work afterwards, as Apple's overview of app transfer explains: subscriptions need an app-specific shared secret, TestFlight builds and Xcode Cloud data must be removed first, push notification keys, Apple Pay merchant IDs and Sign in with Apple need preparation, and with keychain sharing users have to sign in once more after the next update.
If the developer account already belongs to your company but the Account Holder is a former employee, you do not need an app transfer. The Account Holder role can be transferred to another person on the team who has the legal authority to sign agreements for your company.
Google Play: moving an app to your Play Console
Google calls it an app transfer request. Both Play Console accounts must be registered and active. The current owner submits the request with the registration transaction ID of your account, you approve it, and according to Google its support team replies within two business days. A new Play Console account costs a one-time registration fee of US$25.
Per Google's transfer instructions:
- Moves with the app: users, statistics, ratings, reviews, subscriptions and the information submitted under App content.
- Stays behind: earnings and payout reports, test groups and the links to services such as Firebase or Google Analytics, which have to be set up again.
- Needs a decision: whether to keep the upload key and app signing key, or request new ones.
How to get the source code from your developer
Ask for the repository, not a ZIP file. The cleanest way is a transfer of the repository to a GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket account that your company owns, with the complete history. Ask in writing for:
- the repository with all branches and its history
- the signing keys: the Android keystore or upload key, and the Apple certificates and profiles, or the access to recreate them
- access to the server, the database and their backups
- the API keys and accounts of services the app uses, such as payments, email or maps
- a short note on how the app is built and released
Whether a developer has to hand the code over depends on your contract. Read it first, and if they refuse, the enforcement is a matter for your lawyer. What I do is check that what comes back is complete and that the app can actually be built and released from it.
Where I come in
The App Check at $2,000 lists every account, who owns it and who can log in, and checks whether the app builds from the code you have. The App Takeover from $10,500 then moves the accounts into your name, removes the previous developer's access and submits a store update from your own accounts. If an Android update is due anyway, the Google Play target API level deadlines tell you how much time you have.
The code sits in your repository from day one; with each paid milestone, the rights to everything delivered up to that point pass to you.
Confidential from the first call: we are happy to sign an NDA before we talk.
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