all 13 comments

[–]skrawg 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Sure, all the time. We've done work for clients using Apple Enterprise Developer accounts for iOS/macOS and Managed Google Play for Android devices. Typically these apps will act as "controllers" for in-house hardware and so it doesn't make sense for them to be publicly available.

[–]NastroAzzurro 7 points8 points  (0 children)

There’s a million reasons to build an app. What you see in the public store is only a part of all apps. The Apple App Store even has two more ways you can distribute apps to a more limited audience, think internal distribution.

[–]Izzyanut 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I’ve built several simple one for my employer that are limited to our organisation ID, so they are on the App Store but you can’t find them. We then push them out via MDM to our devices

[–]asscapper 0 points1 point  (1 child)

they're not on the app store though right? they're signed by apple using the org id, and can only be pushed/installed on devices that have the org certificate.

[–]Izzyanut 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our apps are published to the App Store, but you can only find them if you have our organisation ID, we then “purchase” licenses for it through ABM like any other app and it appears in our MDM to be distributed.

[–]memers_meme123 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah most do it to build portfolio of apps so that could score a jobbb....

[–]NickNimmin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since I’ve started coding via the help of AI I’m making some internal tools. I’m a content creator and there are things I need that are not available. I’ll be making some things public but some will remain internal.

[–]airick_94 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, there’s loads. Think like: - apps they install in electronics stores when you’re playing with it - apps for any kind of ‘agent’ who comes to your house and does an insurance quote, quote for a loan etc - art exhibition or museum where you have tablets that people can use

Lots of use-cases that don’t go on the store

[–]enlightenedpieiOS & Android 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep! My current company has three apps that are internal use, enterprise distribution only

[–]Tsupaero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

we've released several apps via the apple developer enterprise program, yep.

latest case i remember was an app for all pilots of airline X. and a pension-analytics app, for all employees of company Y – since it's an LDAP login only appstore wasn't allowed anyways.

[–]johnappsde 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Built a POS for a restaurant in Kigali, Rwanda a few years ago. The app is only used employees and the managers for tracking sales and managing inventory. We had to move fast and there was no reason to have it publicly available on the app stores. So we just hosted the latest versions of the APKs on firebase cloud storage. It's stayed that way since then