4. Excel at the app review

Hello! Welcome to another episode of the Practical Guide to Building LiveChat apps. This is Oliwia, and today I will be teaching you all you’ll need to know to excel at the LiveChat app review.

So if you’re wondering what the app review even is, let me put it in simple terms for you. The LiveChat app review takes place when you want to publish your application. Before you can put it on the Marketplace for everyone to see, you’ll need to receive something like a nod of approval from our team, so we’re sure your app works and looks well, and doesn’t violate any of the Developer Terms.

At the moment, there are two options of the app review - a free and a paid one. Initially, the difference between those is that in the free app review, you’re receiving a basic check, and in the paid one, we’re providing you with an in-depth review and advice on how you can improve your application, so you can make it the most appealing to your future customers.

If you’re interested to see more about what each of the reviews includes, be sure to have a look at our app review offer breakdown chart available on our website.

So, since you now know what the app review is, you might want to know how you can personally make your app the best possible experience for your future customers. A great quality product is something that both you and us want to offer to the customers.

So even before the app review process starts, you can ask us any questions that bug you. And we’ll gladly offer you a helping hand and our best pieces of advice! So be sure to join our Discord server community for some chats.

Now, let me explain what are the three pillars that you should focus on the most when building your application, so you can both: pass the review seamlessly, and also, elevate your application’s future sales.

So let’s start with code. You should be aware that we will not be reviewing your code line by line. But, we will pay special attention that your application works smoothly, doesn’t return any errors, and has an overall good and logical mechanism. And if you wish to know about how you can improve as a code developer in general, we invite you to write down the good coding practices that we shared in our first video in this series, and follow them meticulously.

We’ll also really appreciate if your application is tested thoroughly when you send it to us. It’s worth to note that we’re following a three bugs rule during the app review — so when we find three bugs, we stop the review process, describe these bugs to you, and bounce back your application for you to fix the mentioned bugs. So that’s why to keep everything seamless and fast, we really encourage you to perform some good testing!

The next thing you’ll most likely be putting some good thinking to is your application’s design. Ultimately, that’s what your app’s users will be seeing for most of their time, so it’s a great practice to really dive into this process and consider various component designs.

So, some of you already know the LiveChat Design System, and if you’re in the group that doesn’t — you might be missing out on something great. The LiveChat Design System is a system of React components that you can use to design your app. A huge benefit of this solution is that your app will be super consistent with the LiveChat Agent Application’s design, and for the end-user, it will feel like it’s an integral part of it. You’ll find the link to LiveChat Design System in our resources file as well.

So we suggest using our Design System to design your application, but by no means we want to say that you have to do it. If you like, you can certainly implement your custom design to your app. So if you wish to do this, you might be interested in receiving general design advice.

For that, we’ve gathered general UX and UI advice straight from our designers. And in this document, you will find advice on how to approach the design process, what are the good practices, and how to construct a well-thought-out application. So be sure to have a look at this if you want to better understand the principles of application design.

So, we also have what we might call a treat for you. Our designers have also prepared a few templates that you can use to prepare your Marketplace graphics that promote your application to your potential customers. Be sure to use them if you’re looking to keep a consistent design to your promotional images but don’t have a certain idea of how you want them to look like. You’ll find the templates linked in the resources file for this episode as well.

So there are also some external tools that we can recommend for designing your app, which are of great help for us when we’re working too. So, in our resources fie, you’ll find a list of the tools we find the most useful for this type of design work. They should be an amazing asset for you if you’re in the need of some extra help to really perfect your app’s design, look for inspiration, or even use some open-source illustrations for that extra touch!

So the last thing for your app is the copy. It’s definitely not the least important thing, as with a great application copy, you’re able to attract even more prospect customers who are interested to purchase your application.

So, for the copy, we have prepared a superb document which you can use as a reference when you’re writing. This doc includes a bunch of good practices for writing, common mistakes, and even a simple glossary. Also, you’ll find out what to do to make your copy outstanding, and what to pay extra attention to. So we really recommend giving this a read before you start preparing the Marketplace copy.

And during our personal work, we’re also using external tools that we find a helpful addition to perfect the copy of your app. They’re a great help for us, and we believe they will be helpful for you too! So we listed all of these tools in our resources file. These are different helpers for grammar, vocabulary, sentences construction, and such. So be sure to review them and see if they might be an asset for you as well.

So that was something, wasn’t it! There’s definitely quite a bunch of resources you can use when building your application. We believe that equipped with these assets, you’ll be able to really elevate your work, productivity, and the quality of your app. And if you’re left with any questions, remember to join our Discord for Developers.

So, now we wish you smooth journeys for your future app reviews, and see you in our next video!