Testing app without being approved

[Alvaro_Artano]

Hey! First of all I would like to explain my use-case to see if the correct move is a Shopify App.

“I have a frontend were users can chose products an then import them to their stores.”

So the thing is, I have been creating the app in the dev dashboard, and I don’t want to show it in the store but I see that if I want to have more than a client it needs to be a Public app (i know I can hide it but I mean for the process of submission etc…)

So the thing is, when I try to install it in a store (development store created in Partners, same org), it says that I can’t because it has not been approved, how can I test the app?

Thanks

[Donal-Shopify]

Hey @Alvaro_Artano The “not approved” error is likely because you’re trying to install on a client transfer store (created in the Partner Dashboard). Draft public apps, meaning apps that haven’t been reviewed yet, can’t be installed on client transfer stores. You need a dev store created in the Dev Dashboard instead.

To get going, head to the Dev Dashboard, click Dev stores, and create one. Then from your app’s Home page in the Dev Dashboard, in the Installs section, click Install app.

For your use case of serving multiple merchants without being publicly discoverable, public distribution is the right choice. Once your app passes review, you can set its visibility to limited, which keeps it off App Store search results while still letting merchants install via a direct link.