The steps

  1. A demo with your name on it. We reply by email within one working day, prepare the app with your university’s branding and walk you through it on a call.
  2. One agreement. A one-term paid pilot at one written price, fixed for the whole term. How much Varsio costs explains what it covers.
  3. Three things from you. Sign-in access, the connections we agree for your pilot and your App Store account.
  4. Live in 2 to 4 weeks from the day we have those, published under your name on iPhone and Android.
  5. A first notice. In the first week of the pilot your students’ union sends a notice, and you see how many students read it. Your staff have the admin dashboard from day one, with weekly figures on sign-ups, read rates and use.

Why the app goes out under your own account

Apple’s App Review Guidelines say apps made from a commercial template “will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app’s content” (guideline 4.2.6). Your university provides the content, so your app is published from your university’s own Apple developer account, and your students see your name as the seller.

What that means in practice:

  • An Apple developer account for the university. Apple asks for a legal entity, a D-U-N-S number, someone with authority to sign, and a public website on the university’s domain. The fee is 99 US dollars a year, and an accredited educational institution can apply for a fee waiver as long as it has not signed Apple’s Paid Applications Agreement and none of its apps sells digital goods or services.
  • We work inside your account. An Account Holder, Admin or App Manager can add users in App Store Connect, so you can add us as an App Manager to build and submit the app for you.
  • A Google Play account too. Google asks for an organisation account with a D-U-N-S number and a one-off registration fee of 25 US dollars.

If your university already publishes an app of its own, it may have both accounts already.

What can move the date

The 2 to 4 weeks includes Apple’s review of the app, which neither of us controls, and it starts when sign-in access and the agreed connections are in place. If your developer accounts do not exist yet, setting them up comes first.

What Varsio connects to lists the planned connections. Book a demo and we will tell you exactly what we need from your IT team.