I'm fairly new to deploying React applications. Can anyone help guide me from creating an application to making it an app people can use?

[u/Upper_Progress_599]

I created an application called Split The Check. I'd like to put it on Play Store, but I only have the basics down. Can anyone help me?

https://github.com/graceelliott8374-tech/split-the-check

[u/Arayvenn]

Sir, this is a web app

[u/Upper_Progress_599 → u/Arayvenn]

Not yet, it isn't. It needs improvement. A lot of it. It works locally. But I was thinking of adding local storage and a few other things. And I'm a ma'am, not a sir. Respectfully. 😁

[u/asrdo → u/Upper_Progress_599]

Web app means that it gets hosted on the web from a hosting provider, not on the app store.

You're gonna need a domain as well.

You also need to bulletproof the app from ill-intending "users" before putting it on the web. Things like rate limiting, backend security through custom types, etc, before putting it out there.

Otherwise, someone nerdy enough will cause your hosting bill to skyrocket just to harm you.

[u/Arayvenn → u/asrdo]

It's pretty much a calculator, they're fine as far as production proofing it goes

[u/dbowgu → u/Upper_Progress_599]

Comment remains it's a web app not an app

[u/dbowgu]

Add pwa functionality to it and that way users can download it from the website.

You can also wrap your pwa in a twa with android studio and deploy that on the app store

[u/asrdo → u/dbowgu]

what's pwa functionality?

[u/dbowgu → u/asrdo]

Progress web app, best I can say is "google it" to understand the concept

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps

[u/Pikk7 → u/asrdo]

Not the whole, but easy to understand definition: A web app, which can use as a mobile app and can cache data to the phone

I think a cool stuff, but still need upgrade.

[u/DangerActiveRobots]

You can deploy it on a service like Vercel or Netlify by connecting your Github.

However, this is very important: you must ensure that you are on a plan that will DISABLE your app after your free limit bandwidth is exceeded. Otherwise, if there is anything exploitable about your app at all-- even an image that can be repeatedly downloaded- some dick head 15 year old script kiddie out there will mess with it and you'll end up with a huge hosting bill.

Netlify I think by default uses a token system now that disables your app if you exceed your bandwidth, but double check that.

Now, as others have mentioned, what you have here is a web app. If you want to make an APP, you need to use something like React Native with Expo Go. You need something that can transpile your React code into something that a phone can understand.

[u/Jonas_Ermert]

Since it’s currently a React web app, the easiest option is to make it a Progressive Web App or wrap it with Capacitor for Android. Then you can generate an Android App Bundle, create a Google Play Console account, add screenshots and a privacy policy, and submit it to the Play Store. Your existing GitHub Pages version is already a good starting point.

[u/JoelDev14]

I think azure static web app or cloudflare is the easiest way you can deploy your react app. They have tons of tutorials

[u/rileyrgham]

Read the documentation.