How to soft launch an app: test in a few countries on the App Store and Google Play before going global

A soft launch means releasing your app in a few countries first, measuring how real users behave, fixing what breaks, and only then launching worldwide. Game studios have done it for years. For an indie app it is just as useful, and both stores make it simple: App Store Connect and Google Play Console let you choose exactly which countries see your app, and you can add the rest later in a few clicks.

This guide shows how to soft launch an app on the App Store and Google Play in 2026: when a soft launch is worth it, how to choose test countries, the exact settings in each console, which numbers to watch, and how to turn a quiet soft launch into a loud global one.

Key takeaways

• A soft launch is a public release in limited countries. It is not a beta: real users find you in the store, pay, and leave public ratings.
• On the App Store, choose Specific Countries or Regions under Pricing and Availability. On Google Play, set Countries/regions on the Production track.
• Decide your go or no-go numbers before you start: Day 1 and Day 7 retention, crash rate, store page conversion and early ratings.
• Phased releases and staged rollouts are for updates. They are not a way to soft launch a new app.

What a soft launch is, and what it is not#

Developers mix up four different tools. They solve different problems:

A soft launch sits between beta and global launch. Testers who signed up for a beta are forgiving and motivated; people who find your app in the store are neither. That is the point: you want numbers from ordinary users while mistakes are still cheap.

If you are still recruiting testers, start with our guides to the TestFlight public link and Google Play's 12 testers for 14 days requirement. New personal developer accounts on Google Play must pass that closed test before they can publish to production at all, so plan it before your soft launch dates.

When a soft launch is worth it#

A soft launch costs time and some launch momentum, so it is not always the right call. It pays off when:

• You will spend money on growth. If you plan to buy installs, you need to know retention and revenue per user first, or you cannot tell what an install is worth.
• Your backend has to scale. A few thousand real users find load problems no test suite does.
• You are unsure about the store page. Screenshots, the subtitle and the price can be tested on real traffic before the bigger launch.
• You want to test keywords. One developer explained on Hacker News that they were "doing some experiments on the marketing side, especially keywords, before launching everywhere", because the first weeks in the store matter for keyword rankings.

Skip it, or keep it short, when:

• Your launch depends on press or featuring. Another developer on Hacker News noted that a soft launch is "more difficult to pull off" if you are also aiming for an App Store feature, because Apple seems to favor newness. If featuring is central to your plan, read our guide to getting featured on the App Store and time the soft launch around it.
• The app only makes sense in one market. A local transit app has nothing to learn from another country.
• You cannot act on what you learn. A soft launch without time set aside to fix things is just a delayed launch.

How to choose soft launch countries#

Pick countries that behave like your main market, at a size that gives you enough data without burning your reputation in the market that matters most.

Pick test countries that resemble your main market in language, device mix and spending. Photo: Andrew Neel / Pexels

Match your target market. If your main market is the US, English-speaking markets with similar devices and spending are the usual choice. Canada, Australia and New Zealand are the classic picks. They are also crowded: an AppLift executive argued in VentureBeat in 2017 that "Because new apps enter this marketplace so frequently, rankings are unstable and unpredictable" in Canada, and an industry opinion piece on PocketGamer.biz suggested Ireland and the Netherlands as markets with users whose behavior is fairly close to the US. Both pieces come from the games industry, but the reasoning applies to any app.

Test different things in different places. The same PocketGamer.biz piece suggested large English-speaking markets such as the Philippines and India for load tests, where you want many users fast, and closer matches for retention and monetization tests. If your app is not in English, test in a smaller market that shares the language of your main one.

Check the practical details. For each candidate country, check:

• Price and currency. Both stores price by storefront. A price that feels right in the US may look odd in another currency.
• Payments and taxes. Make sure your agreements, banking and tax forms cover sales there.
• Support hours. Pick a time zone where you can answer reviews and emails quickly.
• Localization. If the country speaks another language, your listing and app should too. Our App Store localization guide covers what to translate first.
• Legal requirements. Some countries add their own rules, such as age rating systems. Check them before you choose a market, not after.

How to soft launch on the App Store#

Apple's availability help page describes the setup:

1. In App Store Connect, open Apps and select your app.
2. In the sidebar, click Pricing and Availability, then scroll to App Availability.
3. Click Set Up Availability.
4. Choose Specific Countries or Regions, select your test countries, then click Next and Confirm.

Three details matter for a soft launch:

• Leave the "future countries" box unticked. Apple says choosing All Countries or Regions also makes the app available in "any new countries or regions added to the App Store in the future". For specific countries, there is a box at the bottom of the list that does the same. You do not want surprise markets during a test.
• Changes are fast. You can change availability "at any time", and Apple says "The changes take effect immediately but may require up to 24 hours to be visible to all users." Expanding after the soft launch does not need a new build.
• Pulling out of a country is gentle. When you deselect a country, "the app will be removed from the App Store in that country or region", but "Users who previously downloaded your app from the App Store in that country or region will continue to receive app updates."

Ratings are local on both stores: Apple calculates your App Store rating per country, and since a 2021 change Google Play shows phone users the ratings from their registered country. The ratings you collect during a soft launch stay with the test countries. That protects your main market from early bugs, but it also means your product page in your main market starts with few or no ratings on launch day. Plan your rating prompts for the global launch too; our post on resetting your App Store rating explains how ratings are calculated on each store.

How to soft launch on Google Play#

Google's country distribution help gives the steps:

1. Open Play Console and select the app.
2. Go to the Production page and open the Countries/regions tab.
3. Click Add countries/regions, select your test countries, and confirm.

For paid apps, Play sets prices automatically for newly added countries, and you can edit them; for subscriptions, you set prices for any countries you add.

Using open testing as a softer soft launch#

Google Play has an option the App Store does not: a public open test. Google's testing help says that for "Early access apps (new apps not published to production)", "Users can find your open test through search on Google Play to install and test your app." Two rules make it gentler than a production release: "Feedback from your test users won't affect your app's public rating", and testers "cannot leave public reviews on Google Play for test versions." You can cap it with a limited number of testers, which must be at least 1,000.

Open testing also respects countries. Testing tracks match your production countries by default, and you can click Unsync countries/regions to set them separately. An open test in two countries, followed by a production soft launch, then a global release, is a reasonable path for an Android-first app.

Write the go or no-go numbers down before launch day, so the results decide, not your hopes. Photo: Ahmed / Pexels

What to measure during a soft launch#

Set targets before you start, and set a time limit. An industry guide on PocketGamer.biz suggested a minimum player count (typically 5,000 to 10,000 users for games) and a window of about three to four weeks for smaller companies. A utility app needs fewer users to learn something, but the principle holds: decide "how many users" and "how long" up front.

The numbers that decide a soft launch:

1. Retention. Day 1 and Day 7 tell you whether people get value and come back. Read our guide to app retention rates for how each store counts them. One warning for small soft launches: App Store Connect only fills the retention table when enough users have opted in to share usage data, so a few hundred installs may show blanks. Your own analytics, if you have them, fill that gap.
2. Stability. Watch crash and ANR rates by device. On Android, Google's Android vitals thresholds are a 1.09% user-perceived crash rate and a 0.47% ANR rate overall; above them, "Play may reduce the visibility of your title." Fixing that before a global launch is the cheapest moment you will get.
3. Store page conversion. What share of people who see your listing install it? Our guide to App Store Connect analytics shows where to find it on iOS.
4. Ratings and reviews. Read every review from the test countries. They are your best list of what to fix first.
5. Revenue per user, if you charge. Trial starts, conversion to paid and refunds tell you what an install is worth.
6. Keyword ranks. Track a short list of keywords in your test countries to see which terms you can win. Our guide to checking App Store keyword rankings shows how to do it per country for free.

Write your thresholds down, for example "Day 7 retention at or above our peer group median, crash-free sessions above 99.5%, store conversion within 20% of our category". If you miss them, iterate in the same countries. If you hit them, expand.

Updates during a soft launch: phased releases and staged rollouts#

You will ship several updates during a soft launch. Use the update tools both stores give you, but do not confuse them with the soft launch itself.

App Store phased release. Apple's phased release help releases an update to users with automatic updates over 7 days: 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 50%, then 100%. You can pause "for up to 30 days, with no limit on the number of pauses", and anyone can still download the update manually from the App Store.

Google Play staged rollout. Google's staged rollout help is explicit: "Staged rollouts can only be used for app updates, not when publishing an app for the first time." You can limit an update rollout to certain countries, but "Once a staged rollout has started, you can't remove any countries." Halting a rollout stops new users from getting the version; those who have it stay on it.

From soft launch to global launch#

When the numbers are where you want them, the expansion itself takes minutes: add countries in App Store Connect and Play Console. The work is in making the global launch count.

• Refresh the listing. Update screenshots, subtitle and description with what you learned. Our guide to writing a store listing that converts covers the essentials.
• Localize for the new markets you are adding, at least the store listing.
• Line up launch-day traffic. Press, newsletters, communities, directories and your own audience, all on the same week. Our launch-week visibility checklist and where to submit your app guide cover the details.
• Tag every link. Use App Store campaign links and Google Play UTM parameters so you can compare channels by retention after launch, as described in our guide to promoting your app for free.
• Keep the test countries. There is rarely a reason to remove them; their users and ratings carry over to your next version.

Get seen on launch day, wherever you launch#

A soft launch gives you an app that works. The global launch still needs people to find it, and in the first days a new listing has no ranking history to lean on. AppRanker is one place to put it in front of people straight away: the pay-to-rank app leaderboard ranks listings by what each has paid, with no algorithm in between, and every row links straight to your App Store or Google Play page. Paste your App Store or Google Play link on the AppRanker home page to see what each position costs on the day you go global.

Soft launch checklist#

• Decide what the soft launch must answer: retention, stability, conversion, revenue, keywords.
• Write go or no-go thresholds and a time limit before launch.
• Choose two or three test countries that resemble your main market.
• Check pricing, taxes, support hours, language and local rules for each.
• App Store: Pricing and Availability, Specific Countries or Regions, "future countries" box unticked.
• Google Play: Production, Countries/regions; consider an open test first.
• Set up analytics and tagged links before the first install.
• Ship fixes with phased releases or staged rollouts, not straight to 100%.
• Review results weekly; iterate or expand.
• Before the global launch, refresh the listing and line up launch-day traffic.

FAQ#

What is a soft launch for an app?#

A soft launch is a public release of an app in a limited set of countries before a worldwide launch. Real users can find, download and rate it in those countries, which gives you real retention, stability and revenue data while mistakes are still cheap.

How do I release my app in only one country on the App Store?#

In App Store Connect, open Pricing and Availability, click Set Up Availability (or edit it), choose Specific Countries or Regions, select the country, and confirm. Leave the box for future countries unticked. You can add more countries later without a new build.

Can I soft launch on Google Play without affecting my rating?#

Yes, with open testing. For apps not yet in production, Google Play lets users find an open test through search, and feedback from test users does not affect your public rating. A production release in limited countries, by contrast, collects public ratings.

Which countries are best for a soft launch?#

Countries that resemble your main market in language, devices and spending. For US-focused English apps, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the Netherlands are common picks, while large markets such as the Philippines are often used for load testing. Check pricing, taxes and local rules for each.

How long should a soft launch last?#

Long enough to measure Day 7 retention on several weekly cohorts and to ship at least one round of fixes. Many teams plan three to four weeks, with a minimum number of users decided in advance.

Can I use a staged rollout to soft launch a new app on Google Play?#

No. Google says staged rollouts can only be used for app updates, not when publishing an app for the first time. To limit a first release, choose countries on the Production track or start with an open test.

Image credits#

• Cover, small globe on a desk under a monitor: photo by Dzenina Lukac on Pexels, Pexels License. Cropped to 1200x630.
• Desk globe by a window: photo by Andrew Neel on Pexels, Pexels License. Resized.
• Writing a plan in a notebook beside a laptop: photo by Ahmed on Pexels, Pexels License. Resized.