As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly build a mobile app for your business.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 2 hours until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Write a one-page brief covering the users, business problem, core actions, platforms, stored data, integrations and constraints, then open Replit or another coding workspace.
   2. Paste the brief into the prompt and answer the model's blocking questions using your real business rules, without pasting passwords, API keys or customer records.
   3. Ask the tool to create the smallest useful prototype first, using test data and placeholders for payments, logins and external services.
   4. Run the prototype on the target device types and follow each core journey, recording broken screens, incorrect calculations, permission errors and missing content.
   5. Paste each reproducible error and the relevant code or log into the tool, then apply one fix at a time and rerun the affected test cases.
   6. Give the code and test results to a developer to check authentication, permissions, data protection, accessibility, backups, dependency risks and deployment configuration.
   7. Replace test data and placeholders only after the developer's checks, then complete the relevant app-store, privacy and operational steps before inviting real customers.

   Prompt

   Act as a senior product manager and mobile software engineer. Help me create a small business app from the brief below.
   
   Business: [what the business does]
   Users: [who will use the app]
   Main problem solved: [the problem]
   Platforms: [iPhone, Android, both, or web app]
   Core actions: [list the actions users must complete]
   Information the app stores: [list the data, or say none]
   Logins and permissions: [who can sign in and what each type of user can do]
   Integrations: [payments, bookings, email, maps, accounting or other systems]
   Branding: [colours, logo, tone and visual references]
   Legal or operational constraints: [UK data protection, retention, accessibility, industry rules and other constraints]
   
   First, identify missing or contradictory requirements and ask only the questions that block a safe first version. Do not invent business rules, credentials, customer data, legal claims or integration behaviour. Then produce:
   1. A plain-English product brief and a smallest useful first release.
   2. A screen-by-screen user journey.
   3. A data model and a permissions table.
   4. A technical plan that states whether a native app, cross-platform app or responsive web app is most suitable, and why.
   5. A working prototype or complete implementation where the chosen tool supports it, with setup instructions and clearly marked placeholders.
   6. Test cases covering every core action, invalid input, failed network requests, account permissions, accessibility and data deletion.
   7. A launch checklist covering device testing, backups, monitoring, privacy information, security review and app-store submission.
   
   Keep the implementation small and understandable. Explain every dependency and configuration value. Before calling anything production-ready, list what still requires testing or review by a qualified developer. Never claim that security, compliance or app-store approval has been completed without evidence.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.