What you need to launch branded apps quickly

This guide covers what you need to do in order to get your branded apps and video service live as quickly as possible, including what our team needs from you in order to develop and launch your apps and typical timelines. 

Mitigate Common Blockers

There are many things that you can work on ahead of time– before signing a contract with Vimeo–to give your launch a head start. 

Developer Accounts

Each platform has its own requirements for getting set up with developer accounts. If you are looking to launch branded apps, you will need developer accounts on the platforms you plan on publishing to. Our setup guides for this process are publicly available here and you do not need to wait to sign a contract with us before getting started with these steps.

If you want to publish as soon as possible, you should work through the developer account set up process as soon as possible. A few important details by platform are also noted below.

Apple

An important requirement for publishing apps onto Apple platforms (iOS and tvOS) is that a DUNS number is required to set up a developer account. This process can take 14 days or more to complete if you do not already have one. If you want to launch on Apple as soon as possible you should register for a DUNS number as soon as possible, it does not need to wait until a contract with Vimeo is signed.

Roku

Roku requires that every developer account have a linked physical Roku device before any app can be published to the Channel Store from that account. This means that you will be required to link a physical Roku device to your account before we begin work on your app. If you do not already own a Roku device, you need to buy one and follow the steps from Roku to get it linked to your account. If you want to launch on Roku as soon as possible, make sure a Roku device is linked before starting our process; this does not need to wait for a contract with Vimeo to be signed.

Brand Graphics

In order to give you an idea of what your apps will look like (and to actually build the apps), we will need high quality, layered graphic assets from you to work into our design templates. We ask for “layered” assets because these are the easiest to work into our designs and result in workable mock-ups and functional apps in the shortest amount of time.

Our design startup guides include image resolutions and examples that you can see at any time to help you assemble your branding as early as possible so we can move quickly. Clients typically take at least a week to get their branding to us before we can begin work. If you’re able to gather your existing branding files before or during the contract closing process this will set you up for a faster launch.

An example of a good layered graphic would be something like a Photoshop, Illustrator, or other graphic design software file that has all the different elements broken out into “layers” that our design team can immediately use without needing to do time-consuming editing of rasterized or “flat” graphics to separate logos from backgrounds, for example. Below is a list of graphic design items that we will need in order to build your apps. 

  • Dark and light versions of any logo variant they want us to use, with a transparent background
  • Wide aspect ratio variants of their logo, with a transparent background
  • Tall aspect ratio variants of their logo, with a transparent background
  • Square aspect ratio variants of their logo, with a transparent background
  • HEX values of their brand colors
  • (Optional) Tall aspect ratio, tablet-sized background pattern image for a splash page, with no logos
  • (Optional) Wide aspect ratio, tablet-sized background pattern image for a splash page, with no logos

If you want to publish as soon as possible, gather the requested graphics as early as possible so that you can be ready to send them to our team when requested.

Proof of Licensed Content

If you use a large amount of licensed content that is clearly the property of large media companies, the app store reviewers are very likely to ask for proof that you have the appropriate rights to offer that content in a streaming service. You will be better prepared to avoid slowdowns during the publishing process if you gather any licensing agreements ahead of time so you can send them to us to provide to the reviewers upon request.

If you want to publish as soon as possible, make sure you can provide signed license agreements for any licensed content you use in your service.

Options to Accelerate Launch Timelines

Apart from gathering all the required materials as early as possible and signing up for all accounts quickly, there are some decisions you can make that will accelerate your launches even faster.

Review Apps with Mock-Ups Only

Our team assembles mock-ups of the app designs after we receive branding graphics files from you. These files closely resemble what the apps will look like and highlight what aspects can be customized. These guides should answer any questions about what can be changed and give you a preview of what their branding will look like to users.

Download our sample mock-up document here.

For the fastest launch timeline, you can choose to use only the customized mock-up files to approve your app design while focusing on finalizing your OTT site.  This would allow you to avoid the process of downloading programs like TestFlight to receive the test versions of your app. Note that you can still change your app graphics and branding after launch so if you change your mind later, that's okay.

Let Vimeo Handle Store Screenshots

Each app platform has specific rules to follow when uploading screenshots to their store pages and sometimes these are hard to keep track of. Apple has a dedicated page with all the exact resolution requirements that must be followed before any image can be uploaded and, in our experience, these can be challenging to get right on the first try. This delays launches and can be adjusted after launch with your next update instead. Our team has templates that are designed specifically to meet all these requirements and follow the guidelines for the store review in the process so we are equipped to prepare screenshots quickly so you can launch faster.

For the fastest launch timeline, provide us with a few short marketing phrases to use in your screenshots and let us generate the images and upload them to the store. You can change these after launch if you choose.