App Store version

An App Store version is the record in App Store Connect that carries your store metadata and the build you attach to it, and its version string is the number users see on your product page.

Almost everything on the product page belongs to the version, not to the app: the description, keywords, subtitle, screenshots, preview videos, What's New text, support URL and the build itself. Change any of them and you are editing a version record, which is why a copy fix on a live app means creating a new version and going back through review.

A version starts in Prepare for Submission, where it is a draft you can edit freely. Once submitted it locks. After approval it becomes Pending Developer Release or goes live, depending on how you set release.

A short list of things you can change on a live app without a new version. Promotional text, which is exactly why that field exists. Pricing and availability, which are app level. Age rating answers in some cases. Everything else waits.

The version string itself has rules worth knowing. It must be higher than the last released version, and it is compared numerically per component, so 1.10 is above 1.9. It has no required relationship to the build number, which is a separate counter entirely.

See also: build, metadata rejection, phased release.