Contents

• Introduction
• Get Started
• Setup Steps
  • Step 1: Quick Setup
    • Start From Your Website
    • No Website? Answer a Few Questions
    • Store Listing
    • Contact Shown in the Stores
    • Logo and Color
    • Confirm and Continue
  • Step 2: Pages
    • Draft With AI
    • Draft With AI in the Builder
  • Step 3: Store Preview
    • Store Screenshots
    • Store Listings, Phone and Launch Screen
    • Review
    • Approve and Publish
  • Steps 4 and 5: In Review and Live
  • Good to Know
  • Messages You May See

Introduction

If you are subscribed to the Branded Mobile App, you can now set everything up the way you prefer, using the Branded App Studio (We’ll keep it brief moving forward and just call it “The Studio”). It works with the existing Builder, which lets you create your app without coding.

This feature is only available with the Branded App, for accounts that are subscribed and have not already sent us a setup request at the time of release (10/5/2026)..

The Studio lets you enter information for your app store listing, logo and color, build a home page (with help from AI), check how the app will look in the Apple App Store and Google Play, and approve it. The ChMeetings team then builds and submits the app.

This guide takes you through the entire process. 

Get Started

To get started working with The Studio, open your ChMeetings app, then go to Member Portal > Mobile App. Only account Owners and Admins see this menu item.

The Studio’s main screen shows a step bar at the top. Pages and Store Preview open only after Quick Setup is complete. On wide screens, a Live Preview phone on the right shows the app's home page as a visitor will see it. It updates as you work.

Setup Steps

To set up your mobile app, you are guided through a series of 5 steps to follow. We’ll go through each of them in detail. You can Save your changes any time, during any step, and return later. 

Step 1: Quick Setup

The Quick Setup collects everything the stores need in order to list your app. Let's go through it!

Start From Your Website

Enter your website address under Church Website and click Import. ChMeetings reads the public website and lists what it found: church name, service times, address, About text, phone, email, social links and colors. Nothing is used until you save. These details help AI write the store listing and draft the pages.

Click Edit Details to make any needed corrections. You can edit the name, address, phone, email and About text, add or remove up to 8 service times, and manage social links. Click  Save Details when done.

If the phone, email or website found on the site differ from the ChMeetings Account Owner contact details, you will see a Use These Contact Details link. Clicking it copies the website information into the Store Contacts for your branded app. 

This will replace your store support email, which you will be asked to confirm.

No Website? Answer a Few Questions

If you do not have a website, click No Website? Start From What's Already in ChMeetings to answer a few questions instead. You will see what ChMeetings already knows: the church address, service times (worked out from public events that repeat every week, if there are any), the number of upcoming public events, social links, and whether online giving is set up. 

Here are the questions that will need an answer:

• What Should a First-Time Visitor Know?
• What Do You Call Your Main Gathering? (for example Service, Liturgy or Mass; the app uses your word to refer to your main gathering)
• Languages You Worship In
• When Do You Meet? (only asked when no service times were found)
• Ministries (press Enter/Command after each one to add more)
• How Do People Give?

Store Listing

In this section, you must enter the text that will be displayed in the store listing. This is the text people will read in the App Store and Google Play. It must be plain text, without any HTML, Markdown, etc; because stores show the text exactly as entered, including characters such as ** or #. 

The table below shows the fields that need filling in: 

Write With AI writes the Subtitle, Short Description, Long Description, Keywords, Promotional Text and screenshot captions from your details. The texts are warm and welcoming. They only mention event registration when an upcoming event takes registrations.

Save your setup when ready.

Contact Shown in the Stores

Both stores show a support contact, which you can customize here. The details to manage are: 

• Support Email and Support Page, which are configured by default with ChMeetings’ support email and page. You can leave support to us, but we recommend entering your own support email and page so members can reach you directly.
• The Phone and Website are optional. 
• Every ChMeetings app uses the ChMeetings privacy policy, so this field cannot be changed.

Logo and Color

Now you can upload your own logo and select your brand colors. 

Click Upload Logo and choose a square PNG or JPG. It must be at least 1024 × 1024 px, no larger than 4096 × 4096 px, and under 10 MB. ChMeetings makes every icon size from this image. You will see the uploaded file and how the app icon will look.

If no logo is uploaded, the logo from Settings > Account Settings is used and you will be advised to upload the original file. Uploading a logo here does not change the Account Settings logo.

Under App Color, pick one of the colors suggested from the logo, or set a Custom color. A tag shows whether white text is easy to read with that color in the background. We recommend that you pay attention to readability and accessibility when choosing your app color. We recommend that you take a look at the Use of Color section within the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Confirm and Continue

Before continuing, you must tick: "We own this church name and logo, or are allowed to use them." ChMeetings adds this confirmation to the notes for the store review.

Clicking Save saves the work so far without checking it. 

Clicking Next: Pages checks the completion of every required field, saves, and opens the Pages step.

Step 2: Pages

The app's home page and events become the store screenshots, so this step works with what is on the home page: the number of home page cards, and the other pages. If the home page has no cards, you will see a warning saying the first screenshot would be empty.

Draft With AI

Draft With AI proposes home page cards and a few pages from the church's website, its answers and what ChMeetings already knows.

1. Choose who the page is Written Mainly For: Visitors and Members, Visitors or Members. Click Draft. Here’s what you will get from AI:
   1. A welcome message
   2. Your upcoming events and calendar
   3. Your social media links, when you have them
   4. A few pages, such as Plan a Visit. 
      
      At this point, nothing is added to the live app until you choose what to keep.
      
      
      
      
2. Wait while the draft is written. It usually takes under a minute.
   
   
   
   
3. Review the draft carefully - Remember that AI can make mistakes. Untick anything you don't want, and edit the card titles and texts. For each page, choose whether to Also Show on the Home Page - this will display a card on your homepage which will allow people to go directly to that particular page. Note that on this screen, each checkbox and toggle is counted as an item, so the Add button shows how many items you will be adding to the Builder.
   
   
    
4. Under Who Can See These Cards, choose Everyone, Visitors Only or Members Only.
   
   
   
   
5. Click Add # Items to the Builder to complete this setup. Your selected cards and pages will be added to the Builder, as you configured them during the previous drafting steps.
    

Every draft includes a welcome message, upcoming events and a calendar, plus social media links when the church has them. A Give card is only added when online giving is set up, and a Live Stream card will only be added when the AI finds a streaming link on your website, but you have not configured it in ChMeetings yet. There will be no action regarding your streaming link if you already have a dedicated card added via the Builder. 

The new cards go after the cards already found on the home page. You can use the Builder to reorder them as needed.

Draft With AI in the Builder

You will also find the option to Draft with AI in the Builder’s header (Member Portal > Builder). An empty home page also offers Draft With AI under Let's build your page!. Both open the same Draft Pages With AI window. 

When you open the Builder from the Studio, you will see a banner explaining that the home page and events become the store screenshots. The Back to Mobile App link returns to the Studio.

Step 3: Store Preview

Store Screenshots

At this point, you will see the four screens the stores will display for your app listing, in order, each with its caption:

1. Guest Home: the home page a visitor sees.
2. Events: the events list.
3. Event Registration: an event people can register for. If no upcoming event takes registrations, this screenshot reads Event Details instead.
4. Member Home: the home page a signed-in member sees.

ChMeetings captures the final images from your live app after approval, at every size Apple and Google require.

Click Edit Captions to change a caption (up to 40 characters each), then Save Captions. A caption left empty uses the suggestion.

Store Listings, Phone and Launch Screen

Below the screenshots, the Studio previews the listing as it will appear in the App Store and on Google Play. 

On the Phone shows the app icon with the name under it, and how notifications look. 

Launch Screen shows what gets displayed while the app opens.

Review

When your app setup is complete, ChMeetings will show you a checklist so you can easily see what is complete and what might need a second look. The checklist covers the store name, name under the icon, subtitle, short and long descriptions, keywords, logo, the name and logo confirmation, and the home page. Each item is marked as follows:

• Done: The step is completed and ready for publication.
• Review: Advice only, for example a name under the icon that may be cut short, or with no keywords. This does not stop approval.
• Fix: Must be fixed before approving, for example a missing description or ** marks in the text.

Clicking an item marked Review or Fix opens the step where it can be changed.

Approve and Publish

While an item is marked Fix, the Approve and Publish button is disabled, so you cannot move forward until you fix the marked items.

Here is what will happen during this process:

• ChMeetings builds your iPhone and Android apps based on your configuration. 
• We submit both apps to Apple Store and Google Play, and follow their approval progress.
• When your app is live, we can only help change your app icon, screenshots, or store description. Your pages, events, and content will update in the app automatically, as you use the corresponding features, as in any ChMeetings app. 

Note that after approval, the listing can't be changed while ChMeetings builds and submits the app. This is so our team has definitive information to work with. Click Approve and Publish.when done. 

You will be asked to confirm whether you are ready to do so.

Steps 4 and 5: In Review and Live

After approval, the Studio opens with your app In Review. A timeline shows the progress we are making: Approved, Building Your App, Store Review and Live. Most apps are live within 7 to 14 business days.

Quick Setup, Pages and Store Preview are locked while the app is in review. You can still change pages in the Builder: those changes appear in the app without a new store review. You can make changes with the Builder anytime while the app is live.

If the ChMeetings team needs something from you, In Review says so and asks you to check your email.

When the app is published, the ChMeetings team marks it Live. The Studio then shows the Google Play and App Store links, each with buttons to open the link, copy it, or show a QR code, so you can easily share them.

Pages, events and content update in the app automatically, anytime while live.

To change the app icon, screenshots or store description, please click Request a Change. This opens our Help & Support area, where you can get in touch with our team and request the desired change.

Good to Know

Messages You May See