Now you can use the googlePlayReleaseStatus attribute in your voltbuilder.json file to configure your app’s release status. You can set your status to one of four accepted release statuses: completed, draft, halted, or inProgress. The default value is completed. If you’re not sure which status to use, you can review the status definitions in the Google Play Developer API Documentation.
Check out what Android (and iOS) build attributes you can add to your voltbuilder.json over in our project set-up documentation for Cordova or Capacitor.
We’re adding support for using a custom Cordova Android engine 9.1.1 - and this feature is currently in beta! If you’d like to get involved in the beta, email support@volt.build!
We’re on the lookout for things we can do to make your experience on our site and using our build service better. If you have questions, feedback, or need support, drop us a line on our Support Forum — we’ll be happy to hear from you!
That’s all for this week! Happy building!
]]>We will be announcing the beta test of macOS 15.5 and Xcode 16.4 within the next couple of weeks. This beta will help us ensure compatibility and stability across our build services before full support rolls out. If you’re interested in participating, keep an eye out for our announcement here on our blog and in our newsletter! As always, your feedback during beta phases is incredibly valuable to us.
We began internally testing macOS 26 and Xcode 26 this week, following Apple’s announcements at WWDC. This early testing helps us stay ahead of compatibility issues so you can keep building with VoltBuilder as you update your apps. While it’s still very early in the cycle, our goal is to minimize turnaround time. We’ll share progress updates as we continue our evaluation.
As we gear up for Apple’s upcoming OS and tooling changes, we’re focused on giving you a smooth transition path and top-tier support. If you run into issues or want to chat about any of the changes, drop us a line on the Support Forum. We’re always here to help!
Thanks for building with us!
]]><splash> tags are detected will now have an easier time troubleshooting their builds. We also fixed a bug on our website — now you can log in from any page!
We made two important updates to the the App Store Connect Validation Failed error:
App Store Connect Validation Failed error message explains why the validation failed — for example, because the app has been removed or deleted.UserError because App Store Connect validation failures indicate an issue with your app configuration or Apple account settings. Classifying the error as a ServerError led to some confusion.These updates will help make your troubleshooting more efficient.
The error when the deprecated <splash> tags are detected has also been updated to provide more specific guidance on resolving the issue. The new error still advises you to migrate to the <preference> tag, and then update your config.xml file.
We also improved the login experience on the site this week by fixing an issue preventing you from logging in from some pages on the site. You can now log in from any page on the site (including this news post page — give it a try!).
You may see a brief “authenticating” message during login, but we’re working to remove that for an even smoother login experience.
We’re on the lookout for things we can do to make your experience on our site and using our build service better. If you have questions, feedback, or need support, drop us a line on our Support Forum — we’ll be happy to hear from you!
That’s all for this week! Happy building!
]]>Our samples are a hands-on way for you to learn how to set up your own Cordova and Capacitor projects to build and publish to Google Play and the Apple App Store. Naturally, we periodically update the samples to use the same SDK and plugin versions you’ll be targeting.
Along with the usual updates, we expanded the Cordova sample project’s documentation and updated the code to better meet best practices and accessibility standards.
config.xmlvoltbuilder.json to provide better guidance for setting up your ownWe’ll be making similar updates to the Capacitor sample project soon!
Along with our sample updates, we updated our agent hosts to maintain the performance, security, and functionality — so you can keep building with confidence.
That’s all for this week! Happy building!
]]>If you enabled ESM in your project by setting "type": "module" in your package.json, your capacitor.config.ts file may have been misinterpreted, causing unexpected behavior. We’ve fixed that! Things should now work as expected for Capacitor users using ESM.
We’re currently testing updates to the plan page that will make it easier for you to select and manage your subscription. These updates are part of an ongoing project to improve your experience using our website.
Our UX improvement goals are based on the feedback we get from the community over on our support & community forums. Your feedback is always welcome! You can post your feedback on the website in the Site Requests category, or request new features to our core service Feature Requests category.
We’ve recently moved to Bluesky and Mastodon. We’ll be sharing updates about new features and bugfixes there — give us a follow us to stay in the loop between weekly posts!
That’s it for this week! Whether it’s faster support or fewer clicks to manage your account, we’re iterating based on your pain points (and our own dev headaches). Got thoughts? Drop them in the support & community forum — we’re all ears. Until next Friday, happy building!
]]>We’ve restructured the forums to make it easier to find (and give!) help. We’ve added a dedicated space for Support Requests, and clarified the purposes of our other forum categories. Our goals for these changes are to:
We’re also in the process of rolling out several tweaks to the website to improve your experience:
These changes are in testing now and should roll out next week—we’ll share details once they’re live!
That’s it for this week! Whether it’s faster support or fewer clicks to manage your account, we’re iterating based on your pain points (and our own dev headaches). Got thoughts? Drop them in the new forum categories — we’re all ears. Until next Friday, happy building!
]]>Without further ado, here’s what we’ve been working on this week to make your app-building experience smoother:
We recently added support for Capacitor 7, which requires JVM 21. Some of you ran into errors when trying to build projects with dependencies that are not yet ready for JVM 21. We’ve added a fallback flag to switch back to JVM 17 (our previous default) to allow building using older versions of Java.
That said, if you’re using Capacitor, we recommend updating to Capacitor 7, which targets the latest Android and iOS SDKs.
The new flag will help users experiencing errors like Execution failed for task ':[plugin]' > error: invalid source release: 21. Add the flag to your voltbuilder.json to use it:
{
"capacitor": {
"jvm_21": false
}
}
Along with the new flag, we’ve added smarter JVM version detection. No more manual guesswork! We’ve fine-tuned how VoltBuilder detects your Capacitor version and automatically selects the right JVM version.
Older NPM packages that rely on binary dependencies can be tricky. We’ve improved handling for these deprecated packages so they’re less likely to cause build failures.
We’ve added support for comments and other quality of life improvements for your JSON files. Here’s a short list of enhancements you can use to make configuring your builds easier:
// single-line or /* multi-line */ comments.We’ll be updating our sample projects to showcase how you can utilize these changes soon.
That’s it for this week! These updates are improvements and fixes that are based on your feedback (or what we notice ourselves as we use VoltBuilder). Got suggestions? Let us (and the community) know over on our forum. Until next Friday, happy building! 🚀
]]>With our simple, 5-step migration process, migrating from Ionic AppFlow to VoltBuilder is a seamless and smart choice. Developers who choose VoltBuilder enjoy:
VoltBuilder is the ideal alternative to Ionic AppFlow, offering simplicity, security, and affordability. Whether you’re transitioning existing projects or starting new ones, VoltBuilder makes cross-platform app development easier than ever.
Source code and signing keys are cached up to 48 hours on our servers. ↩
The best part? These updates use the same quick and easy build process VoltBuilder is known for: upload, download, run, done. You shouldn’t see any changes to your job output, but to be certain, we’re running a limited-time beta.
Participating in the beta is simple:
Your feedback is invaluable in helping us improve VoltBuilder for everyone. Thank you in advance for your help!
]]>Pre-approving all Cordova plugins in NPM means that you no longer need to wait to see if the Cordova plugins you want to use will be approved. If the plugin is listed in NPM, just add it to your config.xml and you’re ready to upload!
Updates to the plugin review process also make it easier for you to create your own plugins. Add your custom plugins to NPM (or fork existing one) and upload — no need to go through the review process.
You’ll still need to make sure the plugins you use are safe. Check that the plugin you want to use is well-maintained by its author, does what you expect it to do, and is compatible with your required versions of Android or iOS.
The plugin review process was implemented to keep your projects safe and our servers running smoothly. Over time, we’ve improved our sandboxing and virtualization, reducing the need for us to review plugins for bad behavior.
Naturally, this means that we can now safely pre-approve Cordova plugins in NPM — and speed up your app build workflow in the process.
We have more exciting changes on the horizon aimed at making your experience with VoltBuilder even better. We’re committed to continuously improving your workflow, and we can’t wait to share what’s next!
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