How to build a phone app for iPhone and Android with AI

Most small businesses never get their own app. An agency takes weeks and a large budget, and app builders still ask you to put every screen together by hand. AI changes the first step: you describe the app, and it builds it.

This guide uses frascati, our own AI builder. Since 29 September 2026 it builds phone apps for iPhone and Android, not only websites. Here is what you can build, how it works step by step, what an app can do, what it costs and how your app gets into the stores.

What you can build

Anything a small business hands to its customers or its team. The app templates show the range:

• A café app with a stamp card, the menu with prices and today's specials, opening hours and directions
• A restaurant app to order ahead for pickup and reserve a table
• A salon app with services, prices and durations, appointment requests in three steps and a customer account
• A yoga studio app with the week's classes, spots to reserve and passes paid online
• A club app with events, sign ups and membership requests
• A shop app with search, favourites and a bag paid in one go through Stripe
• A team app with daily jobs, checklists, signed off reports and an AI summary for the client

How it works

• Choose Phone app and describe your app in your own words: who it is for, what people should be able to do, and the look you want
• frascati builds the screens, the texts and the photos, usually in a few minutes
• Scan the QR code with your phone's camera. The app opens right away, and you can add it to your home screen
• Change it in the chat, the same way you would ask a person: add a screen for opening hours, make the buttons green, rename the stamp card

What an app can do

• Keep data in Cloud tables: content you edit yourself, like a menu or events, and entries people send from the app
• Let people sign in with a code sent to their email, so their stamp card, sign ups or settings stay with them
• Use AI for a few features you choose, for example answering questions or writing a short summary
• Take payments through your own Stripe account: single products, a bag with several products or a subscription

Some things apps cannot do yet: push notifications, the camera and maps. frascati tells you when a request needs one of them.

What it costs

Every plan starts with a free 3-day trial with 20 credits: you add a card and can cancel before the trial ends at no cost. After that, Starter costs $12, Pro $29 and Business $69 a month. Building and changing your app uses credits from your plan.

Publishing in the App Store and downloading the app project are part of Pro and Business. Both start with the first payment, not during the trial.

Getting into the App Store and Google Play

Your app goes into the stores under your own name. For the App Store you need a membership in the Apple Developer Program, which Apple charges 99 USD a year for. Publishing with frascati opens account by account; until it is open for you, you can download the app project. The steps are in our docs, under Publish to the App Store.

For Google Play, you download the app project and publish it with Expo's tools under your own Google Play developer account, which Google charges US$25 for, once. The steps are in our docs, under Publish on Google Play.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. You describe the app and ask for changes in plain words. If you want the code, Pro and Business let you download the app project.

Is it a real app or a website?

A real app project built with Expo and React Native, the technology behind many apps in the stores. On your phone you first open it through the QR code; for the stores it is built as a real app.

Can people find my app in the App Store right away?

Only after you publish it under your own Apple account and Apple has reviewed it. Until then you can share the link from the QR code with the people you want to test it.