Submit an iOS App to the Apple App Store and TestFlight using EAS
Submit your Production Build to the Apple App Store and install it via TestFlight.
When submitting a build to Apple with EAS Submit (or otherwise), it will first get added to TestFlight which is essentially a pre-prod environment for Apple. This will allow you to install and share the actual production build to testers before releasing it to users.
App names on the Apple App Store must be globally unique. So if you've chosen a name for your app that is already taken - like Plants - you will have to choose a different name for the App Store Listing page. Note that this is only the case for the app name on the App Store listing page, and you can still use your preferred name elsewhere.
TestFlight Internal Testing - as soon as you upload your build to App Store Connect and it finished processing, it is available for internal testing. You can add users to the internal testing group by email, and the users must be registered on your Apple Developer account.
TestFlight External Testing - this is a separate testing group that allows you to share the build with anyone either by sending them an email invite or using an invite URL. Before you can share the build, you must first submit a build for external testing and wait for it to be approved by Apple, which usually takes a couple of hours.
Release - in order for the build to actually show up on the Apple App Store, you will need to create a Release on App Store connect and submit it for review. This review usually takes about a day.
I'm wondering about runtimeVersion. I have autoIncrement set to true, but I still have to increment runtimeVersion in app.json to get my app into TestFlight. Is that correct, I have to increment the runtimeVersion every time before I build and submit?