Newly
Newly is an AI platform that turns a plain-language prompt into a native iOS and Android app. It generates React Native code on Expo, previews it on a real device, and prepares App Store and Play Store submission.
What is Newly?
Newly, whose full brand name is Newly AI, is a browser-based platform that turns a written description into a working native mobile application. The user types what the app should do, and an AI agent generates a complete project in React Native with TypeScript, running on Expo SDK 54 and supporting Apple's Liquid Glass design language introduced in iOS 26. The vendor insists the output is genuine native code rather than a web wrapper: the apps compile for iOS and Android and reach roughly 95% of native device capabilities, including camera, GPS, push handling, Face ID and Touch ID, file system, contacts, calendar, accelerometer, gyroscope and haptics.
The differentiator the company claims is compliance. Newly presents itself as an end-to-end, compliance-aware app agent: it checks store requirements while the app is being built, guides the user through review rules, and prepares screenshots, a privacy policy, terms of service and store metadata. The stated goal is not merely producing an app but producing one that can actually pass review.
A backend called Liquid Backend is included in the subscription and configured by prompting rather than by setup screens. It provides a PostgreSQL database, email-and-password plus Google OAuth authentication, file storage, websockets, realtime subscriptions and serverless edge functions. Supabase is offered as an alternative, though switching permanently deletes the Liquid Backend database. Previewing works three ways: live in the browser, on a physical handset by scanning a QR code with Expo Go, and through a downloadable APK. Publishing is partly automated, with APK and AAB builds produced in the cloud in five to ten minutes, while iOS submission is routed through Expo Launch and requires a public GitHub repository.
Usage is metered in credits, one per prompt, with simple questions that change no code excluded. Teams can build together in real time. The publisher is Small Scale Labs AB, a Swedish company registered on 22 October 2024 with three employees, previously trading under the name Natively, which announced more than 2 million US dollars of funding in March 2026.
What it does
- Generate a complete native iOS and Android app from a written description
- Preview the result live in the browser or on a real phone through Expo Go
- Refine the app through follow-up prompts, one credit per prompt
- Add a database, authentication, storage and websockets by prompting for them
- Build a signed APK for testing or an AAB for Google Play in the cloud
- Export the full source code as a ZIP or a GitHub repository
- Produce App Store and Play Store screenshots, metadata and legal pages automatically
When to use Newly / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Newly is the right fit.
When to use Newly
- Founders and indie hackers who need a native mobile MVP without assembling a mobile team
- Non-technical builders who can describe an app in plain language but cannot write Swift or Kotlin
- Agencies and small product teams shipping client apps on short timelines
- Developers who want an AI first draft but insist on owning and editing the source code afterwards
- Students and hackathon participants building a working mobile app in a single session
When not to use Newly
- Teams building complex apps that depend on specialised native modules, where the vendor itself says engineering help will be needed
- Anyone handling health, biometric, financial-account or government-identifier data, which the terms forbid uploading
- Buyers who need to evaluate before paying, since there is neither a free plan nor a free trial
- Projects whose core requirement is remote push notifications or Apple Sign-In, both of which need a custom Expo development build
- Organisations whose procurement requires a security certification such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2, none of which is claimed
How to use Newly
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Create an account on newly.app and open a new project
- Describe the application you want in plain language in the prompt box
- Let the AI agent generate the complete React Native project
- Review the result in the live browser preview
- Scan the QR code with Expo Go to run the app on a real phone
- Refine the app with follow-up prompts, remembering that each prompt costs one credit
- Prompt for backend features such as authentication or a database, which Liquid Backend configures automatically
- Edit the code directly in the built-in IDE, or export it to GitHub and work locally
- Click Deploy and choose an APK for testing or an AAB for Google Play, then wait five to ten minutes for the cloud build
- For iOS, publish a public GitHub repository and follow the guided Expo Launch flow, which requires a paid Apple Developer account
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Produces real native React Native code rather than a webview or a repackaged PWA
- Full source-code ownership with ZIP and GitHub export and an explicit no-lock-in commitment
- Covers the whole release chain, from generation to APK and AAB builds and store submission
- Backend, APK builder and simulators are included in the subscription at no extra cost
- Requires no local toolchain: no Mac, no Xcode and no Android Studio
- Unusually detailed data governance for a company of this size, with a named subprocessor register and an explicit training opt-out
- Transparent published pricing with seven credit tiers on a single feature set
Cons
- No free plan and no free trial, so the product cannot be evaluated without paying
- The terms mention a free plan while the FAQ denies one three times, an unresolved internal contradiction
- Credits are consumed per prompt even when the output is unsatisfactory, and unused credits do not roll over
- The higher Newly Apex tier is advertised as coming soon rather than available
- Switching from Liquid Backend to Supabase irreversibly deletes the existing database
- iOS publishing requires making the project's GitHub repository public and paying for an Apple Developer account
- No security certification is claimed and no data-hosting country or region is disclosed
Pricing & Plans
There is no free plan and no free trial. The lowest paid entry point is 25 USD per month, which includes 50 credits and the full feature set. Annual billing for the same tier costs 240 USD per year, effectively two months free. Higher tiers increase the credit allowance only, running from 50 to 100, 200, 400, 800, 1,600 and 3,200 credits at 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,600 USD per month respectively. One credit is consumed per prompt, except for simple questions that request no code change, and unused credits do not carry over. Top-up credits may be bought by active subscribers; they expire after twelve months and are non-refundable. Publishing also carries external costs the vendor does not charge: an Apple Developer account at 99 USD per year and a one-time Google Play Developer fee of 25 USD.
- 5 USD per month or 48 USD per year
- 15 credits per month
- basic AI agent
- iOS and Android export
- community support. Present and active in the public pricing API but not shown on any public page
- from 25 USD per month for 50 credits
- described as 'Build like a professional'
- including App Store and Play Store deployment
- iOS and Android simulators
- project permissions
- priority support and the APK builder. Seven credit tiers run up to 1
- 600 USD per month for 3
- 200 credits
- described as 'Scale with expert support'
- promising automated testing across dozens of iOS and Android devices
- store compliance
- automated screenshots
- landing pages and metadata submission
- and top models running in parallel. Advertised as coming soon
- with no firm price
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Newly handles your data.
GDPR overview
GDPR implementation is concrete and documented. Small Scale Labs AB names itself controller, with a postal address in Lidingo, Sweden, and states the policy is designed to satisfy the GDPR, the UK GDPR, the Swiss FADP, Canada's PIPEDA and US state privacy laws. Five legal bases are listed: contract, legitimate interests, consent, legal obligation and vital interests. Data-subject rights are enumerated with a stated thirty-day response, and the Swedish authority IMY is named as supervisory authority. Transfers outside the EEA rely on EU Standard Contractual Clauses module 2, the UK IDTA addendum B1.0 and a Swiss addendum. Breach notification is promised within 72 hours where required. A Data Processing Agreement is offered and a named subprocessor register is public. No Article 27 representative is designated, which is consistent with an EU-established controller.
Who owns the data?
The terms split ownership cleanly. Customers own their Customer Data and the applications they build, and they also own the AI Output generated for them, subject to third-party rights in the underlying models. Small Scale Labs AB owns the platform, site, software, models, algorithms and interfaces, collectively called Newly Materials, plus all Usage Data such as telemetry, logs and usage metrics. Customers grant the vendor a worldwide, royalty-free licence over Customer Data excluding personally identifiable information, covering operation of the service, improvement of AI and machine-learning models, benchmarking and any other lawful business purpose. Generated source code can be exported as a ZIP or a GitHub repository and kept permanently.
Reuse rights
Customers may reuse everything they create without asking permission. Source code can be downloaded, modified, deployed anywhere and monetised commercially, with the vendor stating there is no lock-in and that the code is the customer's to keep forever. Commercial use, startup MVPs and business tools are explicitly allowed. The restrictions run the other way: customers may not resell the service itself on a bureau basis, reverse engineer the platform, or use Newly, its outputs or its prompts to train or improve competing AI models or app-building products. Uploaded content must be content the customer holds the rights to.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
The publisher does not name any hosting country or region. Small Scale Labs AB is established in Sweden and states that personal data may be transferred to and processed outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, including in the United States. Where a destination lacks an adequacy decision, transfers rely on EU Standard Contractual Clauses module 2 under Commission Decision 2021/914, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum version B1.0, and a Swiss addendum naming the FDPIC. Infrastructure providers are named individually in the public subprocessor register: Modal Labs for serverless compute and isolated agent execution, Vercel for web hosting, Amazon Web Services for object and build-artefact storage, Google Cloud Platform, Cloudflare for delivery and object storage, Neon for managed PostgreSQL, and Specific Technologies for hosted application backends. Stated safeguards include TLS in transit, AES-based encryption at rest, role-based access control and mandatory multi-factor authentication for staff with production access. No data-residency option or regional hosting choice is offered.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Newly.
- Owning generated code is not the same as understanding it: shipping an app whose logic no one on the team can read creates a maintenance debt that only surfaces when something breaks
- Billing one credit per prompt quietly rewards accepting a mediocre result over iterating, which can push users to ship something they would otherwise have refined
- Relying on an agent for App Store compliance can create false confidence; the vendor disclaims any guarantee that output is accurate or that an app will be approved
- The terms let the publisher use Customer Data to develop and improve AI models unless the customer actively opts out, so the default position favours the vendor
- Generated output may be similar or identical to code produced for other users from similar prompts, which matters for anyone assuming their app is distinctive
- The service depends on a chain of third parties for compute, models and hosting, and the publisher explicitly declines responsibility for their failures
- Skills atrophy is a real cost for learners: building only by prompt can leave someone able to ship an app but unable to debug it without the tool
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Getting started is easy and needs no technical background: create an account, write a prompt, and the result appears in the browser. Nothing is installed locally, and neither a Mac, Xcode nor Android Studio is required. Testing on a real handset only means installing the free Expo Go app and scanning a QR code. Android publishing is largely automated inside the platform. iOS publishing is markedly harder, requiring a public GitHub repository, the Expo Launch flow and a paid Apple Developer account. Advanced features such as remote push notifications, Apple Sign-In and in-app purchases need a custom Expo development build.
Deployment
Integrations
Behind Newly
Fundraising
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Alternatives
Tools that compete with or complement Newly.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to know how to code to use Newly?
Are the apps really native, or web pages in a wrapper?
Who owns the source code that Newly generates?
Is there a free plan or a free trial?
How do credits work?
Can I publish to the App Store and Google Play?
What backend does an app built with Newly use?
Is my data used to train AI models?
Who is behind Newly, and how old is the company?
What is the minimum age to use Newly?
Should you pick Newly?
Newly is a focused product with an unusually clear promise: describe a mobile app, get real native React Native code, and keep it. That focus shows in the details. The build chain runs from generation through cloud APK and AAB builds to store submission, the backend is included rather than sold separately, and the export path to GitHub is stated plainly enough to be checked. The compliance angle, preparing screenshots, metadata and legal pages so an app can survive review, is a genuine differentiator rather than a restatement of what every AI builder claims.
The reservations are equally concrete. There is no free plan and no free trial, so evaluation costs 25 USD before a single prompt is spent, and the terms and the FAQ disagree with each other on that very point. Billing by prompt rather than by result means unsuccessful attempts still cost credits, and those credits do not roll over. The advertised top tier is not yet available. No security certification is claimed and no hosting country is disclosed, which will stop some procurement processes regardless of how good the product is.
The publisher is young and small: Small Scale Labs AB was registered in Sweden on 22 October 2024 and reported three employees, though it is funded, having announced over 2 million US dollars in March 2026. Its data governance documentation is markedly more thorough than that size would predict, with a named subprocessor register and an explicit training opt-out.
The natural audience is founders, indie hackers, agencies and product teams who want a native mobile MVP quickly and intend to own the code afterwards. Anyone needing certifications, guaranteed data residency, or the chance to try before paying should look elsewhere.
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