App Approval
Most apps never need approval.
If you are building something for your own business, or an integration for one specific client, you can stop reading here and go build it. Your app already works.
What approval actually is
Approval is a distribution switch, not an activation switch.
An unapproved app is fully functional. It has a live client ID and secret, it can complete the OAuth flow, it can call every endpoint its scopes allow, and it can receive webhooks. Nothing about it is pending, throttled, or in a trial mode.
What approval changes is who else can install it. Once approved — and marked Public and App Store — your app appears in the Noona App Store for every business on Noona. Until then, it is visible only to you.
Approval is not a step in building an app. It is a step in publishing one. If nobody outside your own business is going to install your app, you never need it, and your app will simply stay unapproved forever. That is the normal, correct end state for an internal app.
Which case are you?
| Who will use the app | Do you need approval? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Only your own business — an internal tool for your company, or for companies you own | No | Nothing. Create the app and install it. See Using a private app below. |
| One specific client — you are building for a business that is not yours | No | Ask us to whitelist that one company. See Whitelisting a client company below. |
| Any business on Noona — you want to be listed in the App Store | Yes | Request approval from the Approval Status tab in the Developer Portal. We will ask what your app does, why it needs its scopes, and for a demo. |
Using a private app
An unapproved app is installable by the user who created it, at companies where that user has the owner role.
- In the Developer Portal, give the app at least one Redirect URI and the Scopes it needs.
- Sign in to Noona HQ as the same user who created the app.
- Go to Settings → Apps, find your app in the list, and install it.
From there the OAuth flow is identical to a public app's — see Implementing.
My app isn't in the list
Almost always one of these, and the first one catches most new apps:
- The app does not have App Store enabled, and is not installed yet. The list only shows apps that are already installed or have App Store ticked. A newly created app is neither, so it is invisible — including to you. Tick App Store on the Visibility tab and it appears. If you deliberately left it off because your users connect from your own site, this is expected and there is nothing to fix — see Where installation starts.
- You are signed in as a different user than the one who created the app. Visibility is tied to the creating user account, not to the company.
- The creating user does not have the owner role at that company. Installing an app requires the owner role.
- The app is restricted by vertical or country. Check the Visibility tab in the Developer Portal — if you have selected specific verticals or countries, a company outside them will not see the app.
If the app needs to be available at a company the creating user has no account at, that is the whitelist case below.
Where installation starts
Before making sense of the settings, decide which of the two install flows your app uses. Both are fully supported, and both are described in detail under the user's perspective.
- From Noona HQ. The user finds your app under Settings → Apps, clicks install, approves the consent screen, and is redirected to you. This needs App Store enabled.
- From your own site. The user clicks something like Connect to Noona in your product, you send them to the authorization endpoint, they approve, and they come back to you. Nothing on the Visibility tab affects this flow — not App Store, not Public, and not your vertical or country restrictions, which only govern the Noona HQ list. Approval still applies, though: until your app is approved, only you and whitelisted companies can complete the flow, whichever way it starts. Many integrations deliberately use only this route, because the app is an extension of an existing product rather than something people go shopping for in Noona.
If you only support the second flow, leaving App Store off is correct. Your app will not appear in Noona HQ — including for you — and that is the intended result, not a problem to fix.
Public, App Store and Approved
These settings sound related but control different things, and only one of them depends on approval:
| Unapproved app | Approved app | |
|---|---|---|
| Public | No effect. | Required for other companies to see the app in Noona HQ. Approval alone is not enough. |
| App Store | Lets the install start from Settings → Apps in Noona HQ. Off means the app never appears there, including for you. | Same, for every company that can see the app. |
In short: App Store chooses whether installation can begin inside Noona HQ, and applies immediately. Public decides whether companies other than your own see the app there, and does nothing until the app is approved.
Both flags govern the Noona HQ list only. Neither affects the flow that starts from your own site — but approval governs both flows, so an unapproved app can only be authorized by you and any whitelisted companies no matter how the flow begins.
Whitelisting a client company
When you are building for a single client, whitelisting gives that one company access to your unapproved app. Nobody else is affected, and the app stays out of the App Store.
How to ask. Open your app in the Developer Portal, go to Approval Status, choose One specific business, and send the request. You can also just email us with your app name and the client company.
Give us the company ID if you have it. A name works, but company names are not unique, so it means we have to look it up and confirm we picked the right one.
What happens next. We add the company to your app's whitelist by hand — there is no self-service endpoint for this, so it is not instant. Once it is in place:
- Your app appears under Settings → Apps at that company, if App Store is ticked on the Visibility tab. If your client connects from your own site instead, they never need that list and the flag can stay off.
- An owner at that company installs it and goes through the normal consent screen.
- The OAuth flow, scopes, and tokens all behave exactly as they would for an approved app.
Whitelisting needs neither approval nor the Public flag, and it does not put your app in front of anyone else. If you later want every business on Noona to install it, that is a separate approval request.
What approval does not gate
To be explicit, because this is the most common misunderstanding — none of the following wait on approval:
- Getting a client ID and client secret
- Completing the OAuth flow and obtaining access/refresh tokens
- Calling any API endpoint your scopes cover
- Receiving webhooks
- Installing and using the app at your own company
- Testing anything
Requesting approval
Only if you are the third case — you want any business on Noona to be able to install your app.
Open your app in the Developer Portal, go to Approval Status, and answer the Does my app need approval? question. If App Store distribution really is what you want, you will get a form asking for:
- What problem the app solves, and how
- Which businesses it is for
- Why it needs each scope it requests
- A demo covering the end-to-end install flow and what the app does day to day
Once approved, your app appears to every company on Noona, subject to the verticals and countries set under Visibility.