Need help understanding how to version an iOS app

Question

In Xcode I have Bundle Version and Bundle Version string, short. There is also a version in iTunes Connect. Just trying to see what I should use for each one and which one iOS uses to determine the version of the app so that a newer version properly replaces and older version.

Answer 1

Long story short: you can just set both Bundle Version and Bundle Version string short to to the same value. You will need to increase them between submissions. The version in iTunes Connect is the version displayed to the user in the App Store and does not have to match the version strings in your Info.plist

Answer 2

Here's the excellent post on how to do the versioning easy way. My general approach is tou use x.y.z where 'x' is gets increased on major releases, 'y' is increased for versions introducing new functionality and 'z' is used for bug-fixes releases. Examples: 1.0.0, 1.0.4, 3.2.1 etc... The relation between Bundle Version and iTunes connect is simple: whatever you use for your version in the Xcode, is also used in iTunes, so the user of your app can identify you app version easily - you just have to be consistent. Later you can introduce more granularity, e.g. build numbers.

EDIT: Important addition: your app can get rejected if you're inconsistent with numbering. More details here. dead link, however it is still true that because of inconsistent versioning app can get rejected.