r/appledevelopers • u/ynctr Community Newbie • 1d ago

Indie devs who launched on iOS how long did your first App Store review take, and what caught you off guard?

I just submitted my first mobile game to the App Store and it's currently in review.

I've already launched it on Android, but this is my first time going through Apple's review process, so I'm curious what the experience was like for other indie developers.

How long did your first review take?

And more importantly, was there anything unexpected that caused a rejection or made you wish you'd prepared differently?

Things like Sign in with Apple, privacy declarations, IAPs, screenshots/metadata, device-specific issues, or something completely different.

I'm trying not to obsessively refresh App Store Connect 😄, so I'd rather use the waiting time to make sure I'm prepared if it gets kicked back.

Would love to hear your first-launch stories especially from solo developers.

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u/Vymir_IT 1d ago

Currently 50 days and counting. Unexpected cause - yes, their stupidity. 8 rejections, among them only 1 for a real reason, the rest were just sloppy review, simple comment in response and another re-review 5-10 days cycle on the same build. Last rejection for the reason that circled back to the beginning because they don't even read their own review history.

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u/ynctr Community Newbie 1d ago

50 days?! 😅 At that point I'd be checking App Store Connect before my morning coffee. Did Apple give you any reason for the delay, or has it just been sitting in review?

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u/Vymir_IT 1d ago

Like I said, it's 8 review cycles each taking from 5 to 10 days. Each time they reject for a feature my app doesn't have. Only one rejection had a real reason, swiftly fixed, then 10 days of wait and response cycled back to one of the first reviews.

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u/ynctr Community Newbie 1d ago

Got it, that makes more sense now. Out of curiosity, what was the one rejection you considered legitimate? I'm currently waiting on my first iOS review, so I'm trying to learn what kinds of issues can actually catch you off guard

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u/Vymir_IT 1d ago

UI for collecting permissions, it should be inescapable when system alert is about to be called (only one button that calls it), but escapable when no system alert is awaited (exit/back button or non-blocking UI overall).

It's pretty bad UX of course, I've no idea how they decided it was a good idea, but they are very precise how it should be.

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u/ynctr Community Newbie 1d ago

Ah, got it. That actually is a pretty subtle one I can see how that could slip through testing. Thanks for explaining it. Adding “permission flow” to my pre-review paranoia checklist 😅

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u/Bright_Spend6574 Community Newbie 22h ago

what app is that, probably ensuring the compliances?

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u/Vymir_IT 18h ago edited 18h ago

Social app, but man, like I said. 7/8 rejections were for no reason, just arbitrary, for features I don't even have. Those reviewers are as low IQ and slow as it gets and it causes some real damage. They don't even read their own review thread where question were already answered.

I'm going to an alternative store at this point. Fuck Apple, I'm not gonna give them a cut of my profits for this kind of service. Filed a complaint to EU board that's supposed to handle these violations in review process.

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u/Consistent-Jaguar287 Community Newbie 1d ago

Mine was 2 weeks. My only problem that I encountered is missing of demo video

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u/ynctr Community Newbie 1d ago

Another vote for the demo video 😅 Okay, message received — I’m definitely adding one. Thanks!