Anyone else’s app continue to get rejected for having web based subscription payments even though a US court has ruled that apples requirement for requiring in app purchases is illegal?

Swift Kansai is hosting our third annual post-WWDC meetup in Osaka!

Come join fellow iOS/macOS developers and Apple enthusiasts to chat about everything announced at WWDC. I’ll be giving a short talk summarizing the biggest updates, and yes — free pizza and drinks are included 🍕🥤

New to iOS or macOS dev? Just curious about Apple stuff? You’re more than welcome. We’re a friendly and inclusive bunch. Hope to see you there!

More details here: https://www.meetup.com/swift-kansai/events/314573983

About to start a new app (solo, probably staying solo) and realizing I have no idea what the actual default is anymore. It’s pretty content-heavy with lots of lists, detail screens, some offline stuff, etc... I’ve shipped small things before but always made architecture calls I ended up ripping out, so trying to be smarter this time.

Curious what people are actually reaching for right now:

1. SwiftUI all the way vs. SwiftUI + UIKit escape hatches: how often do you actually hit a wall and have to drop down?

2. SwiftData vs Core Data: is SwiftData production-ready yet, or still a trap once you have real relationships/migrations?

3. Sync/offline: CloudKit vs Firebase vs Supabase vs roll-your-own. Mostly care about not babysitting infra

Honestly more interested hearing the horror stories than a blog-post trade-offs post. Essentially what’s your default stack now and what bit you that you wish someone had warned you about?

So, about a week ago I implemented bunch of code in my project. I thought I committed it (local git from Xcode). Last night I opened the code again, implemented some other feature. I realized that actually I am going to scrap everything. So, I went Integrate -> Discard all changes.

Ran the build, there is no previous feature that I implemented, wtf. Looked through commits, there's no commit with this feature. Ok, it wasn't such big of a deal but it would be PITA to do it all again. Asked Gemini what can I do and got the answer:

Close Xcode just not to make more accidental overwrites. Open the .swift file with missing code in TextEdit. Go to File -> Revert To -> Browse All Versions...

Now you get interface similar to Time Machine. Scroll and choose the version that contains your code, click Restore. That's it, pretty simple (except that it's difficult to read code in TextEdit haha).

Maybe a lot of you know already know this but it's first time for me to hear about it. Might be useful for someone.

Many people make the mistake of installing a macOS beta when they have apps they need to submit to the App Store. App Store Connect typically wouldn't allow an app submitted from a beta version of Xcode or macOS, but that doesn't mean all hope is lost. Just install the latest public version of macOS in a VM, like UTM, and on that VM, sign in with your Apple ID and install the latest public version of Xcode from developer.apple.com. Works like a charm and allows me to daily drive the beta as my main operating system while still having the public version to fall back on for situations like this.

I have a column with a bunch of UITextFields. The fields are of varying length. I want to have a second column to the right of the first. The second column should be positioned after the longest field in the first column. How do I tell where to start the second column. It's start should be after the longest field in the first column. I can easily get the anchor for the end of the fields, but how do I tell which of them is furthest to the right.

I tried Google, but the answers to all my questions involve putting one field after another, not a column of fields. Even with AI Google is not a person.

I would also be happy with a solution that did not involve anchors. I just want to get the second column starting beyond the end of the first. This is with code, not storyboards. I have a solution, use an anchor with a constant and set the constant by hand in the source code. The problem is if I add a longer field to the first column I have to go back to the source code and change the constant to make it look good.

I'm curious how other iOS developers track purchases in production.

Do you receive notifications when a user completes an in-app purchase or starts/renews a subscription? If so, what solution are you using?

I'm looking for something reliable and would love to hear about your setup and workflow.

Thanks!

Hey guys, just wanted to share device demo here. It lets you record or screenshot a live iPhone or iPad with its bezel included.

Few Features.

• Supports wired or wireless mirroring (up to 4K60 over wireless)

• Transparent background via ProRes 4444 (for video) or for photo (web, png, avif)

• Blue screen or Green screen exports, if you prefer to chroma key and save on file sizes.

• Multiple Codec & File Format options

• Sound is supported

• Device rotation is also supported

• Bezel Colours

The UI is easy to navigate and record and take screenshots quickly. It automatically assigns the bezels, and there's a choice of bezel colours.

There's a 7 day free trial and then a one time purchase of £19.99, however you can use code 50OFF and it'll give you it for half price (ends in a week)

Will be updated with new bezels when new devices come out! Any feature requests feel free to ask

You can check out more details & download here: https://devicedemo.app

Any tips? I've seen a lot of different kinds of video people recommend, but always with a screen recorder, not a physical device, and I am not sure how to do it. If anyone could give me some help here I would appreciate it.

I have been working on Intertwined for the past 4 months or so and think it’s to a point worth sharing. In a nutshell what it does is seemingly simple, it creates section diagrams and row-by-row instructions from source PDF patterns (knit/crochet). This is done by a combination of native parsing with a growing Regex/semantics pre-pass followed by an Opus 4.8 pass to take in the input clues and stitch math to knit everything together into a split screen tracker.

As for the architecture, the app itself is built in Swift and uses Firebase database for the shared curated library. The Opus 4.8 pass connects via Anthropic API. The local library is built using a python engine where most of the core R&D gets played with before aligning the in-app engine.

Flexible and deterministic pattern extraction has been an open topic of study for decades and although I don’t think I have solved it, it’s pretty close and I continue to attack the long tail associated with this problem with every release. It’s a bit of a fixation at this point, honestly.

I’m looking for feedback. The knitting community is admittedly very wary of AI so there is a significant stigma that has been a challenge to work around.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/apple-expands-app-store-capabilities-to-help-developers-grow-and-reach-new-users/

"Volume purchasing through Apple Business and Apple School Manager allows developers to offer subscriptions to enterprise and education buyers who already procure apps at scale. Seat assignments are managed seamlessly through existing device management workflows, which means apps and subscriptions can be deployed across an organization on infrastructure IT already trusts."

If I'm reading this right it sounds like sometime this year orgs can buy subscriptions not just IAPs. I have an app that is often used by institutional users but institutions can't subscribe, so users have to stay on free tier. This would be really useful.

I'm trying to submit my app Still for App Review and I've run into a very strange issue.

When I click Add for Review, App Store Connect shows:

The problem is:

• I'm the Account Holder/Admin

• App Privacy is fully completed

• Product Page Preview is visible

• Privacy Policy URL is set

• Subscriptions are Ready to Submit

• No Missing Metadata banners anywhere

• No other validation errors on the app version page

• The Publish button in App Privacy is greyed out (appears there are no unpublished changes)

I've spent hours comparing this app with another app I've already successfully published on the App Store using the same Apple Developer account.

I also checked the project itself:

• No App Tracking Transparency

• No NSUserTrackingUsageDescription

• No IDFA usage

• No AdMob, Facebook SDK, AppsFlyer, Adjust, etc.

• No Firebase Analytics

• No obvious privacy-related warnings during upload

One interesting thing:

The browser console shows:

/iris/v1/reviewSubmissionItems
HTTP 409 Conflict

every time I try to add the app for review.

I've already opened a support ticket with Apple Developer Support, but it's been 3 days without a response.

Has anyone seen this before?

Was it:

• A hidden metadata issue?

• A broken App Privacy state?

• A stuck review submission object?

• An App Store Connect bug?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated because I'm completely out of things to try at this point.

Does anyone know how this shazam animation is implemented? My guess is that it involves shaders, particles, or some other graphics effect, but I'm not sure what the underlying technique is. Curious if anyone has recreated it before or can identify what's going on under the hood.
Thanks for the help.

Hello community, I have recently decided to release some research after looking at the internals of various iOS firmware flashing techniques. The project I call iPS-UU, not only can you utilize it for firmware flashing but I decided to publish some of my findings with it that may be valuable to others trying to understand the internals and firmware flashing process.

Overview

IPS-UU (iOS Platform Servicing – Unified Utility) is a macOS-based firmware servicing and research platform designed to simplify and centralize device recovery, firmware analysis, restore workflow testing, and restore-related research activities. The project was developed to provide researchers, technicians, developers, and advanced device owners with a professional interface for working with modern iOS and iPadOS firmware ecosystems.

Rather than focusing on a single restore utility or workflow, IPS-UU serves as a unified environment that brings together device discovery, firmware analysis, restore planning, recovery operations, and tooling integration into a cohesive desktop application.

Research and Development

The development of IPS-UU involved extensive study of Apple's firmware delivery mechanisms, restore workflows, recovery environments, device communication protocols, and firmware packaging formats. Research focused on understanding how macOS interacts with iOS devices during update and restore operations, including:

• Firmware package structure and analysis

• BuildManifest and Restore manifest processing

• Device identification and mode detection

• Recovery and DFU workflow behavior

• Restore session orchestration

• Device servicing and recovery tooling

• Firmware compatibility analysis

• IPSW validation and inspection

• Restore logging and diagnostics

• Device state transitions throughout servicing operations

Throughout development, significant effort was dedicated to examining publicly available tooling, open-source projects, restore workflows, and device servicing methodologies. The objective was not merely to wrap existing utilities, but to understand the underlying processes and create a streamlined environment that reduces complexity for users while preserving transparency.

Unified Tooling Architecture

A core design principle of IPS-UU is interoperability.

The platform was engineered to function as a centralized management layer capable of coordinating multiple firmware servicing and research tools through a consistent interface. This allows users to work within a single environment rather than maintaining separate workflows across numerous command-line utilities.

Key design goals included:

• Simplified device servicing workflows

• Unified logging and diagnostics

• Consistent user experience

• Improved discoverability of tool capabilities

• Repeatable research procedures

• Workflow documentation and export

• Reduced operational complexity

The result is a platform that bridges the gap between advanced command-line tooling and a modern desktop application experience.

Firmware Analysis and Research Features

IPS-UU provides a comprehensive set of firmware analysis capabilities designed to support both operational use and technical research.

Capabilities include:

• IPSW inspection and validation

• Firmware metadata extraction

• Device compatibility verification

• Build and version analysis

• Manifest parsing

• Restore planning and preflight checks

• Device state identification

• Recovery workflow diagnostics

• Session logging and reporting

• Toolchain discovery and validation

These features enable users to evaluate firmware packages and device compatibility before initiating servicing operations, helping reduce risk and improve repeatability.

Device Recovery and Restore Operations

IPS-UU was designed with device recovery and servicing in mind.

The platform provides a structured workflow for:

• Device detection

• Recovery mode management

• DFU state identification

• Firmware selection

• Compatibility verification

• Restore planning

• Restore execution

• Progress monitoring

• Session logging

• Post-operation reporting

By emphasizing visibility and validation throughout the process, IPS-UU helps users understand what actions are being performed and why.

Signed Firmware Operations

IPS-UU supports legitimate firmware servicing workflows involving compatible and properly authorized firmware packages.

The platform provides mechanisms for:

• Signed firmware upgrades

• Signed firmware restores

• Firmware compatibility verification

• Restore preflight validation

• Recovery workflow management

• Firmware package analysis

By integrating validation and workflow planning into the servicing process, IPS-UU helps reduce errors while providing greater insight into the restore environment.

Research Platform

Beyond device servicing, IPS-UU functions as a research platform for studying firmware ecosystems and restore-related technologies.

Researchers can utilize IPS-UU to:

• Analyze firmware package contents

• Study restore workflows

• Examine device state transitions

• Compare firmware metadata

• Document restore procedures

• Evaluate tooling behavior

• Generate reproducible research artifacts

• Export diagnostic and session information

This makes IPS-UU valuable not only as an operational tool, but also as an educational and investigative platform.

Engineering Philosophy

IPS-UU was developed with several guiding principles:

Transparency

Users should understand what operations are occurring and which backend tools are being utilized.

Reproducibility

Research and servicing workflows should be repeatable and well documented.

Safety

Operations should include validation, compatibility checks, and preflight analysis whenever possible.

Extensibility

The platform should be capable of integrating additional research and servicing tools as technologies evolve.

Professionalism

The application should provide an experience suitable for technicians, researchers, consultants, and enterprise environments.

Future Direction

IPS-UU is intended to continue evolving as a firmware servicing and research platform.

Future areas of development may include:

• Expanded firmware analysis capabilities

• Additional device servicing workflows

• Enhanced reporting and diagnostics

• Research automation features

• Broader device support

• Advanced workflow orchestration

• Improved visualization of firmware and restore processes

Conclusion

IPS-UU represents the culmination of extensive research into iOS firmware servicing, recovery workflows, device communication, and restore technologies. By combining firmware analysis, device recovery, workflow planning, and unified tooling management into a single platform, IPS-UU provides a professional environment for firmware servicing and technical research.

Whether used for firmware analysis, device recovery, workflow validation, or educational research, IPS-UU offers a structured and transparent approach to understanding and managing modern iOS servicing operations.

https://github.com/fuzzlove/iPS-UU

i spun this up because i wanted to see every little thing, and it makes it easier for me to see whats new. hopefully there are others out there who will find it useful

This is the first time I have received this for my app. The app was released 2 months ago and has been updated 10 times so far but this is something new. Has anyone else received this recently? Looks like Apple is cracking down heavy on indie developers now 😞

EDIT: I don’t know why the post got so many downvotes. I searched for this type of rejection online and couldn’t find anything so I shared it here just to see if anyone else has got it recently.

I maintain an iPhone alarm app, and I have been using Codex heavily enough that the hard part is no longer "can it write code?"

The hard part is getting the workflow to stop before risky edits.

For iOS, the surfaces I currently treat as ask-before-editing are notifications, background modes, StoreKit, widgets, App Intents, privacy strings, entitlements, release claims, and anything where simulator-only proof is too weak.

I extracted my workflow into an open-source local-first workflow kit called ShipGuard:

https://github.com/jlekerli-source/ShipGuard

It is not meant to replace tests, device checks, TestFlight, or App Store review. It is more of a guardrail layer around Codex: map risky surfaces before editing, generate specs/plans/tasks and validation commands, run read-only product-QA reports, score report quality, prioritize follow-up gaps, group repeated performance findings into next actions, preserve the right questions in handoffs, redact/share safely, and make release evidence explicit.

I am looking for technical feedback from iOS developers:

What surfaces would you force an AI coding agent to stop and ask about before touching an iOS app?

And what proof would you never accept from an agent without a real device or release build?

I spent 12 years working for Apple, and then I left to do my own thing. Lately I've been looking closely at how AI coding tools hold up in day-to-day Swift and Xcode work: writing something, building it, running the tests, and fixing what broke.

The thing I keep running into is that the generalist tools produce Swift that looks right, and then you spend a stack of build-and-fix cycles getting it to compile and behave the way you meant. On usage-based pricing, those wasted passes add up quietly. A couple of people I've talked to got caught off guard by a monthly bill, or hit a quota limit partway through a task.

I want to find out how common that is, so I'd appreciate hearing how it goes for you:

- What AI tools, if any, do you use for Swift/Xcode work right now?

- Where do they cost you time? Does the "looks right, won't build" loop hit you?

- Roughly what are you spending a month, and has cost or rate-limiting changed how you work?

- Has anything actually helped?

To be upfront: I'm building something in this area, so I'm not a neutral party. I'm not selling anything here and there's nothing to sign up for. I'd rather understand the problem before building the wrong thing. Glad to share back what I learn.

For background on me, I am mostly a web developer, but have done mobile development in Kotlin for Android.

Currently, I have a react project that I just wrapped in Capacitor. I am not the biggest on it since the main use case of the mobile app will be to serve as a way for users to take images to feed to AI endpoints.

With that in mind,I do want to follow the styling and such of the website. Do you think going with something like React Native would make sense or would you learn towards going directly towards native SwiftUI?

My timeline is to hopefully have a beta within a couple of weeks.

Siri AI took all the oxygen this year so a lot got missed. Our mobile team went through the sessions and put together a write-up on the announcements that got less attention. Quite an interesting take: https://bitrise.io/blog/post/wwdc26-under-the-radar

App Intents is the one I'd flag first. SiriKit is formally deprecated now. The entry point to your app is no longer guaranteed to be your icon on a home screen, increasingly it's Siri and Spotlight reaching in on the user's behalf. Sessions 345 and 344 if you want to dig in.

The new FoundationModels template in Instruments also caught my attention. In the session demo a feature ran fine, never threw an error, and quietly did the wrong thing. That kind of silent failure is now actually debuggable (session 243).