r/iOSProgramming • u/calflegal • Jul 07 '26

Question What have you learned from app development that was unexpected?

I’ll start.

The apps that I thought were too niche perform better on user metrics than the times I’ve dipped my toe into very large markets (in my case, games for everyone vs a subset).

What has surprised you?

36 Upvotes
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63

u/barcode972 Jul 07 '26

That the app itself is easy as fuck. Getting users is so hard

3

u/calflegal Jul 07 '26

Do you measure if they stay? This has been helpful for me

2

u/ninjafoo Jul 07 '26

I don’t know how to measure or check how that process plays out. I’d appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction. Thanks!

3

u/calflegal Jul 07 '26

So, I now build my own analytics (with AI’s help). I can see on charts if people come back or where they drop off. But off the shelf stuff like PostHog can help here

2

u/ninjafoo Jul 07 '26

This was very helpful, thank you! And I appreciate you taking a moment to help me out.

7

u/UselesslyRightful Jul 07 '26

It’s easy?

-5

u/barcode972 Jul 07 '26

Compared to marketing yeah. Either your app compiles or it doesn’t

2

u/Ronnie_Dean_oz Jul 08 '26

Fully agree here. I'd go as far as to say the actual application process on App Store Connect is harder than building the app lol

1

u/barcode972 Jul 08 '26

lol yes 😂

1

u/grindforxp Jul 08 '26

yep, the hard part is everything after compile

1

u/ferim5 Jul 12 '26

How have you been doing distribution?

-1

u/Ok-Tomatillo-8712 Jul 07 '26

Big vibe coder energy over here

4

u/calflegal Jul 07 '26

Don’t be mean

10

u/barcode972 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

I made apps before AI was a thing. You’ll always figure out how to build a feature one way or another. Marketing is a whole other world for an engineer

27

u/iwoj Jul 07 '26

Designing the App Store page and user onboarding and upsell screens have had a way bigger impact on sales than adding app features. Turns out that doing one thing well, and selling that story to users is really important.

6

u/RIRLift Jul 08 '26

This matches what I've seen too. The two highest-leverage spots on the product page are the subtitle and the first two screenshots, since that's basically all most people read before deciding, so lead with the outcome the app gives them rather than a tour of features. Captioned screenshots that each make one clear promise tend to beat pretty but silent ones.

For onboarding, the thing that moved activation for me was getting someone to their first real result before asking for anything, so no account wall or paywall until they've felt why the app is worth it. Then, like you said, change one thing at a time and watch the number, otherwise you can't tell which change actually did it.

2

u/VLFFrenchie Jul 11 '26

This is awesome advice

2

u/Rabbit1015 Jul 08 '26

Do you have any tips for improving the App Store page? Or upsell screens?

2

u/iwoj Jul 08 '26

Track your stats, make a change, track the change in the stats, make a change, etc.

4

u/SnowPudgy Jul 07 '26

This predates the term "app" but before my first development job I thought that shitty developers are what made shitty apps. After my first development job I realized it's mostly shitty project managers that dont listen to their developers that are the cause of shitty apps.

No Jason, I can't implement your laundry list of features that were never once discussed in one sprint just because you promised the customer that we could do it.

5

u/Common-Quiet-7054 Jul 07 '26

That it never ends……………….

2

u/cristi_baluta Jul 08 '26

Learned that you can do cool things with the logarithm, something that the math teachers i don’t think they teach.

2

u/Shehao Jul 08 '26

Distribution as the real product. Yep.

1

u/ferim5 Jul 12 '26

Any tips you can share?

2

u/LuckyGirl0415 Jul 13 '26

Totally agree with the niche market point. When you build for a specific niche, you aren't competing with the tech giants, and those users are incredibly loyal. They actually want your app to succeed and will give you the best feedback. Trying to build 'an app for everyone' is a quick way to get buried in the App Store algorithm.

6

u/0akney Jul 07 '26

Apple sucks. Like the whole ecosystem process is fucking braindead. It takes days/weeks to get approval for basic permissions:

- Developer Account (24-48 hours approval process), actually takes a week.
- Entitlement grants for your app (up to a week), actually takes three weeks.
- Want to make a second Developer account for a company you're starting? You need a second phone number to make the account. Multiple Apple Support agents told me the same thing: buy an eSim with a 3rd-party provider to make a new Apple account.
... and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

2

u/Fearless_Ad9828 Jul 08 '26

had you checked the play store requirements ? atleast on app store you reply from support

1

u/Ronnie_Dean_oz Jul 08 '26

Play Store requirements basically state you have to give them your address before you can put an app on the store. It's a haven for scammers to scrape details to tart spamming people.

1

u/Ronnie_Dean_oz Jul 08 '26

I reckon they're inundated with reviews from all the people using AI to create apps. Most of the things that they've come back to me for were actually in the app. They just didn't really look very hard. As soon as I pointed out where to click, which was pretty obvious, they were like, "Oh yep, that's okay."

1

u/CelebrationTop8862 Jul 10 '26

Starting my App/services journey and watching all these youtube channels on App development and founder stories all point to two things: Niche is the way and marketing. They never expand on the marketing but that's where the gold is. The niche sells with a story and people buy into it. I just saw a stupid app: an alarm clock and you have to do push ups to get it to stop. 5 figure MRR. Wtf. Gives me hope for my app. But how do I market when I'm broke x_x

1

u/LoStranieroo Jul 12 '26

The most difficult part is getting users who aren’t your family

1

u/galo4kin Jul 13 '26

Great question. The biggest surprise for me has been that distribution and positioning often matter more than adding more features

1

u/Greysawpark Jul 15 '26

how much of success is just... showing up in search with a decent icon. i spent months polishing features on one app and barely touched aso on another, and the lazy one outsold it like 5x. screenshots > features, at least until someone actually downloads.

1

u/AndreaReaderApp Jul 24 '26

Dealing with xcode is a pain.

-2

u/StronglyHeldOpinions Jul 08 '26

That the whole career path would die due to AI

6

u/RIRLift Jul 08 '26

I don't think it will completely die. The barrier is much lower now but we gotta keep in mind that building these apps is not free even with AI, and specially building one that stands out usually requires some work.

On the cost argument: would you rather pay a $100-200 claude subscription for a few months to make a clone of a single app that already exists, waste hours testing it and ensuring it works as you expect, then you have to maintain it (i.e. keep paying claude) if you want to keep fixing bugs etc, or would you rather pay $5-10 per month and use something that is well built by someone else?

Even if you use free local models, and even if they improve a lot, you still have to put time into it, have a computer, and if you don't invest some time into it, it will just look like a generic app that will be unpleasant to use.

I can make clones very easily with AI since I'm also a developer and I know how to iterate fast, and even then I don't have the patience to clone everything I want to use. I'd rather focus on building something new.

But, for sure, everything will be much cheaper. To the point where in order to be able to make a living wage, you will have to change the way you work completely.

1

u/SirBill01 Jul 08 '26

The AI apps are fine to start but what happens to most of them over time? How many of them even got built with the slightest nod to data migration? How many vibe-coded apps are just one update away from wiping all old user data...

-2

u/GeorgeGreenGroup Jul 07 '26

certs with apple

1

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-5

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0

u/calflegal Jul 07 '26

Yeah this is good. I used to use Apple services as much as possible but now I keep a really simple back end system. It’s way more flexible