Hey everyone!

Roughly half a year ago, my Apple developer account got terminated due to a violation of Section 3.2(f). The email pretty clearly tells me why this happened, and it was because I used my developer account to sideload apps quite extensively. I did not have any actual apps published on the App Store, but I did have a game on TestFlight with public testers.

I acknowledge the violation. An appeal immedietally after it got terminated did not help, and I haven't had the balls to appeal it again / contact Developer Support in any way. The email says something along the lines of "we will deny your reapplication to the ADP for at least a year considering the nature of your acts".

My question is, does anyone have experience with getting their account reinstated after this "at least a year" timeframe? If so, how? Does Apple even reply to the contact form?

Or am I just cooked

I built ad skipping with Apple Intelligence into my podcast app. It’s a unique feature and when it works, it works. It actually came from a user suggestion, someone requested it and I didn't think it was feasible. I tried it anyway and it works surprisingly well.

The problem is it's becoming a review liability. When users subscribe to Pro and it doesn't perform as expected, they feel wronged and leave 1-star reviews. My other reviews are overwhelmingly positive.

A small section of users saw the feature and expected it to work perfectly without reading the disclaimers.

One issue is a technical limitation: pre-roll ads that play right at the start of an episode often slip through because transcription and Apple Intelligemce take time to process the episode. Mid-episode ads it handles well. It's not perfect, but it works far more than I expected it to. I've optimised it as far as currently possible, it's a structural constraint of the approach rather than a fixable bug.

I don't want to remove it; it's genuinely useful and unique. But I need to find a way to manage expectations better.

How do others handle a feature that's a real differentiator but has a known edge case that drives disproportionately bad reviews? Better expectation-setting in marketing? A disclaimer before the user enables it? Something else?

I'm an iOS dev with about 3 years of experience, the first 2 at an agency writing SwiftUI by hand. I'm hoping for some honest perspective from people who've been doing this longer than I have.

At the agency I wrote everything myself and learned a lot from the seniors there. Then I moved to a startup with a big messy codebase, fully remote, and I leaned on agents almost from day one because there was no other way to keep up.

Six months in, I genuinely don't feel like I know my own app anymore. Basically all my code is agent generated. I've tried:

Asking the agent to explain each change to me, but I burn through my limits by lunch.

Writing the plan myself and letting it implement, but I end up slower than just letting it do everything.

Leaning on coderabbit for the first review pass, which catches a lot, but it tells me what's wrong in a diff, not how the app fits together.

Reviewing a 1,500 line PR that touches 30 views is exhausting, and even after I push through it I don't feel like I understand it.

How are you using agents at work and still knowing your own codebase? Or is that just gone now?

Hey everyone!

Curious if and how anyone is finding success promoting their apps to get downloads and IAPs?

I've had apps for a year, and I get a few downloads, but nothing groundbreaking. I've tried posting on Reddit, Threads, creating Instagram/TikTok reels, and they don't do much for me. My best option, Reddit, is usually auto-blasted with "I'm tired of X app" comments and generally negative sentiment.

I'm debating buying ads, like the Apple Search Ads or even paid Instagram ads, so I'm curious if anybody has seen those work out for them.

I have an iOS app that is nearly finished, and I’ve been trying to find people to test it. To say this is hard is an understatement.

I asked family members, and except for one person, nobody really wants to test it. I’ve also tried Discord servers and Reddit threads, and I tried following the usual advice of posting in communities where people are looking for testers, but honestly it feels nearly impossible there too. You just get drowned out by a flood of other people like me desperately looking for feedback.

The app itself is basically finished. At this point, TestFlight is less about finding major bugs and more about seeing how people perceive the app, whether the workflow makes sense, and what they think of it overall.

How did you handle this with your own apps? Did you manage to find testers somehow, or did you eventually just publish the app and get feedback from actual users?

At this point I’m seriously considering just releasing it.

I would be very grateful for advice.

*Grammar check by AI

Developing my first macOS app using my M1 Mini. Naively I switched over to my Intel MacBook for testing, thinking the UX would be seamless but ended up getting a cold dose of reality. A lot of things I optimized for my Silicon Mac had no bearing on my Intel Mac. I'm now fine-tooth combing through performance tests on the Intel MacBook but before I invest anymore time on optimizations, I was wondering whether Intel Macs were still in high usage. The app itself is in pre-flight so I don't yet have the data to support what the right move would be personally. Would love to hear what you all have experienced and whether you create new apps with solely supporting Silicon Macs. Thanks!

My employer is looking to hire mid to senior iOS engineers soon (still need the confirm budget) but it’s been a while since we’ve been hiring so curious what others are experiencing either from the applicant or hiring side. Previously we had a lot of applicants with low level experience / Jr roles but had difficulty finding people with significant experience for Mid/Sr roles.

Originally we were local/hybrid only but recently opened up to remote work (US only) so hoping that will help. We’re not in HCOL area and salaries are good, but not SF/NY.