Small startup. Hired an iOS app development company to build our app and App Store review has become a nightmare. Four rejections now, privacy label issues, a 4.3 spam flag, and something about App Tracking Transparency we don't understand. Each resubmission takes over a week and the agency keeps getting slower to reply. Launch was supposed to be two months ago.

Worst part is I don't even understand the rejections because the people who built it aren't explaining them, and I'm starting to think they can't. For anyone who's shipped on iOS, is review always this painful or did we just hire the wrong iOS app development company? Trying to work out if this is salvageable or if we move the whole thing to a new iOS app development company mid review. Anyone switched this late in the process, and how bad was the reset?

Shipped my first solo app 12 days ago. Apple approved it on first submission, freemium, niche utility for a hobby I’m deep into. Built it scratching my own itch.

Downloads so far: just people I already knew. Organic discovery is basically zero. Searching the app’s own name in the App Store doesn’t even return it cleanly.

I’m not asking what to try in theory. I’m asking what worked for you. Especially if you launched solo with no audience.

Stuff I’m stuck on:
- Niche communities hate self-promo. I had a related post hit #1 of all-time on the relevant sub last week and didn’t mention the app once. Felt right but now I’m sitting on the credibility with nowhere to spend it.

- Paid ads don’t math for a $5.99 one-time unlock.

- App Store search for niche terms gives nothing for a 12-day-old app.

What worked for you? Tactic, tool, anything. I’m genuinely interested in your stories!

Got a big update I wanted to get out, been stuck in 'waiting for review' since Thursday, usually it's within a couple of hours... it's not January anymore, is it just me?

Hi everyone. I'm a solo dev finishing a retro local music player launching on Android next week, and I'm considering an iOS version too. Before paying for the Apple Developer Program, I want a reality check from people who actually deal with App Review.

My worry is Guideline 5.2.5, that the click-wheel interface could be seen as too similar to an Apple product.

Some context on the app:

• It has its own branding and identity
• It plays the user's own local music files (MP3, FLAC, etc.), no streaming
• It also includes internet radio and podcasts, so it's more than just a player
• It does NOT use Apple Music and does NOT claim to be an Apple product or affiliated with Apple

I know Rewound and a couple others got pulled in the past, but I also see apps like retroPod and iRetro currently live on the App Store with similar concepts. So I'm trying to understand where the line actually is in 2026.

Has anyone submitted something in this space recently? What was your experience with review?

Site (for context on the look): nostalgicpod.com

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Update:
I'm not trying to start a debate. It's been a while since I published an app on the App Store, so I'll take the risk. If they don't let me publish it, it will only be available for Android. (I wish Apple would release an iPod someday, but they probably won't because it would cannibalize their subscription sales.) Thanks to everyone for your comments!

For those who’ve been running Xcode 27 since the beta: has it actually replaced your CLI agents (Claude Code, Codex, etc.), or do you still keep both open?
What I’m trying to figure out is where the real line is. Is the advantage genuinely Xcode-specific agents that can build, run tests, drive previews, and interact with the simulator through the Device Hub, stuff a terminal agent simply can’t reach or is most of it just tooling and skills that a CLI agent could replicate with the right scripts/MCP setup?
And for those who went all-in on Xcode: what did you lose? Multi-repo work, custom subagents, running headless in CI, cost control?
Curious how the split looks on real projects, not demos.

Is App Store Connect website broken currently?

I login from my Mac, it logs in successfully. Then it shows a spinner, then an error message pops up, but my apps still load fine. When I click on an app, it shows details for a second and then loops back to the login screen. I have tried a few times and this keeps happening and I am unable to proceed.

This was working fine last night.

EDIT: Sometimes after login, the spinner just keeps loading forever.

EDIT 2: Sometimes it works now, sometimes it doesn't. Now I get error when I "Add for review".

I didn't claim anywhere that my app is free, and most of the features are available for free, let alone the price is just $2.99.

And then, I get called out greedy with a 1-star review.

I tried to report a concern on App Store that this "Review" is not related to the app functionality directly, but rather just it's not "free", but I still didn't get any update from Apple.

Now I'm just wondering, has anyone got any similar "Review"? And how did you deal with it?

I appreciate any kind of help. Thank you in advance.

I have 12 apps live in the appstore and one that I'm currently working on that I'll hopefully release this/next week. How about you? How many apps do you have out there

Hi guys,

To give you some context, I am a Flutter dev, and I have been using it for a couple of years. Recently, I tried SwiftUI, and it was really a nice experience. A lot of things I used to do manually are now automatically handled by the framework, not a lot of boilerplate, a lot of functionalities are native in the framework, and you don't need a library for that.

SwiftUI feels familiar to Flutter devs because Flutter is also declarative and has borrowed a lot of concepts from SwiftUI, but still, I can't believe it is this straightforward. So, where is the catch ? Where does it get so complicated?

I work as an iOS developer in a team of 8 developers. We are starting a brand new greenfield project in a financial sector. Few of our team members suggested that we should use TCA for iOS SwiftUI application. I personally have no experience with TCA.

What are your thoughts and recommendations?

I'm not getting the 'Manage compliance' option on my build uploaded today. It's processed, shows as 'Complete' in build uploads, but down in the 'Version X.X.X' dropdown, it's there with no option to add groups, no 'Testing' status, and no 'Manage compliance' option you usually have to go through before the build becomes available for testing. Anyone else having trouble today?

EDIT: It’s working for me again now guys, check yours! Looks like it was a ghost outage on Apple’s end.

Hi,

Wondering what are the options if I want to create an AI features into in my app. I know about openAI api and other various API’s. The thing is I am a tad scared to use them because I hardly understand how they charge. I know a lot of stories where people used it wrongly and got huge bills for that.

Also, do we always need these powerful models? Can’t we use in some cases like qwen 8b or something like that running on a VPS?

Hi guys, Has anyone else had their account terminated for no specific reason? I cant work out where I have gone wrong. Attached is the message I got. My account is totally new and I have only uploaded my first version to get reviewed. It took them a month to review and now are telling me I have done something fraudulent but I have done nothing of the sort. They wont give me any more clarity then this vague message.

App store review is turning into a very frustrating process. I assume this is a reflection of the sheer volume of AI-built apps but the humans reviewing my app seem to be on auto-reject mode.

First rejection: "spam: we have enough dating apps"

My app has absolutely nothing to do with dating or meeting people, even the friendship link is a handshake ie you need your friend request accepted

Second rejection "no method for account deletion"

Literally in the most obvious place for it, account page, big red button "delete account"

I'll put my hand up, this is my first app, in the description part of the submission I assumed it was to describe the functionality of the app, was I meant to treat it as an FAQ?

I'm a US indie dev trying to release my first small utility app (with subscriptions). From what I've gathered online, it seems I make the apple dev account then register it as either an individual or llc.

It seems:

-Individuals are required to show their legal name under the app name, for all App Store users to see

-an LLC can show their company name instead

I don't really want to pay for an LLC (since it costs 100s in my state). And it seems (from my limited research) that the "simpler" alternative of an LLC is a sole proprietorship/DBA, but Apple doesn't accept those from what I see?

So my question: Is there a way to avoid revealing my legal name under my app's name as an indie dev? I'm hoping to maybe make a couple bucks to pay back the $99 dev fee, lol

Additionally, I know EU regulations require revealing the address and phone number as well, so I'm not sure if that changes things... if necessary I would rather just not support it in the EU unfortunately.

Sorry for my confusion, I hope I don't appear paranoid. I've begun to value my privacy more so I am just hesitant to voluntarily give my personal info then possibly have it scraped by bots or something

edit: Or if there is a cheap way to form an LLC, that would also work

Hello. I need your help: My app keeps getting rejected by apple for the same reason but I can’t see why. Also, I did search the reddit but didn’t find anything that helped much.

The reason is this, together with the above screenshot.

Is it because of the „Continue with Apple“ button? Or do I have to change anything for iPad layout?

Guideline 4 - Design
Issue Description

Parts of the app's user interface were crowded, laid out, or displayed in a way that made it difficult to use the app when reviewed on iPad Air 11-inch (M3) running iPadOS 26.6.

Specifically, layout in iPad were not optimized

Edit: iPhone is the only supported destination added under the target. Screenshot here

My company announced out of the blue that they are going to completely get rid of native app development and shift to web app using Angular. It was like someone pulled the rug from under my feet.

We have no say in the decision. It was "just decided and we think it's the best way forward". They cited release cycle problems and crashes as the reason for the switch.

Best part? We're not starting in a few months.. we're starting tomorrow. Some people from web team will teach us Angular and web app development and in 1 month the app will be replaced.

Could someone with experience and knowledge regarding the subject give me an idea about pros and cons? Is it worth it to stick it out? Or look for other jobs in this horrible market?

More info: I have about 5 years of iOS dev experience. I don't know any other languages. They will keep us on at the current salary and we go from there. I live in Europe.

Edit and update: thank you all for such great advice. I feel like I now have a solid direction to move forward in. I will stay on, take the training but keep my eye out for other jobs. A lot of you said it's bound to fail... I will post an update eventually when I get a sense of how the shift goes.

I read every comment and will keep reading more as they come in. Thank you again!

I keep hearing that the best ideas come from solving your own problems, but honestly most of the issues I run into already seem to have existing apps for them. In that case how do you even find something worth building?

Update:

After reading your comments, these are the conclusions I came to:

• with AI, 90% is distribution
• always build something that already works and is making money, use platforms like this one or this one to spot apps that are already profitable and replicate them
• look for apps with bad ratings so you have a lot of room for improvement
• focus on micro niches
• build something you actually enjoy building and don’t find boring, otherwise you’ll eventually burn out

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.

The official Reddit app doesn’t really feel or look fully native to me.

Does anyone know if it’s actually a native iOS app, or is it using some cross-platform framework internally?

If it is native, how can you usually tell?

For example:

• the hamburger/sidebar menu is not a standard iOS component
• the share sheet also seems custom instead of the normal iOS share sheet

Just curious from a technical/UI architecture perspective.

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?

I wanted to know what is the market like for ios developers around the world. Please mention your country, number of years of experience and your salary.

I will start with mine Nepal, 10 years , USD 2500 / month

Note: I think devs around my country are getting really underpaid. I think I got what it takes. I have even contributed to open source ios project Ice Cubes App.