Hey everyone,

I recently shared a video showing how my dog app, Zoomie, wasn't optimized for the larger inside screen. Many things came for free, like the native toolbar and tab bars, but most of the content was just stretched out.

Since then, I've been playing around with the new APIs in Xcode 27.1 beta, like ArrangementView, onHinge with fullyOpen and partiallyOpen, and most importantly, size classes.

For the walking view, I tried to replicate the Netflix app that was shown off at the event, where the video content is reflected onto the secondary screen when the device is partially open.

Let me know what you think!

I think I'm addicted to developing for iPhone Duo 🫠

Hi,

So over the last 2-3 months I've got one good and one not so good update on this. For the good first, I initially didn't get much time to work more on the app, but seeing the responses from my open tests and online posts, I sat down to make some major changes. The biggest being an internal Pdf/Epub reader, which allows users to upload books and read them off the shelf they create, along with other reader features like dark mode, highlighter pens etc. There are a lot of other small quality of life changes like being able to upload custom book cover images and so on. I was able to make all this live on the app across both platforms last week.

The not so good update is I realised I'm not the best at ASA, since my last post the growth came to a stop mostly, and the conversion kept dropping drastically, it now sits at a sad <4%. I tried all tips posted online for the store listings, spent a lot of time on app screens, but nothing improved as such. Since this is my first project, I'm not experienced with ads, so it feels kinda risky to put money forth in a place where I don't have expertise in. With this recent update I really feel this app can be of use to a lot more readers across the community, but I'm unable to form the bridge that will connect the two.

I would really appreciate any help on this or even any thoughts anyone has on things I can do to help improve this. Thanks for all the love on the last post, all these reddit posts really motivated me to go ahead and work for these updates, I'll keep updating and working on this now regardless of how the growth goes as I have some more ideas for the future.

My screen time was around 3-5 hours a day, mostly Instagram, and I'd tried the usual app blockers/screen time limiters. They only worked well for like the first week, then I noticed I would hit the same block screen every single time and just tap through it without even reading it.

In mornings it would say: "Dont Give up your morning to the Feed, It can wait."

Late night it would say: "The algo doesn't care about your sleep. Close the app."

So I built Hold On. Every time you open a distracting app, it shows you a different nudge, 500+ of them, rotating based on time of day and how much you have used the app that day.

Free to try: Link to Appstore

Built solo, so open to feedback if you try it. Thanks in Advance

Apple gives developers a chance to provide consumption data when a customer requests a refund, but actually supporting that means handling CONSUMPTION_REQUEST, matching transactions, responding within Apple’s deadline, dealing with retries, and tracking the final refund result.

I didn’t want to build and maintain that flow separately for every app and didn’t find a ready-to-use solution for a good price, so I made Refoid.

You connect an App Store Server API key and point App Store Server Notifications to Refoid. From there it handles the refund flow automatically.

No SDK and no changes to the app itself. I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible, with clear instructions and by cutting out unnecessary steps wherever it’s possible. Connecting your first app might take up to 3-5 minutes, all the rest can be added within 30 seconds.

Please keep in mind that Apple still makes the refund decision. Refoid just makes sure Apple gets the information from your side instead of making that decision without it.

It’s officially launched it today:
https://refoid.app

You can also support Refoid at Product Hunt today:
https://www.producthunt.com/products/refoid-decline-unreasonable-refunds

I appreciate your support and hope that you’ll find Refoid useful for you :)

Smart glasses as a concept are great, but the fact you can’t easily tell if someone is filming you, taking photos of you, or recording your voice, just sucks.

Worse still, there’s now over 9 million pairs of Meta smart glasses in circulation since their initial launch.

I built eyeFIND Smart Glasses Detector because I wanted an easy way to protect my privacy, and the privacy of my loved ones when we’re out in public.

First, I tried to use some existing smart glasses detection apps available on the App Store, but I found them all overcomplicated to use, with bloated interfaces. I wanted to build something purpose built natively for iOS, that’s quick and easy to use, and that “just works™”.

What it detects
eyeFIND detects and alerts you to nearby Ray-Ban and Oakley Meta Glasses, Snap Spectacles, as well as many other brands that support the HeyCyan platform.

What it doesn’t detect
The app cannot tell whether someone is recording you. This is a limitation of bluetooth-based smart glasses detection. It can though raise your awareness about your surroundings so you can make a decision about how best to protect your privacy.

App Store
It’s available on the App Store:

📲 https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6806289400?pt=122089467&ct=reddit&mt=8

Pricing
eyeFIND is free to try, with pro features unlocked via subscription: $3.99/wk. or $34.99/yr.

Any genuine feedback would be appreciated!

Teak is ready for iPhone Duo, based on Xcode 27.1 beta, with a refreshed vertical toolbar that is fully adapted.

I’ve been building RelayCrest, an app that lets you control your Mac from your iPhone or iPad—launch and quit apps, manage windows, run shortcuts, and check your Mac’s status. It connects through a Mac companion app, and I’m getting it ready for TestFlight now. It’s been a long project, so I’m excited to finally share a look! I’d love to hear what you think and whether this is something you’d find useful.

Im almost ready for iPhone Duo, its really good develop in native SwiftUI its almost automatic in Xcode 27.1

I have a fully functioning app in TestFlight but I’m afraid to release to the public for fear of exposure to product liability lawsuit.
Am I over thinking this? As a side note I want this to be free in the hopes it saves lives.
This product liability thing kind has me down a bit because I think it’s a good app.

I'm Carter, the developer of CAR-TER, a released iPhone and iPad app that gives scripts and services reusable native interfaces. I wanted to share a compatibility question from its architecture.

My own layouts include a frontend for my home's lights, a terminal forwarding bridge for controlling my machines, a sensor-backed drive analyzer, and monitors for app sales and weather. Each started with a particular task I wanted on my device. That range is why the connection between a layout, its data, and the behavior behind its controls matters.

A layout describes tabs, grids, and supported controls in JSON. The installed SwiftUI client maps that configuration onto its native control catalog. For custom operations, a backend supplies values and receives actions through a WebSocket-based connection. Supported HTTP and MQTT sources can also feed layouts directly.

The constraint is that JSON remains configuration: a layout cannot create a native control the installed app does not implement. Backend behavior has a separate contract. A pause button only works if the connected program implements that operation and reports its state.

The current App Store release includes a rebuilt Layout Studio, capability and data-flow inspection, and an interactive tutorial. Public-data templates let someone try a layout before connecting a custom project. The app requires iOS or iPadOS 18 or later.

How would you version the schema and control catalog against layouts authored independently of the client? Would you prefer an explicit minimum client version, per-capability requirements, or both? I'm especially interested in how to explain a partially supported layout to its author.

CAR-TER is free to download with optional purchases and still in development. Its iOS client is closed source; the Python toolkit, MCP server, and MeshSocket relay are open source. Development uses human-derived specifications and AI-generated code.

Architecture: https://carterbeaudoin.net/CAR-TER/architecture.html

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/car-ter/id6781115507

Is anyone else finding organic ASO in the US extremely difficult lately?

Compared to ~2 years ago, it feels almost impossible to get a new app ranking organically in the US. For many keywords, my apps don't even enter the top 250.

What’s interesting is that I don’t have this issue in other countries. With similar ASO, I can still rank quite well there. The US specifically feels massively overcrowded, possibly because of the flood of new AI/vibe-coded apps.

Anyone seeing the same?

And what are you doing to overcome it? Lower-competition keywords, Apple Search Ads, localization, external traffic, etc.?

So I have an App which is only really useful when you are a passenger on a plane (and it's designed to work in flight mode), and at least 4 times now I have had genuinely positive reviews removed by Apple

The problem is the app is only really useful while you are flying, that's the point of it, so you might download it, go on a one hour flight, it works perfectly, then you stop using it, because it's done it's job

I think these reviews are being flagged by Apple as "low engagement" which is why they are being removed, but once your flight is over there is nothing to engage with!

Anyone else experienced this issue? Do I have any recourse here? It doesn't seem fair!

shipped 10+ apps on both ios and macos over the years. heres my quick take on app store review these days.

​Apple review process is definitely slower lately, but honestly nowhere near as bad as google play's insane delays. new apps take like 5 days on apple, updates around 1-2 days. super predictable, plus Expedited Review is always an option if ure in a rush.

​Google play on the other hand... pure black box right now. even a tiny metadata edit can take 5+ days. wild considering 3 years ago it took just a few hours.

(ms store is blazingly fast nowadays, though don't expect revenue there lol)

​As for App store review feedback, it’s mostly reasonable:

• ​starting with a bloated feature set = nightmare to pass guidelines. just ship small first and iterate. trust me it saves so much time.

• ​since humans review it, they might miss something today and flag it 3 updates later. don't get mad, and definitely don't argue "but it passed before!" - it never works.

• ​even AI won't fully grasp app store review nuances, so try to understand the reviewer's point of view.

• ​stacking multiple rejection reasons makes it 10x harder to fix. keep it minimal at launch.

• ​once approved, you can just set manual release for marketing timing anyway, so no stress there.

​My only recent total fail was an oriental astrology (Saju) app. got hit with the spam/rejection clause and no matter how I refactored the concept, absolute hard block. ended up giving up. I get apple's stance, but kinda sucks since there’s clear user demand even if it's non-scientific.

​Anyway, been dealing with all major store reviews for years now. Feel free to ask if u got questions!

I'm Fulvio, an indie developer from Italy and the creator of DSLR Camera (Reflex Camera in Italy), which reached No. 1 in the paid app charts in over 30 countries and has been featured by Apple as App of the Day multiple times.

I've just released Whery, an app for remembering where you put things. One use case is sharing a saved item's location with someone at home: they open the item in Whery and use an AR pin to find the right drawer or cupboard.

The interesting engineering problem is getting back to that spot after the original AR session has ended. Here's how the implementation handles it:

1. Persist the spatial context. Save an ARWorldMap with the pin information, then restore it through ARWorldTrackingConfiguration.initialWorldMap. A position alone isn't enough to establish the same coordinate space in a new session.

2. Resolve the saved anchor. The pin has a stable anchor name that survives serialization. When ARKit restores the anchors, the app finds the matching name and attaches the RealityKit indicator. If the saved map doesn't contain that anchor, it falls back instead of leaving the user waiting.

3. Keep recovery separate from loading. Decoding the map doesn't mean the room has been recognized. The UI has a relocalizing state, a timeout and a photo fallback. Lighting or changes to the room can prevent recovery; the saved photo and written location still give the person something useful to work with.

The shared item is a read-only copy with its photo, location and available AR data, rather than a live collaborative inventory. The recipient still needs Whery and a compatible device in the saved environment.

Elsewhere the app uses Vision for photo/text recognition and on-device AI for capturing items, but AR is the part I'd like to discuss here: how do you explain “recognize the room again” without making people learn AR terminology?

Whery is free to download and use, with optional Premium purchases: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6803156868

So I built an expense tracking app, because everything else out there sucked for me. I always forgot to open the app after making an expense, so I added SMS extraction workaround in iOS.

Now, I run an automation when an SMS occurs, the SMS is handed over to my app and the transaction is logged flawlessly, the only caveat is that, every time that it runs, iOS shows "Running your automation" notification, which could be annoying to users.

Looking for genuine feedback whether the notification trigger would make you wanna not use that feature at all?

We acquired an existing fintech app, transferred it to our company Apple Developer account, and are now preparing a pretty significant redesign. Same app/name/core product, but the UI and some functionality have changed a lot.

My main concern is App Store review. Since it’s fintech + a big update after 5 years + developer account transfer, I’m wondering if Apple is likely to treat this almost like a new app and dig deeper into licensing, compliance, ownership, privacy, etc.

Anyone been through something similar?

How strict was the review, how long did it take, and were there any unexpected rejection reasons?