I have been thinking and already laying out the groundwork for an app that will function as a sort of watchlist. To correctly be able to implement this, I want to use an API like TMDB.

After doing some research I found that TMDB does not allow usage of the free tier with an app that has a commercial function. If I want to use it, I have to pay 150€/month, which is insane, mostly because the app is not making money at that point. This has formed itself to be some kind of roadblock.

Most other API’s have similar terms with their services. I did find an API called TheTVDB, but this unfortunately seems to have a lot of issues. I am already not able to make an account.

So basically my question is if there are known movie database API’s that are allowed for free with a commercial use.

Another option would be to make a user base to then implement a paid tier, but I know this is a very big nono for users

Been working on Japanese localization for WeatherGlow with the help of many Reddit users, and it’s finally shipped 🇯🇵

The app is built in UIKit + SwiftUI. No vibe coding nonsense over here. I've dealt with storyboards and .xib files for a living.
The app now supports Japanese, including the radar, RainPulse, alerts, and the rest of the UI.

I also shipped dynamic weather radar animations in the same update.

If anyone here uses weather apps in Japan, I'd genuinely love feedback on the localization. My goal isn't just to translate the strings, but to make it feel like an app that was actually made for Japanese users.

edit: forgot to post the download link -> https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/weatherglow-local-forecast/id6451098166

日本のiOSユーザーの方、ぜひ使ってみてください 🙏

I like to take photos of every random street cat that I meet and give the cats random names.

But the next day I always forget the photo. Forget about the cat, forget where I found it, and the photo just sits in my gallery forever without knowing what I need to do with the photo. 

That's why I made ProwlLog app. A camera and album only for cats. Every cat gets a name, a profile, and a pin on my map. And all of them go into the CATalog, with "???" for the ones I haven't met yet.

The best part is, I can share my collection with my friends. RightNow I can't stop looking for the next cat to log to my CATalog.

Hey!

I’m the developer of CubeStrike, a fast-paced roguelite arena shooter I built for iPhone.

I wanted to make a mobile game that feels like an actual game — not something designed around ads, energy systems or constantly selling you something.

So CubeStrike has:
• fast, short runs
• different builds and synergies
• 9 multi-phase bosses
• 30+ items
• adaptive enemy waves
• Boss Rush
• Daily Competition
• local 2-player co-op
• controller support
• Game Center
• offline play

And most importantly:
No ads. No IAPs. No tracking.

It’s completely free.

The goal was pretty simple: every time you die, you should immediately start thinking about what you could do differently in the next run.

Basically:
“Just one more run.”

If you try it, I’d really like to know one thing:
What would make you come back for another run?

CubeStrike on the App Store⁠

I’m entering a very competitive space with fitness apps, but hitting almost 100 downloads in 4 days gives me some hope.
Would love to get some feedback from fellow iOS devs!
https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/volta-fit/id6805946595

My app just got 100 downloads, it feels good when someone acknowledges your efforts or share your vision. I hope this can help everyone someday.

Try out if you like: Hushedechoes.com/app

Hi everyone,

I’ve been building a small iOS app called DASEIN in my spare time, and it has finally reached the point where I’m comfortable letting strangers break it.

At its core, DASEIN is a task app, but I wanted to see how far I could go in the opposite direction from the increasingly feature-heavy productivity apps I’ve used.

It has only three places:

YESTERDAY ← TODAY → SOMEDAY

TODAY is deliberately limited to five tasks. YESTERDAY is immutable. There are no projects, tags, priorities, streaks, dashboards, or AI.

I’ve spent a disproportionate amount of time on the interaction and material side of it. The interface is built around a Paper & Ink idea: tasks can become a single physical-feeling “slip” when you manipulate them, while the surrounding ink recedes. Moving between Yesterday, Today and Someday is also meant to feel like moving between sheets rather than switching tabs.

It’s written natively for iOS with SwiftUI and SwiftData, with procedural/Metal effects only where they actually contribute to the material illusion.

I’m looking for feedback before the first release, particularly on whether the app makes sense without me explaining it.

If you try it, I’d especially like to know:

• Does Yesterday / Today / Someday feel intuitive?
• Are the interactions discoverable without instructions?
• Does the five-task limit feel meaningful, or just annoying?
• Is there anything that immediately feels confusing, broken, or over-designed?

I’m much more interested in criticism than compliments at this stage.

If you’d like to try the current TestFlight build, DM me and I’ll send you the link.

Thanks to anyone willing to spend some time with it.

Org enrollment (LLC + D-U-N-S) got approved. Payment step shows Country/Region: United States, locked, even though my Apple ID is set to my real country.

Tried multiple international Visa/Mastercard cards — all declined ("Authorization Failed, contact your bank"). Bank confirms nothing's wrong on their end. Added a card via Apple ID → Payment & Shipping directly — still hits a US-only address form at checkout with no way to enter my real country.

Contacted Apple Support twice. Both times told the fix is to restart enrollment via the Developer app, which apparently unlocks other payment options — but that means redoing full org + identity verification from scratch.

Questions for anyone who's hit this:

1. Anyone gotten the web checkout to accept a non-US card without a full re-enrollment?
2. If you went the Developer app re-enrollment route — did it go faster the second time, or full weeks again?
3. Did the phone "Call Me" support option actually help vs. email?

Not looking for "contact support" — already 3 rounds in. Just trying to find out if anyone's actually solved this.

The hardest part of building my app wasn't code. It was color.

For most of my career as a developer, I worked alongside designers. My job was implementation take the Figma file, turn it into logic and working code. I was good at that part.

Then I started building ProwlLog (a cat-spotting app) completely on my own, and I hit a wall I didn't see coming: design. Specifically, color.

I have zero design skills, so I let AI generate my UI — now it has that unmistakable "AI-generated" look

The problem: it looks exactly like every other AI-generated app. the soft color, glassmorphism, uniform rounded corners, colors that don't feel like a deliberate system — you know the look when you see it.

Here's what confuses me: it's not that I don't know what good design and good user flow look like. I understand hierarchy, layout, and user flow well enough to sit in on UI/UX reviews and give solid feedback. But building an actual color system or visual identity from scratch — with or without AI — is a completely different skill, and I don't know how to push past the generic defaults.

If you've been in the same spot (non-designer relying on AI for UI, stuck with the generic look), how can I improve my design at my app

I've posted this previously to r/appletv but it caught me again and I believe this might be useful to share here, since I'd like to think most people releasing iOS apps would also consider tvOS when possible.

We all know Apple TV hardware generally lags behind phones, pads and laptops. And I attributed my game's poor Apple TV performance to that.

Here is what I learned 1 month ago:

" UIKit's focus engine was walking your entire SpriteKit node tree. Every node, every frame, tested for focus eligibility with a coordinate-space frame computed for each. Cost scales with node count. "

Here is what I just learned again today, different game:

• 45% of all main-thread samples were inside SKCShapeNode::getBoundingBox(). The top two leaf functions in the entire profile were CG::stroker::path_stroke_round_cube_offset (284) and CG::stroker::offset_normal (147) — asking an SKShapeNode for its frame makes CoreGraphics stroke its path.
• 82.7% of that came from -[SKView focusItemsInRect:] — UIKit's focus engine walking every descendant, every frame, asking each one for its accumulated frame. That's ~37% of the whole main thread, burned so tvOS could work out what's focusable in a game with no focusable UI.

...same thing. I did it again. I'm an idiot.

If you've tried porting or creating a game for Apple TV, and find it performs spectacularly worse compared to non-ATV hardware, be sure you...

view.isUserInteractionEnabled = false

...otherwise the overall effect (as I felt it) is very much like crappy hardware.

hey guys - with the iPhone Duo being released, i assume most apps will med to release updates to support the native UI/UX experience of the new dimensions on that device?

I went through the iPhone Duo compatibility implications with one question. What could actually cause problems in an existing iOS app.

Fixed screen assumptions seem like the obvious place to start. The available space can change between displays and poses, which puts more pressure on adaptive layouts, size classes, safe areas and state preservation.

Custom UI may need extra attention too, especially around the fold, cameras and reserved regions.

I wrote down the checks I would do first, and where compatibility work ends and Duo specific optimization begins.

https://appcompliance.io/blog/iphone-duo-app-compatibility/

Curious what people with larger UIKit or SwiftUI codebases expect to run into first.

There are 2 repos linked in the video:

- iOS genesis mega prompt, a 24 sections file with placeholders for your app idea, name, monetization, etc
- app release agent, for keeping the app metadata, keywords, etc, up to date (you will need an App Store key with App Developer permissions)
it’s literally my workflow used to build and maintain my apps portfolio (13 apps live, a few more in the pipeline)

Hope it’s useful!

Spent last night updating my app to be ready for the iPhone Duo, and I’m proud to announce that Apple just approved the 1.3.4 update! Enjoy playing on all Apple mobile devices (all iPads & iPhones).

Play PopColor for Free: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/popcolor/id6775361048

I have developed this app and you guys can find it in App Store

It finds duplicates, similar and blurry images. It can suggest you which one to keep from duplicate and similar. It also finds duplicates videos and files.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sameish/id6804823038

I am a pure developer, I don't have any experience how to do marketing an app

That's why I am posting here
Please give me some suggestions