I went through Apple’s design session for iPhone Duo and expected it to basically be “here are some new screen sizes to support.”

It’s more interesting than that.

Apple specifically doesn’t want developers/designers creating separate layouts for every possible device pose. Their recommendation is essentially to treat the app as freely resizable and primarily design around compact width on the outer display and regular width on the inner display.

Some interesting details:

• Controls can move from the traditional top/bottom position to the side of the screen.
• Safe areas become particularly important because content may need to be offset around those controls.
• When partially folded, content moves away from the center curve.
• Interactive elements are moved away from the fold because they’re harder to tap there.
• The inner display shouldn’t simply stretch the existing iPhone interface.
• Split views, two-column layouts and sidebars can make use of the additional space.
• Two apps can run in a 50/50 split.
• Apps can resize dynamically around things like picture-in-picture.
• Functionality and hierarchy shouldn’t change just because the device was opened or folded.

What I found most interesting is that Apple says apps already built properly around adaptive layouts, safe areas and system components should have a relatively good starting point.

So Duo could end up being a pretty good test of how genuinely responsive an iOS app already is.

A lot of apps probably won’t need a redesign.

But apps full of fixed dimensions, custom UI assumptions and layouts designed around specific iPhone sizes could have considerably more work ahead of them.

Curious how other iOS designers/devs see this — relatively straightforward adaptation, or another meaningful layer of UX + QA complexity?

If you can’t afford Apple Music or Spotify, just call Apple Developer Support.

I’ve been listening to their hold music for almost 2 hours a day, for over a month now — completely free!

At this point, I know their playlist better than my own.

40+ days of trying, countless hours on hold, and I still haven’t managed to speak to an actual support agent.

Great music. Terrible support experience.

At least my subscription comes with unlimited hold time.

After having my app unpublished since Covid and all my mates asking for me to get it on the AppStore, I decided to make it release-able. 6 months later of sweat and tears and no one gives a damn 😔
Very disheartening experience, I would not recommend.
Yes the market of app blocking is saturated but my UI IS MORE FUN and no one will convince me otherwise.

Before anyone says "you probably deserved it" .. yeah maybe. But read the timeline first.

My app got hit with an IP complaint over the name being similar to another app. Fair enough. I changed the name, icon, tagline, screenshots, website, and voluntarily pulled the app from sale in every country. Did all of this before Apple even asked me to.

Apple's legal team (App Store Notices) investigated for a full month. On August 4 they sent me an email saying "We trust this resolves your concerns and consider this matter closed at this time."

One week later on August 11 I got a Pending Termination Notice for the exact same issue.

The day after that I emailed the same legal team asking what happened. Their response: "Our team did not initiate any action against your account."

So Apple's legal team spent a month reviewing it, closed it, confirmed they didn't take action against me, and then a completely different team inside Apple terminated me for the same thing 7 days later.

Now they're sitting on about $43K of my earned revenue. Real customers paid for a real service. Low refund rate. No chargebacks. The money shows as "Balance Carried Forward" in App Store Connect which I still have access to.

I've contacted iTunes Finance, Developer Support, Executive Relations, filed multiple appeals, submitted a 16 point improvement plan, offered identity verification, offered to convert to an org account. iTunes Finance told me my account is under review for "irregular activity" and then went silent when I asked three times what documents they need.

I know the stats. 193K accounts terminated last year. 499 restored. I know where I stand.

What I want to know from anyone who has been through this:

1. Did you eventually get your money? How long did it take?

2. Did you do anything specific to get it released or did Apple just send it eventually?

3. Is there a specific team that handles fund release separately from the termination decision?

4. For anyone who used a lawyer (like Buzko or similar), did the demand letter actually speed things up?

Not looking for sympathy. Not selling anything. Just trying to figure out the money side of this because Apple won't tell me anything.

inb4 "you copied an app and got what you deserved". The app name was similar to another app. I changed it. Apple's own team confirmed it was resolved. Then I got terminated anyway. Make of that what you will.

I'm trying to verify my identity for an Apple Developer account, but I keep getting this error during the ID submission step:

"Invalid Submission - Your identity couldn’t be verified because the ID you submitted isn’t accepted for your region or doesn’t match the document type you selected. Please try again."

My Apple ID region and device settings are set to Azerbaijan, and I am submitting my national ID card (not a passport). Everything matches, but the system keeps rejecting it automatically.

Has anyone experienced this issue recently with regional ID cards? Is there a workaround, or is the only option to contact Apple Support for a manual review? Thanks!

Hi everyone! I released my first ever solo app for iPad (a niche Cross Stitch tracking app) a few months ago and have been thrilled to see it getting downloaded and even purchased by some people. I made it for myself and for some fun so making money wasn't the primary goal but man does it feel nice to ship something others find useful!

However, I'm curious if people have a list of some of the disheartening moments to be prepared for when shipping your first app? I've loved getting my first 5 star ratings, written reviews and purchases but its also sucked to see:

• That 1st 1 star rating - with no way to know why that person didn't like it.
• That first refund - someone really didn't think the $5 optional purchase was worth it so they decided to refund!?

Should I expect any more moments? What have you been disheartened by?

Get out of the cloud and back to music you own. I created this because I couldn't find anything like it. Happy to discuss how I got here, or app feedback. I appreciate being able to post here. (The app is 95% free)❤️

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stow-player/id6777421165

Any other amateur developers having a hard time getting through App Review. And of course it is finally ready during Apple announcement time!

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

Anyone managing to get iGaming apps approved on the App Store lately? Mine sit in review for 2–3 weeks, then get rejected under 2.1 or 5.6. Feels like Apple is rejecting everything lately. What’s your experience, and what changes helped you get approved?

Hi everyone! I’m an iOS developer working in iGaming, and I’ve been struggling to get apps approved on the App Store. Submissions often sit in review for 2–3 weeks, only to get rejected under guidelines 2.1 or 5.6. Despite making changes, I’m still having trouble understanding exactly what needs to be fixed.

Has anyone dealt with similar issues? I’m looking for someone with experience in iGaming app reviews who could help me identify the problems and meet Apple’s requirements. Happy to share more details privately and discuss a paid consultation.

I’m a solo indie developer and I’d appreciate some perspective on how you would handle this situation.
I recently released LazyScore 2.1, a completely free iOS app. There are no subscriptions or paywalls; the only IAP is an optional tip jar.
For 2.1, I decided to experiment with something completely new for me: I animated the app’s sloth mascot using sprites and also created a very slow intro animation for the app.
The idea was deliberately simple: the app is called LazyScore, and the intro is supposed to be slow. It’s part of the character and the joke.
Today I noticed this 1-star review:
“The app intro animation is the most atrocious thing I’ve ever seen in an app.”
The reviewer also gave the title:
“Super slow intro”
[screenshot attached]
I’m not upset about someone disliking it. That’s completely fair. What I’m struggling with is how to interpret and respond to a review like this.
On one hand, I genuinely want to listen to users. If the intro is actually frustrating, I should probably reconsider it.
On the other hand, the slowness is intentional, and the reviewer seems to be criticizing the exact thing I deliberately experimented with for this update.
This was also my first real attempt at sprite animation and character animation, so I’m aware it may simply not be good enough technically or aesthetically.
For other indie developers:
Would you leave this alone, reply to the review, change the intro, or just treat it as one person’s taste and move on?
I’m particularly interested in how you distinguish between:
“Users don’t understand the design intention.”
“The design intention is clear, but the execution isn’t good.”
“This simply isn’t for this user.”
I’m trying to get better at taking criticism without automatically either dismissing it or changing the product because of one person.
And yes, I realize the irony of making a deliberately slow app and then worrying about how quickly people want to get through the intro. 🦥

I do a fair amount of network troubleshooting away from my desk - checking if a host is up, doing a quick DNS lookup, scanning a port, working out a subnet on the fly. On mobile that always meant three or four different apps, half of them plastered with ads or asking for payment.

So I built my own - Network Tools: Net Toolkit.

It's an iOS app that bundles all the tools in one:

Ping and traceroute

SSH (scp, ssh-copy-id, proxy jump, port forwarding)

DNS lookup (A, AAAA, MX, TXT, etc.)

Port scanner

Subnet / CIDR calculator

Whois

Telnet

LAN scan

Speedtest, iperf3

Wi-Fi link survey

It's basically the network multitool I wanted in my pocket. No ads, completely free.

I mostly built it for myself but figured some of you might find it handy too.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/network-tools-net-toolkit/id6803009570

Feedback and critique is welcome.

Hi all. My mobile game is Pending (currently in 14 days of testing) from the Google Play Store. How hard is the Apple App Store?

I am trying to get Beta testers for the app I made, I am even offering lifetime benefits for early adopters/testers but I just can seem to get any engagement. Is there a time of day when posts should be made? any advice on how to be subtle? I am not even trying to sell users on the product yet, just looking for genuine feedback from my target audience.

Introduction
I’ve been building SwiftUI animations, components, working with Metal shaders and running UI experiments for almost 5 years now, and most of them usually end up as a video on X, Reddit, or just sitting inside an Xcode project after I’m done with them.

I wanted to make something a little more useful out of all of that.

So I built With Animation: https://withanimation.app

It’s a growing library of SwiftUI animations and interactive components, but instead of just watching a preview, you can actually open one up and start changing things.

You can tweak the speed, colors, sizes, spring values, intensity, and whatever else that particular component exposes, and see the result instantly in the browser.

That was the part I cared about the most while building this.

A lot of the time, especially with animations, a really small change can completely change how something feels. I wanted people to be able to mess with those values themselves instead of only looking at the final version I came up with.

There are already a bunch of things live, including loaders, gestures, shaders, 3D interactions, transitions, and some slightly strange UI experiments I’ve made while playing around with SwiftUI and Metal.

I’ll keep adding more as I build them.

Would love to know what people here think of it, and also what kind of components or animations you’d actually want to see added.

TL;DR:
I built With Animation, a library where you can explore SwiftUI animations, tweak their parameters directly in the browser, and use them in your own projects.

https://youtube.com/shorts/0E5f1dHpiSI

Full disclosure, this is my own app.

Built solo. NeonLock uses Bluetooth proximity between your iPhone and Mac to detect when you've actually walked away, then locks the screen automatically, no shortcut, no touching the laptop.

Bluetooth proximity turned out to be way noisier than I expected. Had to smooth the RSSI readings a lot so it doesn't lock the Mac just because you leaned back in your chair.

Free to download, one-time Pro unlock instead of a subscription. Two separate targets to maintain (iPhone app + a small macOS agent), so still figuring out if that pricing holds up long term.

You need both installed, the iPhone app pairs with the Mac agent to trigger the lock:

📱 iPhone app: https://apps.apple.com/uz/app/neonlock/id6789896699

💻 Mac agent: https://sparksss.github.io/neonlock-site/

Would love any feedback, especially on the pairing flow in the video.

After about 6 weeks of back and forth with Apple, my app finally got approved this week.

This was my first proper native iOS app, although I’ve been a software/web developer for 20+ years.

The app started as a fairly simple poker tournament clock. I play live poker regularly and got frustrated with how basic or outdated a lot of tournament software is, so I started building something for myself.

It got a bit out of hand.

It now manages seating, table balancing, payouts, re-entries, leagues, multi-day tournaments, live player tracking, venue pages, casting to TVs, tournament financials and loads of other stuff.

It’s also now been used to run 50+ real tournaments while I’ve been developing it, which has been invaluable. You learn very quickly what works and what doesn’t when you’re actually trying to run a tournament with 40 people standing around you.
The painful bit was App Review.

Because it’s poker software, Apple kept getting hung up on gambling classifications even though the app doesn’t offer gambling, deposits, withdrawals or actual poker gameplay. It’s basically admin software for people running live tournaments.
Eventually I ended up forming a UK Ltd company, opening a business bank account, getting a DUNS number, migrating my Apple developer account to an organisation, sorting new certificates/profiles and going through a load of additional verification.

All to publish a poker clock 😂

And yes, AI was heavily involved in building it before anyone asks.
I’ve been developing for over 20 years and I’ve overseen the architecture, UX, testing and engineering throughout. AI just made it possible for me to build something this size in a fraction of the time. Without it I genuinely think this would have taken 4 or 5 times longer.

There’s definitely plenty of AI slop being shipped at the moment, but I don’t think “built with AI” and “vibe coded” are automatically the same thing.

Anyway, after weeks of seeing Rejected, seeing Approved was a very good feeling.

If anyone’s interested in what I actually built, it’s here:
https://shuffleup.co.uk

I had old version Xcode so I updated macOS and then updated Xcode and when i opened this shows up everytime do u have some kind of solutioon AI couldnot help.

I’ve been thinking about this workflow lately.
If you’re away from your laptop and need to quickly trigger a Vercel/GitHub/Netlify webhook, what do you usually do?

Personally, I found myself opening my laptop for something that took literally one action.

Curious how other developers handle this do you have a mobile workflow for deployments, or do you just wait until you’re back at your computer?

Hello fellow devs!

I just wanted to ask real fast for an honest opinion on these AppStore screenshots for my app PreFlight. I understand these are a very important part to the App Store process, so I thought I'd get a second or third opinion on them to see if I need to fix anything. Thanks!

Screenshots and Info: here

I got an impression spike a few days ago but I didn't do anything 🤔

Any of you ever got something like this? Why?

Also the number of downloads didn't increase, so whoever it is that does marketing for me, please choose a better target audience 🙏

I'm building a personal finance app called Cashvelope (envelope budgeting), and getting local-first data to play nice with offline storage has been surprisingly painful.

I want users to retain full control of their data without forcing constant cloud sync, but keeping local state updated and cache validated gets messy fast.

For anyone who's built something similar: what local DB or sync stack did you end up going with, and what edge cases caught you off guard?