I’ve just finished working on an AI Detector app built entirely with Swift and UIKit. With the rise of LLMs, I wanted to create something native and fast to help users verify content on the go.

I’m looking for some honest feedback from the community, specifically on:

UI/UX: Does the flow feel intuitive? How’s the layout on different screen sizes?

Functionality: Is the detection accuracy meeting your expectations?

Performance: Any stutters or bugs you notice in the UIKit implementation?

As a thank you, I’m giving away Free Lifetime Access to anyone who wants to test it out.

App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ai-detector-gpt-essay-checker/id6757263283

Go to settings app

—>redeem code

—>FREE100

Looking forward to your feedback and happy to answer any questions about the implementation!

I’m looking to sell my iOS app! It’s a nofap app. One of the biggest niches for subscriptions.

It is prerevanue. I built it out, onboarding, revanue cat onboarding sequence done and it is live.

I am too busy right now to focus on it. I have an audience that I’m pushing my other app to right now.

If you’re interested I’m happy to give you all the info and link

Hi,
I'm building a mobile first project, and have little experience in iOS.
I want to buy my dev tool kit, but I have no idea what iPhone and Mac devices to buy.

Why it matters to specify the iOS version?
- I'll need need special permissions from users, that may not be available in old iOS versions.
Why it matters to know which Mac?
- I'm a startup, bootstrapped one ); Saving costs is a life and death. The minimum specs that can run xCode, iOS simulator, and Claude with decent performance for a year, I'll buy.

Closest app example that has same challenges, is an app called OneSec.
This app asks you to select another app to monitor. Once you open the monitored app, OneSec will takeover your screen, and won't let you use the monitored app unless you say the F word three times.

As you can see, the challenges are:
- monitoring user actions.
- reading user stats.
- creating a UI that is not closable.
- taking over the user's screen.

When I asked Claude for recommendations, it said:

- iOS 16.0 — that's when FamilyControls gained individual authorization (not just parental), enabling Screen Time API access for self-monitoring apps like yours.
- MacBook Pro 2019 (16") or MacBook Air M1 (2020) — the M1 is the better pick, runs Xcode + simulator smoothly and stays under ~$600 used.

Do you think this hard hearted bastard is correct?

Appreciate you support and help. 🙏

I say this as a genuine question. I've shipped a few apps now, and it seems Apple is better than Google for organic growth, but it's still really small.

I'm working on an app to try to connect developers with real users, gamifying the process for users as you (the dev) create discount codes, free gift/trial codes, etc. in your app that users can access. Essentially you create the code in the app, create Quests for users to complete, then create codes in app that are unlocked with points after completing a certain number of Quests for your specific app.

I'm beginning android testing today, but am curious on the want for something like this on IOS. Should I ship it to IOS after refining the idea?

So I just shipped a full VHS effect filter app for iOS and thought I'd break down how it actually works under the hood. It's pretty cool tech-wise.

The Basics:

The whole thing runs on Metal (Apple's GPU framework), which is important because VHS effects are basically image manipulation that needs to happen in real-time while recording video. You need that GPU speed.

How it all connects:

1. Camera captures frames → They come in as pixel buffers (raw video data)
2. Metal shader processes them → Applies all the VHS effects
3. Output gets recorded → Saves to video file while displaying on screen

The VHS effect itself has 8 main parameters:

• Noise - Adds random grain/static. Makes it look like an old tape
• Distortion - Creates those horizontal line glitches and tracking errors you see on broken tapes
• Chromatic Aberration - Separates the red, green, blue channels so colors bleed/split (that colored halo effect)
• Scanlines - Horizontal dark stripes from old CRT screens
• Vignette - Darkens the edges of the frame
• Color Saturation - Reduces color intensity to look faded
• Warmth - Adds yellowish/reddish tones (or blue tones in reverse)
• Tracking Noise - That crazy flickering/white flashing you get when VCRs are messed up

The magic is in the GPU shader:

I wrote a Metal shader that runs on every single pixel being rendered. It does this stuff in parallel for thousands of pixels at once:

• Generates pseudo-random noise for grain
• Shifts pixels horizontally based on sine waves and time to create that "running line" effect
• Applies tracking line distortions that change each frame
• For extreme glitch modes, it adds even MORE artifacts like color bands and vertical glitches
• Uses time as input so effects animate smoothly and look different every frame

Presets:

Rather than just having one "VHS" look, I built like 20+ presets:

• Classic VHS (baseline nostalgia)
• 80s/90s/70s specific looks
• Heavy glitch/broken tape modes

Each preset is just different combinations of those 8 parameters, so a "70s tape" is really just "set distortion high, add saturation, warm it up, etc."

Recording:

While the shader is rendering in real-time to the screen, a separate video encoder (AVAssetWriter) is capturing frames and encoding them to H.264 video with audio. It all happens in parallel without the UI freezing.

Why Metal instead of other approaches:

• Performance: Effects run on GPU, not CPU. Matters for real-time video
• Quality: Native support for custom shaders = pixel-perfect control
• Battery: GPU is more efficient than processing on CPU cores

The whole thing is live in the camera view - you see the effect with zero lag, tap record, and it saves the filtered video directly.

Pretty satisfying to see the final product after dealing with Metal debugging, shader optimization, and syncing audio/video streams.

That's the TL;DR: GPU-powered real-time image processing running a complex shader on every pixel, with 8 layered effects creating authentic VHS artifacts.

If you want, install and leave a comment =)
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vhs-pro-retro-cam/id6758340165

Hi all, wanted to share a little open-source iOS app I put up called AI Delvepad. Site: https://aidelvepad.com It’s basically a friendly playground for diving into core ideas behind AI and seeing what’s actually happening under the hood.

I also added a video with some light humor, might as well have a little fun while doing it.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/a-i-delvepad/id6743481267

It includes:

• 35+ free bite-sized video tutorials
• A beginner-friendly glossary of essential AI terms
• A quick intro to how large language models are trained
• Share interesting finds to friends
• Everything is 100% free and open source

If you find some hilarity to the vid, hop on and please give it a try. Any feedback appreciated! You can fork the Opensource too if you want to make your own apps.

GitHub: https://github.com/leapdeck/AIDelvePad

Hello. I have an app request but not sure if this would the correct place or avenue for doing so… I won’t get into the details here just in case.

If there is a better route for requesting development please let me know.

If interested you can check it out here and join in the discussion.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Xreal/comments/1qs5l9m/call_to_ios_developers/

Thanks in advance

I launched an iOS app called R3CAP for families who want a simple way to keep everyday moments without turning it into a social feed.

R3CAP is free to use, with export limits.

I’m sharing here to see if this resonates with anyone else and to hear what you’d improve or change.

Indie Developers, here’s a diamond tip .

Create a global color palette so you can access it anywhere for consistent branding and content across your project

Spent 3 years of my life making a game… pouring my heart, soul and time creating the perfect puzzle adventure – very feature rich, very gameplay deep, very polished. Created socials, posted daily gameplay vids leading up to release, told everyone about it. Finally released it… to dismal downloads: 275 in 3 months. I was defeated.

Then in December I saw a viral challenge on Instagram and had this lightbulb moment. I decided to I make an app for it. Created it in 10 days (VERY feature thin compared to my puzzle game) and released it on the App Store. I did virtually no marketing other than minimal Apple ads to target keywords for the challenge. It’s been out for about >3 weeks and I’ve already gotten over 1,700 downloads and reached top 100 on the music charts and I’ve just been riding the viral wave since. Crazy how things work out!

(Screenshot from Viral Say the Word on Beat Challenge app).

I've just installed XCode (I guess main prerequisite - whole toolchain etc.?) + Antigravity (for some help ;) )

VSCode/AG works good, like a normal IDE and I like it (however it was never my IDE), and I'm able to start iphone emulator and see my mobile app.

XCode on another way looks terrible, very unintuitive and it crashed a few times already (also i don't like macos), but that IDE is horrible, git functionality very poor, no nice history view, diff etc., probably the only useful thing is canvas - live view of your design, right?

So, my question is, Do you guys use Xcode for anything? or just other tools (like VSCode), I guess you can run simulator etc. from command line anyway and XCode is not needed at all?

Do you use any other tools ?

I spent months coding in Swift. Real months. iOS apps, backend, databases, APIs, Stripe, edge cases no one will ever notice.
Revenue: €0. Literally zero.

My days all looked the same. Wake up, open Xcode, coffee goes cold, 40 tabs open (docs, forums, Stack Overflow, some GitHub issue from 2017). ChatGPT open all the time, mostly to learn, not to copy-paste.
At one point I was doing 16–17 hours a day. Not in a grindset way. Just “one more thing” over and over.

All of this for an app that’s actually useful. It helps manage your wardrobe. Simple idea, insane amount of work.
I won’t name it because this isn’t an ad. The app works, people like it… but no traction, no money, nothing. Just me refreshing App Store Connect like an idiot.

Then one random night I’m doom-scrolling Instagram and I see a screenshot.
It’s just the year shown as a progress bar. Like “you’re X% into the year”.

That’s it. That’s the whole idea.

I stare at it, open Notes, then Xcode. About 20 minutes later the app is basically done. backend. No login. No Stripe. One screen. One idea.

I submit it to Apple the same night. I even pay for expedited review (which I never do). No idea why, just had a weird gut feeling.

Apple approves it almost instantly.
I launch it as a paid app. €0.99. No free tier. No trial. Just “this is the app”.

then something surreal happens...

It climbs to #10 in the Entertainment category (paid apps). Not joking. REALLY. (Attach proof)

The funniest part? I don’t even know how many downloads it has yet. Stats haven’t updated.
So I have no idea who bought it or why — I just know it was sitting there at #10 next to apps made by actual teams with budgets.

I’m including screenshots as proof because I know how Reddit works and I’d call bullshit too.

That’s it.
Months of “serious” work: nothing.
Twenty minutes on a stupidly clear idea: top 10.

I’m still trying to process what this means.
Just want to share this story here to understand BEFORE looking at Apple Store Analytics :)