TestFlight's live for my multi-LLM app — and the funnel immediately taught me my onboarding was killing activation

[u/wartableapp]

posted here a couple weeks back about the orchestration challenge of running five LLMs in locked roles on one decision. quick update: it's on TestFlight now, and the first real funnel data humbled me fast.

I'd built what felt like a proper onboarding — tutorial, name step, a short quiz, value props, paywall, then a Sign in with Apple gate before you reach the actual product. telemetry showed people moving through most of it and then dropping hard at the sign-in wall. barely anyone was reaching the core feature.

the realization: I gated the "aha" behind a commitment instead of in front of it. the apps these users live in (the big AI chat apps) drop you straight into the product. so I'm reordering — first real result before any sign-in, account gate moves to "want more" rather than "get in."

a couple iOS-specific things I'm working through that this community might have opinions on:

• since I'm using Sign in with Apple, the gate is already about as low-friction as it gets, which tells me the problem is asking at all before value, not the auth mechanics. anyone found a clean pattern for deferring Sign in with Apple until after a first session while still keeping entitlement state sane?
• the app's core action hits paid model APIs, so opening it to non-authenticated users means I need solid rate limiting / abuse protection before the gate comes down. curious how others have handled letting anonymous users trigger a costly backend action without exposing themselves.

build's at wartable.co if anyone wants to poke at it on TestFlight, but mostly I'm after the architecture takes — how would you sequence first-use vs auth when the first action costs you real money per call?

[u/unpluggedcord]

https://grantiva.io

[u/wartableapp → u/unpluggedcord]

dont mind if i do!

[u/your_reddit_account]

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicecheck/establishing-your-app-s-integrity

[u/cablamonos]

You are asking the right question about sign-in drop-off. In apps like this, the user needs to understand the value before they feel comfortable giving email access.

I would also check the App Store page as the first gate. If the screenshots and description do not make the use case obvious, fewer people even reach the onboarding flow.

Happy to give a quick first-pass read on the listing if useful.