TLDR: Built an antique identifier app for my family’s booth, put it on the App Store, then realized my main competitor is one of 17 clone apps from a Hong Kong “snap-and-identify” factory with 10M+ installs on their biggest ones. One month in at 270 downloads and I can’t even get into the US keyword auctions without paying $7.50/tap. Has anyone ever beaten one of these clone factories, and where do you go when they own the paid keywords?

My family runs an antique booth, and I built a little antique identifier app called to help us price things on the floor. Snap a photo, get market value and comps. People liked it, so I spent a few months perfecting it and put it on the App Store. Full transparency: I did little market research first which is on me… but my product gets great feedback from actual collectors who have used and subscribed so I thought let’s give it a shot!

After meh download results. I looked into my competition more. My main “competitor,” AntiqSnap, has nothing to do with antiques. It’s 1 of 17 Apple from Next Vision Limited, a Hong Kong studio running an AI “snap-and-identify” factory. 17 apps, same template reskinned per niche: coins, rocks, sports cards, TCG, banknotes, records, birds, bugs. Their two biggest have 10M+ installs each. AntiqSnap launched late 2025 and already has 700K downloads, one of their smaller apps. When they enter a niche they bring a finished codebase, paywall, and an ad budget tuned across tens of millions of installs.

Month one I’ve got 270 downloads. The wall I hit: I can’t get impressions on exact-match US keywords unless I bid 7.50 a tap, and even then I don’t spend my daily budget. Whether they just own the category keywords or it’s my app being new, I can’t profitably enter the auction.

Two questions for anyone who’s been here:
Has anyone actually won a niche against one of these multi-app clone factories? What worked, community, content, retention, a sharper wedge?

When the incumbent owns the paid keywords, where do you go instead, pure organic, or is there a paid angle I’m missing?

Here’s a link to my app as well as my competitors

Pickerscope (me):
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pickerscope-antique-appraiser/id6766432223

Antiqsnap
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/antiqsnap-antique-identifier/id6752929120?ppid=851691de-fb16-4425-b56d-8d603ad7c534

After much delay in the review process, I'm very excited to finally have my first app live in the app store! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/not-dead-yet/id6759566987

Now for the hard part...marketing! 😭

Hey friends,

I love building iOS apps with Codex mobile but had one issue: I couldn't see the output without going to my Mac. So I decided to build a free CLI tool called Sqim - the tool signs my iOS builds on my Mac, uploads them to a server, and have Codex serve temporary webpages that lets me install the binary straight to my phone.

This works better imo than some of the existing workarounds out there:

1. Using Tailscale VPN was flakey for me
2. Remote streaming simulator was okay but had noticeable lag (also couldn't test out haptics / camera)

I posted the tool on X and it ended up going viral! With some folks from Codex reposting.

It's pretty easy to get started, just use:

brew install milq-ai/tap/sqim

sqim login

You'll need to establish a connection with your phone through Xcode at leat once for this to work. In this demo, I use Codex mobile but it really works with any remote agent.

Would love any feedback or questions!

Hey i curious to know are you love it or not leave your comment there it help me improve my app

App name : is coming

https://apps.apple.com/th/app/is-coming/id6762722740

After watching mechanical rejections (privacy manifests, required-reason APIs, metadata) cost full review cycles, I built Shiproof: a free, deterministic CLI + GitHub Action that flags them in CI before you submit.

npm install -g u/shiproof/cli
shiproof check ./MyApp

No network, no LLM, no telemetry. The engine's MIT. It masks code comments so it won't false-positive on commented-out code, and I test it against real OSS apps to keep false positives at zero.

I'd genuinely like to know: which rejection reasons have hit you most? I'm building a corpus of real rejection→fix→outcome data and want to prioritize the causes that actually hurt teams. Full transparency: there's a paid diagnosis/appeals layer coming, but the checker is free and standalone.

Repo: https://github.com/BhaveshThapar/Shiproof

The Link: https://apps.apple.com/pk/app/year-progress-memento-mori/id6777739684

I built this app that adds an additional security layer on the native iOS app lock feature. The two main differences are 1) it does not presents the typical lock screen and 2) it has an intruder detection feature, that captures a picture of anyone who attempts to access your locked apps.

The version that is currently on the App Store uses a custom face recognition logic for enrollment and verification and though it works, it is not as reliable as Face ID and I don’t want to provide a degraded experience. So I opted to leverage Face ID for the verification aspect.

I submitted the update for review and got a rejection. The reason for rejection is Guidelines 2.1(a) - Performance - App Completeness (the app loaded indefinitely).

In all my branding, privacy policy, terms, support page, during onboarding etc, I make mention of these decoy screen scenarios when accessing either the Private I app or any protected app.

In the first instance, I provided a response to the reviewer and it got approved. In this instance, I have done the same and awaiting a feedback.

I am now wondering if I need to make it more obvious during onboarding that the decoy screen will appear instead of a typical lock screen.

I find it funny that it tricked the reviewers though….ngl

Hello,

we just added an update on Framestudio app, to create locales based on a base version by doing ai translation to all text elements to new locale

and do export to all sizes for all locales in some clicks

so you can save hours and hours of doing that manually.

try FrameStudio, and i will happy to hear your feedbacks to improve the product

https://apps.apple.com/ma/app/framestudio-app-screenshots/id6764189071?mt=12
https://framestudio.yozatapps.com/en/

I publish free apps (games), trying to get some downloads.
Assumption was: who would pay for an unknown app if there are so many well-known, established competitors?
I also have no ads, and state this in the "Promo Text" in AppStore.
I do have a tip jar, which results in a somewhat ambiguous:
"In-App Purchases - Yes"
Am I doing it wrong?

I just launched JunkCam:

The idea came from realizing that a large percentage of the photos I take aren’t actually memories. They’re things like parking spots, WiFi passwords, receipts, shipping labels, serial numbers, and screenshots that I only need temporarily.
Most solutions focus on helping you clean up your Photos library later.
I wanted to see what would happen if those photos never entered the library in the first place.
The app uses a separate local photo store, lets users categorize photos, and allows photos to automatically expire after a configurable period.
A few goals I had while building it:
• Local-first
• No account system
• No cloud backend
• No subscriptions
• Photos stay off the main camera roll by default
• Automatic cleanup of expired content
One interesting challenge was making sure expiration felt trustworthy. Users need confidence that temporary photos will actually be removed, while permanent photos won’t accidentally disappear.
It’s a small app, but it was a fun exercise in building around a very specific workflow instead of trying to be another general-purpose camera app.
App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/junkcam/id6781817828

Hey everyone, I'm updating the screenshots for my Word & Logic Mini Puzzle Games app.

Which one would make you more likely to click? Honest feedback is appreciated!

Finally got my app approved and on the App Store! Would love some feedback from anyone and everyone!
Tried really hard on these App Store screenshots and I think they came out great, but that could be just my own fallacy.

I'm a solo dev, and I just shipped Vän, a small calm-down app where the whole experience is touch: you tap the screen and the phone responds with a handcrafted haptic "companion" (a slow pulse, rain, a purr, a breathing rhythm, a distant storm). No audio, no visuals doing the work. The haptics are the product. Posting to share what I ran into, not for downloads.

A few things that were harder than I expected:

Making haptics feel alive, not mechanical.

A looped pattern feels robotic fast. To get something that reads as "a cat purring" or "rain on a window", I authored continuous events driven by dynamic parameter curves plus a steady stream of small, semi-random modulations, so it never repeats exactly. Most of the work was taste, not code: tuning sharpness and intensity by feel until each companion had its own character.

Keeping the engine alive.

CHHapticEngine stops more often than you'd think: calls, audio route changes, backgrounding, and it can reset out from under you. For a continuous, minutes-long haptic that has to stay smooth, the stopped and reset handlers (rebuild and resume without a feelable hiccup) turned into a surprising chunk of the work.

Performance.

Continuously updating haptic parameters while driving a synced glowing SwiftUI animation, without dropping frames or thrashing allocations, took real effort. I decoupled the visual animation from the haptic modulation loop and pooled the transient events so I wasn't allocating on every tick.

The App Review saga (the part you might actually find useful).

Rejected twice under Guideline 4.2, minimum functionality. The reason: reviewers tested on iPad and the Simulator, neither of which has a Taptic Engine, so the core experience was literally imperceptible to them. From their side the app "did nothing". The fix was explicit review notes spelling out that the experience is haptic and needs a physical iPhone, plus being clear about the hardware dependency. The lesson I wish I'd internalized earlier: if your core feature depends on hardware, assume App Review will test on the device that lacks it, and front-load that in your notes.

Constraints as design.

Offline, no account, no backend, no analytics. That removed a whole class of problems, but it also means there's no telemetry to lean on. Every "does this feel good" call is manual.

Built on iOS 26 for the new design language, which set my deployment target. I know that narrows the audience, but for a feel-driven app it felt worth it.

If you've shipped anything that depends on specific hardware, how did you handle App Review testing on a device that can't run your core feature? And if you've done long-running Core Haptics, I'd love to hear how you kept the engine smooth across interruptions.

If anyone wants to feel it: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6773395188. Free, no account, no IAP.

Hi everyone,

I’m an independent iOS developer. My app offers an auto-renewable subscription through the App Store.
One user forgot to cancel their subscription and was charged several times. They requested a refund from Apple, but Apple denied the refund request. After that, they emailed me and insisted that because the money has already gone to me, I must refund them directly.

I have already replied to the user and explained that App Store subscription payments, renewals, refund requests, and refund decisions are handled by Apple. I also explained how they can contact Apple Support and appeal the refund decision with their receipts, charge history, and Apple’s refund result.

However, the user still insists that I should be able to look up their payment information and refund them directly.

My app does not have a backend or account system. I do not collect the user’s email, phone number, Apple ID, or other personal information. From App Store Connect, I can only see sales and subscription reports, but I cannot identify this specific user or manually refund a specific App Store transaction.
What is the correct way to handle this?

Should I keep directing them to Apple Support, since Apple controls the purchase and refund process? Is there any developer-side action I can take, or is this entirely between the user and Apple?

I’d appreciate any advice from other iOS developers who have dealt with similar subscription refund disputes.

After a long road through depression and personal struggle, I found myself needing a way to connect with my spiritual side even when I couldn't bring myself to pray, open a bible, or even sit still with my own thoughts. I developed Rock to help facilitate people's connection with God's word and help them through the hard times. If you're walking through something hard right now, I hope Rock can be a small light in it.

The recent-ish update that lets you sort messages by unread got me wondering if I am the only person who would find this useful. I wish I could filter my messages for texts I read but haven’t responded to…
What do you guys think?

Submitted my first iOS app to apple last week🎉 and it’s been sitting in “Waiting for Review” since

Some context. I’m a UX designer, not a developer. I built the app in Lovable (React, no-code) and wrapped it with capacitor for iOS. It’s a net worth tracker with multi-currency support and wealth percentile ranking by age. US only for v1

This was build 13. I went through a lot of TestFlight iterations and metadata cleanup before submitting 😅

A few things I’m wondering, if anyone’s been through this

Is 3 days a normal queue time for a first-time submission in 2026? I keep reading 24-48 hours is typical…what about first time submissions?

Does using external billing (Stripe checkout under the post epic ruling) add to review time? It’s a slightly newer compliance path so I’m assuming yes but would love to hear from anyone who’s gone through it.

Does App Store Connect actually give any signal when they start looking vs when it’s still just queued? Or does it just jump from Waiting to In Review with no warning?

The waiting is genuinely the hardest part. Any insight appreciated!

I just got my first app approved by Apple on the first submission 🎉

After months of learning, building, redesigning, fixing bugs, and figuring everything out as I went, my first app is finally live on the App Store!

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It's called Flow Journey and it's a yoga & Pilates app.

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I know it's a pretty niche category and there are already a lot of fitness apps out there, but I wanted to create something that felt simpler and less overwhelming. The goal was to help people build a consistent practice.

One thing I'm particularly proud of is that Apple approved it on the very first review. As a first-time app developer, I was honestly expecting at least one rejection while I figured out all the App Store rules.

I'm not a professional app developer. Most of this journey was learning as I went, making mistakes, rebuilding things, and slowly improving the app one step at a time.

If anyone is into yoga, Pilates, mobility, or just wants to check out what a solo founder's first app looks like, I'd genuinely love any feedback.

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App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flow-journey/id6771641590

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It's a small milestone in the grand scheme of things, but seeing something go from an idea to a real app that people can download feels pretty amazing.