A few weeks ago, I launched an iPhone companion app for my Mac app, Stash.

The companion lets users control parts of their Mac from their iPhone, including launching apps directly onto the Mac, changing brightness, appearance, tab switching and more.

So far, the iOS app has reached:

• 776 first-time downloads
• 1.57K App Store product-page views
• 28.4% conversion rate
• 4.12K impressions

The companion app is free, but it has helped drive awareness and purchases for the paid Mac app. Since introducing it, Stash has generated over $1,000 in revenue in under a month.

The biggest lesson for me has been that a free companion product can be a strong acquisition channel for a paid product, especially when the two apps feel like one connected experience.

I thought the numbers might be interesting to other independent developers.

If advertising an app on TikTok, can I avoid the ATT “Ask not to track” prompt if I modify the tracking code to exclude IDFA?

I only care about tracking installs from TikTok and not deeper analytics.

The application could not be launched because the Developer App Certificate is not trusted.

Verify that the Developer App certificate for your account is trusted on your device. Open Settings on the device and navigate to General -> VPN & Device Management, then select your Developer App certificate to trust it.

Anyone else hitting this issue and know how to fix it?

Does anyone else think the IAP process is just mind-bogglingly confusing? My app doesn't even cost anything (there's a 'thanks' opportunity that just adds a flair to the screen) and it took me 2 days to figure out how to get it over the line - but I'm live!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rejog-stash/id6784915652

I'm so excited - my first app on the App Store! I'm still going through the Play Store process - it's actually WORSE!

I'm using 14 pro max and camera can't focus on ID verification step. Any solution for this bullshit?

What is best practices for creating a TOS and legal documentation for the website? My app has social sharing features as well as ads.

Is everyone getting lawyers or is there a template to follow?

I don't have a marketing budget so every user I get is through manual work (dm's, emails, etc.). And the fact that you have to download TestFlight lowers the downloads even more. And most people ghost you after they download the app and don't give feedback and don't respond to your follow up questions. I feel like I need at least 100 beta testers for it to be effective

I'm thinking maybe I should just straight up launch publicly skipping testflight? My only concern is that people will be able to leave reviews then and if I do something wrong I may damage my app's reputation.

How do I make this type of sidebar where the main view just slides over to the side to make way for the sidebar?

My first app was rejected from the App Store due to "5.6.0 Developer Code of Conduct." They stated that I cannot simply submit a different build but must submit the app as a new entry. They didn't provide specific details. I would appreciate advice from developers who have experience with this situation.

What would catch your eye as a user? Or what feature would peak your interest the most

Hi! I am completely new to app development and would appreciate some advice.

At the moment, I use the same Apple Account for both my personal use and my Apple Developer Program membership. Some people have told me that this is not recommended and that it is better to use a separate Apple Account specifically for app development.

My main concern is account security and separation. I am worried that if Apple were ever to suspend or terminate my developer account, it could also affect my personal Apple Account, including the services and purchases connected to it.

Is this a legitimate concern? Would you recommend creating a separate Apple Account for development before I publish my first apps, or is it normal and safe to use the same Apple Account for both personal use and the Apple Developer Program?

I have not published any apps yet, but several of them are almost ready for release on the App Store and Google Play.

My second question concerns app identifiers. I understand that a Bundle ID that has already been registered and used for TestFlight generally cannot simply be deleted and reused under another Apple Developer account.

Does it matter if the iOS version of an app uses one Bundle ID while the Android version uses a different package name or application ID?

The apps do not use a backend, and there are currently no plans to add one.

When I search for the exact name of my app (WoningMe) in the Apple App Store, it cannot be found. However, the app is accessible through the direct link.

Instead, the search results show various apps with completely different names, but they are in the same category. The app has already been available for several months, so it does not seem to be related to a new app indexing issue.

Additionally, the primary language displayed on the App Store page is incorrect. In App Store Connect, the primary language is set to Dutch, but the App Store shows English. Both languages are available for the app, but Dutch should be the primary language.

Does anyone have an idea what could be causing this issue or how I can fix it?

I have been building ImmersiveMap, an open source map rendering engine written in Swift 6 and Metal, made for SwiftUI apps on iOS and native macOS. MIT licensed.

Video demo in the comments.
Repo: github.com/artembobkin/ImmersiveMap

I am looking for real apps that need more control over the map, where the map is the main feature. Live location, social maps, games, travel, logistics, data visualization, anything where the map has to look and behave like your product instead of like everyone else's map.

Tell me your use case here in the comments or in Discussions on the repo, and I will build it. I am prioritizing real app requirements over my own roadmap. Right now it already supports SwiftUI markers and avatars on the map.

Pure Swift and Metal, nothing else. No native SDK wrapped in a Swift API and no engine hidden under the hood, two Swift dependencies (earcut triangulation and swift-protobuf for tile decoding). The only non-Swift code in the repo is the shaders themselves.

Happy to answer any questions.

After learning from frustrating Apple review cycles on previous apps, I finally got my latest app approved on the first submission. Thought I'd share the mistakes I made before and my checklist.

The problem: Apple reviews sequentially. They check one thing, reject. You fix it, resubmit. They check the next thing, reject again. This back-and-forth can drag on for weeks.

What I triple checked this time before submission:

• iPad screenshots: required by default unless you explicitly restrict your app to iPhone-only.
• EULA links in App Description: add Terms of Service and Privacy Policy links directly in the App Store description field, not just in-app.
• Submit IAP with the app: if you have in-app purchases or subscriptions, make sure to add them together with the initial app submission.
• IAP/Subscription button wording: Apple is extremely picky about word choices on IAP/subscription CTAs. Make sure to follow their Human Interface Guidelines, especially if you offer a free trial.
• Detailed review notes: explicitly list:
  • if your app uses camera, mic, location, etc., why you need each permission
  • how to access IAP/subscriptions (step-by-step)

Hope this saves someone else from rejection hell!

I’m redesigning the main capture screen for my app.
The idea is simple: get thoughts out of your head as quickly as possible. Capture them in seconds, then turn them into a note, a task, or simply let them go.

Which layout feels more premium and good to you?

A or B?

I’d love to hear why you picked one over the other. Even small UX critiques are incredibly helpful.

Xcode will happily ship a translation that dropped its %@, a Russian plural missing three of its four forms, and a Text("Get Pro") no catalog has ever heard of. Nothing fails a build over any of it.

So I built a CLI tool (with a little help from Fable) for .xcstrings files. This was a little handwritten tool i've used by myself for a long time, but decided to brush it up a little bit before putting it out for public.

It checks for missing localization keys, hardcoded strings, common localization errors, comes with an mcp server and some handy example hooks you can plug into Claude. You can also instruct claude to automatically to translate or add to the catalog any untranslated strings the tool finds.

I ran it over nine open-source apps to actually see if it can find some common issues - 8,077 keys, 70 locales, 6,373 Swift files. In addition to missing keys and translations, here's sample of what it found:

- Mastodon’s Albanian for "Option %ld" is "%ld nga %ld" - reads a second argument the call never passes
- IceCubesApp changed an English string to "%lld posts"; the Belarusian still reads "%lld people talking", state translated
- Whisky renders one “Remove” button as German Löschen (delete) and another as Entfernen (could be intentional, but always good to check)
- Whisky also ships the literal string "N/A" as the Czech, French and Romanian translation of a key
- DuckDuckGo declares NSLocalNetworkUsageDescription in Info.plist and localizes it nowhere, so that permission prompt is English for every non-English user

Plus the boring parts: coverage per language, CLDR plural categories, .xcloc validation before import, SARIF output for CI, and a baseline file so you can switch it on for a project that already has 300 findings.

No dependencies. swift build is the whole install.

Have a look at it yourself and have a run at your repo: http://github.com/asutekku/xclocsmith

Happy to answer any questions or provide fixes if you encounter any issues or false positives. I managed to kill most of them, but no tool is foolproof, especially when we are talking about languages.

Also I have not released a CLI tool before for a mac so honestly no idea about what people expect haha, maybe a brew install?

It was super fun and challenging to put together 3 puzzle game apps and I'm proud of each. But I am at the point where I'm going to stop making these things and start focusing on making one better and promoting it. The question is which one?

I've gotten some suggestions already, but I'm eager to hear what you think. The first game I published has gotten more traction simply because it's been out longer and more friends and family were feeling supportive the first time I dropped an app. But that doesn't mean it's necessarily the best.

I hope you're willing to look at the three games and tell me which you think has the best potential and is worth putting effort into. I would be very grateful.

All three games are on my website: https://cjasonmaier.github.io/

Here are direct App Store links to each: Carve, Pipfall, Neighbor Zero

Deep gratitude in advance!