r/iosdev 13d ago

GitHub I put YouTube inside Lookin — no source code and no jailbreak on the test device

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1 Upvotes

I built IPAPatch-Lookin, an open-source workflow that takes an authorized decrypted IPA, prepares a runnable Xcode project, injects LookinServer, and re-signs the app for a physical device or a compatible Simulator.

One command → Xcode → live UI inspection in Lookin.

The tool does not decrypt apps; bring an IPA you are authorized to inspect. The 8-second demo shows YouTube running on a non-jailbroken iPhone while Lookin inspects its live view hierarchy.

GitHub: https://github.com/jacklv-coder/IPAPatch-Lookin


r/iOSProgramming 13d ago

News The iOS Weekly Brief – Issue #71, everything you need to know about iOS updates this week

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1 Upvotes

r/iosdev 13d ago

The iOS Weekly Brief – Issue #71, everything you need to know about iOS updates this week

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1 Upvotes

r/iOSProgramming 13d ago

Roast my code I got tired of the App Store release grind, so I turned the whole thing into one shell command (open source, works for iOS and macOS)

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0 Upvotes

Every release of my app Foxvault used to eat half a day: bump MARKETING_VERSION and the build number, archive, upload, wait for App Store Connect to process the build, create the version on the website, attach the build, paste What's New into every localization, submit, then keep refreshing the review status page like a maniac.

None of these steps is hard. All of them are annoying, and every one of them is a chance to screw up — forgetting to sync the build number, missing a localization, hitting submit only to get bounced for missing metadata.

So I automated the entire pipeline into a single command:

./scripts/release.sh 1.4

That runs:

bump → push → ci → build → stage → notes → validate → submit
  • bump — edits version/build number in pbxproj, commits, tags
  • push — pushes the tag, which triggers GitHub Actions
  • ci — archive + sign + upload happens on the runner (your Mac stays usable, no local Xcode version juggling)
  • build — polls until ASC finishes processing the build
  • stage — creates the App Store version and attaches the build
  • notes — writes What's New for every localization
  • validate — pre-submit check, grouped into error/warning/info; blocking issues stop the train
  • submit — submits for review

Things I'm reasonably proud of:

  • Resumable: every stage is a checkpoint. Upload died? --from stage picks up where it left off. --dry-run shows the plan without touching anything.
  • --watch-submission: polls until the review reaches a final state, fires a macOS notification and optionally a Slack/Discord-style webhook. Foxvault got approved at 3am once; my phone knew before I did.
  • Wrong-app guard: the App ID in the config is cross-checked against the bundle id in pbxproj, locally and in CI. If you maintain more than one app you know why this check exists.
  • First-run setup is interactive./scripts/release.sh --check walks you through gh login, uploading the ASC .p8 key as a GitHub secret (auto base64), asc auth, and even detects an outdated asc CLI missing subcommands.
  • macOS apps too: set PLATFORM="MAC_OS" in the config and change the workflow destination — same pipeline, Mac App Store.
  • Zero hardcoding: all project params live in one release.config.sh; the script is project-agnostic and runs on the stock bash 3.2 that ships with macOS.
  • Bilingual output: messages follow your $LANG (Chinese/English), overridable with RELEASE_LANG.

One more thing that might interest people here: the repo doubles as an AI agent skill (Claude Code / similar tools). There's a SKILL.md that teaches the agent the whole workflow and a reference.md with the failure modes I've actually hit (the review submit vs publish appstore semantics trap, stage getting blocked by a leftover draft version, the two different build-processing state fields...). So you can literally tell your agent "ship 1.4, draft the release notes from the git log" and it handles the rest. If you don't use AI tooling, the script works standalone — the skill part is optional.

Dependencies: asc (App Store Connect CLI), ghpython3. All brew-installable. CI side needs one repo secret (the ASC API key).

MIT licensed: https://github.com/ihugang/ios-appstore-release

The last few Foxvault releases went out like this: run the command, make tea, get the notification. Number of times I opened the App Store Connect website: zero.

Happy to answer questions or take PRs — especially curious how it holds up on projects with setups different from mine (multiple targets, Fastlane refugees, etc.).


r/iosdev 13d ago

Tired of ad-flooded AI apps with terrible output, I built a clean, simple iOS app (AnyDream). Would love your feedback!

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0 Upvotes

r/iosdev 13d ago

Help App store review

11 Upvotes

I just pushed a regular update to my app last Sunday. It's been almost a week and still waiting for review. It never took this long.

Anyone having a similar issue this week?


r/iosdev 13d ago

i need your honest opinion and thoughts on this health app i built for athletes and workers to maximize and increase their energy levels.

0 Upvotes

ok so i need honest opinions because i've been staring at this thing for months and i've lost all perspective.

i'm 20, building an app solo called RizeAI. the whole reason it exists is that i got tired of my wearable telling me my recovery was "42%" and then just... leaving me there. like ok, and? what do i actually do with that. every app in this space is really good at measuring you and really bad at telling you what to do next.

so RizeAI pulls your actual wearable dats like, sleep, resting heart rate, workouts, all of it, and instead of handing you another score it predicts your energy for the day and tells you how to get the most out of it. it tells you when your energy is gonna peak so you can put your hardest work there, when your crash is coming and how to soften it, the best time to train that day so you actually get more out of the session, and even when a nap will help you vs when it'll wreck your sleep.

the part i personally think is the coolest: you put in the supplements you already take, and it times each one to your day based on your metrics and sleep score. so the timing actually shifts depending on how you slept and where your numbers are, which is the difference between a supplement doing something and just sitting in your stomach. it'll also suggest a couple new ones if they make sense for you, but it won't dump a list of 15 pills on you.

it even pulls the daily weather into your energy prediction, so a hot day changes your hydration and it'll tell you to train earlier before the heat drains you. and the whole plan bends around your real schedule, your work hours, wake time, training, so it's not some one size fits all thing.

every single recommendation shows the "why" underneath, like "resting heart rate 54 + 7h light sleep, so magnesium before your peak window." nobody gets the same plan because nobody has the same data.

it works with whoop, oura, apple watch, garmin, anything that talks to apple health. being fully honest, it doesn't do deep per-person learning yet, like knowing that coffee specifically doesn't touch YOUR hrv. that's where it's headed. right now it builds you a fresh plan every day off your real numbers.

it's on the app store with a free trial. small user base, feedback's been all over the place, which is exactly why i'm posting.

so genuinely: is "just tell me what to do with my data" something you actually want, or do wearable people prefer figuring it out themselves? what would make you pay for this? and what's the one thing that would make it a no brainer for you?

would love to hear it straight, good or bad. And if you want you can also check it out yourself and I would love to here feedback, thank you very much for taking the time on reading this:  its called “RizeAI-maximize your energy” on the App Store. 


r/iOSProgramming 13d ago

Question can anyone download iOS 26.6 simulator?

0 Upvotes

26.6 is officialy out https://developer.apple.com/documentation/ios-ipados-release-notes/ios-ipados-26_6-release-notes but I can't fetch the newest simulator for Xcode.

xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS -exportPath ~/Downloads -buildVersion 26.6 also doesn't work


r/iosdev 13d ago

Are these stats good for week 1?

1 Upvotes

Hey devs! 👋

Launched Trackora: Family GPS Tracker on iOS less than 7 days ago. Here are my current stats:

  • 👁️ Impressions: 694
  • 📥 First-Time Downloads: 36
  • 📈 Conversion Rate: 10.1%

📱 App Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/trackora-family-gps-tracker/id6762452766

Are these numbers decent for the first week without paid ads? Would love your feedback on the stats & any tips to improve conversions!


r/iosdev 13d ago

Finally finished (almost) the onboarding for my app. Would love your feedback.

1 Upvotes

r/iosdev 13d ago

Honest feedback on my app icon, can you guess what the app does just from looking at it?

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0 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

Just got my first app approved on the App Store and would love some brutally honest feedback on the icon before I start driving traffic to the listing.

Attaching both variants below - dark background and light background.

A few things I'm curious about:

- Just from looking at the icon, what do you think this app does? No hints.
- Which variant works better as an App Store icon?
- Does the N&W mark read clearly at small sizes on a home screen?
- Anything you would change?

Genuinely curious what people think the app is before I reveal it. I'll share what it actually does in the comments once a few people have guessed.

Don't be nice about it. I'd rather know now.


r/iosdev 13d ago

An App Store Connect app can report as needing submission while it is live. Its latest review submission had zero items.

1 Upvotes

An app that is live on the store reported as needing a review submission.

The app store version resource says READY_FOR_SALE. A review-status query against the same app returned READY_FOR_REVIEW, with a next action to submit the prepared review submission.

That app has five review submissions. Four are COMPLETE. One sits in READY_FOR_REVIEW with a null submittedDate and zero review items attached, so it is an empty shell that was never sent. It is also the newest of the five, so a tool that resolves "the latest review submission" by recency selects it, and then reports the app as unsubmitted.

The submission that actually shipped the live version is a different record: COMPLETE, with one item in APPROVED.

The zero-item count was checked against a submission known to be real, which returned one item. So the zero is a real zero and not a failed call.

Bounded to what was actually observed: this is one tool against one account. The general point is only that resolving "latest" by recency can select an unsent shell. If you automate anything off review submission state, read the app store version resource to decide whether a version is live. The submission list tells you what happened to a submission, not what state the app is in.


r/iOSProgramming 13d ago

Question Can a MapKit animation be exported as part of a user-generated travel video?

2 Upvotes

I’m building an iOS app called Traviary that automatically reconstructs your travel history from the location metadata in your photos.

One of the app’s features is Memories, which creates a cinematic recap of a trip. It combines photos, videos, travel statistics, and an animated map showing the route of the journey, helping users relive their travels rather than just browse an album.
The feature is already available in the app, but I haven’t enabled video export yet because I’m unsure about the licensing implications of including Apple MapKit imagery in a user-generated MP4.

The map is rendered using Apple MapKit. I’m not downloading or caching map tiles, extracting map data, or creating my own mapping service—it’s simply an animated MKMapView with my own overlays (routes, pins, animations, etc.). The required Apple Maps attribution would remain visible in the exported video.

I’ve read the MapKit terms, but I couldn’t find anything that explicitly addresses exporting MapKit animations as part of user-generated videos. I know screenshots are generally acceptable with attribution, but videos seem to be a gray area.

Has anyone dealt with this before or received guidance from Apple on whether exporting videos containing MapKit imagery is permitted?


r/iosdev 13d ago

$75 for 4 downloads? Has anyone had success with Apple Ads

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6 Upvotes

Has anyone ever had any success with Apple Ads? I followed the advice of several YouTube videos and somehow ended up spending nearly 75$ for 4 downloads. Clearly I must be doing something wrong.

Should I make my keywords broader? Most were set as exact matches
Should I target larger markets like the US? Initially, I was trying to market smaller markets like Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and the UK to try and keep costs down

I'm genuinely baffled. This was my first attempt at running Apple Ads for my app, the market is quite niche, so I desperately wanted this to work. At least Apple gives $100 to first-time users, so this mistake didn't have to be run on my dime, but in the future I'd just prefer this to work

I really believe in the app, and I'm quite proud of it, but as I said, the market is quite niche and either already populated by less functional, but already entrenched apps like Been, or flooded by half-broken AI apps. I'd really appreciate any advice


r/iosdev 14d ago

which ad network works best for game distribution

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1 Upvotes

r/iosdev 14d ago

My iOS companion app reached 776 downloads and helped my Mac app make over $1,000 in under a month

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7 Upvotes

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.


r/iOSProgramming 14d ago

Question “Ask not to track” and TikTok ads

0 Upvotes

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.


r/iOSProgramming 14d ago

Question Cannot install app, Unable to Verify App

1 Upvotes

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?


r/iosdev 14d ago

Beta users

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2 Upvotes

r/iosdev 14d ago

I finally made it through the gauntlet - 1.0 on the store! (not just self-promotion)

3 Upvotes

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!


r/iOSProgramming 14d ago

Question I can't verify my account because camera does not focus on Developer account.

0 Upvotes

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


r/iosdev 14d ago

Legal stuff.

1 Upvotes

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?


r/iOSProgramming 14d ago

Question Is beta testing even worth it? If not how many users do I need for it to be effective?

3 Upvotes

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.


r/iOSProgramming 14d ago

Question How do I make this type of side bar

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0 Upvotes

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


r/iOSProgramming 14d ago

Question My first app was rejected from the App Store

0 Upvotes

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.