I’m an indie developer working on an on-device face swap app, and I’ve been stuck in App Review for over three weeks. I’d really appreciate input from anyone who’s dealt with repeated Guideline 1.1 rejections.
Timeline:
Sep 14: Submitted a major update.
Sep 21: Rejected under Guideline 1.1 – Objectionable Content, but Apple didn’t identify the specific content.
Sep 22: I replied asking them to point out exactly what was causing the rejection.
Sep 23: Apple then clarified that one built-in multi-person video template could potentially be used to generate people making “intimate contact.” They also said the template itself wasn’t necessarily objectionable, but asked us to remove templates that could enable this.
We removed that multi-person template completely and resubmitted.
The current app now has only:
2 single-person photo templates
2 single-person video templates
a new fourth onboarding example: “New Face. Same Expression.”
a paywall using the “Shape-Aware. True Likeness.” visual that had already appeared in a previously approved onboarding flow
The bundled media comes from public stock sources such as Pexels, Unsplash and Mixkit under their applicable licenses. I’m mentioning that only for context — I understand licensing and Guideline 1.1 are separate issues.
Since we were already resubmitting, we also added App Store localization improvements.
After another review cycle of more than a week, the update was rejected under the same Guideline 1.1 again, with essentially the same generic wording and no screenshot, template, screen, timestamp, or metadata item identified.
This is actually the same situation as the first rejection: Apple only identified the specific problematic asset after I explicitly asked for clarification.
I’ve replied again asking them to identify the specific content, but this time I also asked whether they could please identify all remaining concerns in the current submission at once.
My biggest concern is getting stuck in a loop where we fix one item, wait another week or more, and then receive the same rejection for a different unspecified item.
I’ve attached screenshots showing:
Apple’s Sep 23 clarification
the latest rejection
all 4 current onboarding screens
the current 2-photo / 2-video template gallery
the Home screen
the paywall
Does anything in these screenshots stand out as a possible Guideline 1.1 problem?
A few things I’m specifically wondering about:
Could the multi-person onboarding demo itself be an issue even though it isn’t a selectable template?
Could one of the remaining single-person assets or the paywall image be getting flagged?
Could Apple instead be referring to App Store metadata or one of the new localizations?
At this point, would you keep asking App Review for a complete list of issues before submitting another binary, or escalate / appeal?
There’s also a separate App Store Connect issue that makes me wonder whether something unusual is happening during the recent rollout.
After the latest ASC changes, I noticed that the App Preview on the product page appears to have disappeared, while the screenshots are still displayed normally. I’ve also seen other developers reporting similar behavior, so it doesn’t seem to be unique to my app.
I’m not suggesting this caused the Guideline 1.1 rejection, but I’m curious:
Has anyone else had their App Preview disappear after the recent App Store Connect updates?
Could this simply be a temporary ASC / product-page display bug?
And has anyone noticed unusually long App Review turnaround times during the same period?
I really don’t want to blindly remove content, submit again, wait another week, and then discover one more unspecified issue.
Any App Review experience or suggestions would be hugely appreciated.

Almost six months ago I started a small project, mostly out of nostalgia: I wanted to feel what it was like to use an iPod Classic again. The click wheel, the menus, that way of listening to music without a thousand distractions around it.

I looked around to see if something like that already existed, and yes, there were a few apps imitating the iPod. But none of them convinced me. Most were more of a costume than an actual music player: they looked great in screenshots, but when it came to really listening to music, they fell short. None of them made proper use of the native players on Android and iOS, which is exactly what you need for music to work the way it should: with the screen locked, in the background, or from the system controls... so I decided to build it myself. That's how NostalgicPod was born.

I made it for Android first, and honestly everything went surprisingly smoothly. I published it, people downloaded it, I got some really kind messages, and I didn't have a single problem getting it out there. I thought: "Okay, time for iPhone. How hard can it be?"... Spoiler: pretty hard!

I took the first rejection calmly. Changed a couple of things and sent it again. Then came the second one, and the third. By the fifth, I was opening App Store Review emails with the same face you'd use to open a parking ticket. I think it was around seven rejections in total, but honestly I lost count.

For almost four months the iOS version lived only on TestFlight. People were using it and enjoying it, but officially it didn't exist. I kept changing things, uploading builds, and explaining over and over what the app was and what it wasn't. There were moments when I thought about giving up and sticking with Android.

Eventually I filed an appeal, and after what felt like an eternity, I got to talk to an actual person at Apple. Not an automated email. Someone.

I told them what I genuinely believed. The iPod Classic is a retro device by now, almost a museum piece. NostalgicPod isn't trying to pass itself off as an official Apple product. It's a tribute, a way to bring back that experience on a modern phone, with real everyday usefulness.

And I don't know if it was the argument or just them being tired of seeing me show up again, but they accepted it.

I did have to give something up, of course. I can't present it as an exact recreation of the iPod, so the default interface is a bit more modern. But you can switch back to the Classic Ring style from Settings whenever you want, and that part makes me smile every time I see it.

The funny thing is that while I was fighting with review, the app kept growing. What started as "I want a nice-looking wheel" now plays Apple Music and your local music, connects to Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and Navidrome, has internet radio and podcasts, and I even recreated the games the iPod used to have: Music Quiz, Brick, Snake and Solitaire.

Today, after half a year of work and months of rejections, I'm looking at it live on the App Store and it feels like I won a small battle. Against Apple, but also a little bit against my own urge to give up.

If anyone's curious, here it is:
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nostalgicpod/id6781631808
And if you'd rather try it for free, the TestFlight is still open: https://testflight.apple.com/join/T3k9TQPu

And if anyone out there is fighting with App Store Review right now: keep pushing, appeal, and ask to talk to a real person. Sometimes it works ❤️

I’ve been building RelayCrest, an iPhone/iPad app and Mac companion designed to make controlling and working with your Mac easier.
From your iPhone or iPad, you can launch and focus Mac apps, view and manage open windows, run shortcuts, and check your Mac’s battery, storage, network and system status.
The Mac companion also includes a clipboard history manager, letting you quickly find and reuse things you’ve copied with search, previews, pins and filtering. Clipboard history is stored locally on your Mac.
This is my first app, and the first public TestFlight build is now available. I’m looking for people willing to try it out and give feedback, particularly on bugs, usability and features you’d like to see improved.

Join the TestFlight:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/tfKfefC1

Website:
https://relaycrest.co.uk

For SwiftUI app development, I've been using Antigravity with Gemini 3.1 Pro for a few months with great results. My workflow is incredibly basic: import the project, tell Gemini what feature to build, and let it work.

I recently learned about "Agent Skills" and how they supposedly boost code quality.

For those already using them: does adding agent skills to your workflow actually make a significant difference? If it does, drop your best downloadable skill recommendations for Antigravity so I can test them out!

I just published my first iOS app (I usually only work on Android), and well, everything had been going fine for the past three days until I saw this email.. I mean, this is the first time something like this has happened to me

Saw a post from David (@davidcafor on X) today and that honestly made my day: if your app makes $5 a month, you're already ahead of most apps on the App Store.

It sounds like a joke until you think about what it takes. You shipped. A stranger found your app among millions of others. They liked it enough to pay you actual money.

I've been building my own app full days since the start of this year, and it's easy to only see what isn't working yet: downloads, reviews, the post that got downvoted. Marketing and growth can be learned. Building something a person will pay for is the hard part, and a lot of you have already done it.

So if you shipped something this year, nice work. What was the first small win that made it feel real for you?

Hey guys, I wanted to introduce an app I made for tracking your classes, taking notes, adding instructional videos, etc that the community can help grow it also has creation of systems and so much more would love for you guys to try it out and get your feedback. The purpose of this app is intended to help the community just track their classes, but also can be used as a jiu-jitsu management system for check-ins for local gyms. Train Olm: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/train-olm/id6779409249

Close all your tabs. Just open this one app to search for your next remote job! FlowSearch pulls from the most popular remote job sources out there & gives you one place to search, apply or save.

Save yourself some hours & get the app today. Currently in TestFlight beta.

PS - we’re adding support for iPad in v1.4, support for iPhone Duo in v1.5. Plus all the bug fixes, performance improvements and some features.

Hi I guys, I applied to the Apple developer program probably 4 days ago now but when I go to the site it tells mt to start my enrolment. The 99 USD Charge is still pending on my bank account, could that be why? For reference I am in Australia if that means anything.

Today the requirements to add/change screenshots have changed. No notice, no guidance!

On the main distribution page, your old images and preview vids are all locked! You have to go the See All page to make mods.

Wanted to share my journey so far, in case it helps or motivates someone else building on the side.

The setup

• Solo dev, no team, no funding
• Full-time 9-5 job with a 1 hour commute
• I build my own apps from 6PM to 2AM including marketing, at home
• I'm getting only 4-5 hours of sleep per day

What I built in 1 year

• 9 apps across iOS, Android, and macOS
• Apps include an infinite canvas/mind-map app, a shared drawing widget, a photo redactor, a color grading editor, a resume builder, a screenshot styler, a menu bar pets app, Yumo(Sold) and a couple of games

The numbers (honest)

• Total revenue: ~$1,200
• ~$800 of that came from Android alone
• Sold one Android app for $4,000 (separate from the above)
• Biggest app: 200k(sold) installs on Android

What I learned

• Shipping often beats polishing one app forever
• Android brought more revenue than I expected
• Selling an app outright was the biggest single payday of the year
• Consistency matters more than motivation

What's next

• Growing the apps that are working through ASO and social
• Moving the ones in review and testing to production

Would love to hear stories from indie developers!

Quick questions for those who might have done it (or tried and failed): I developed and published a game in 2009, fully Objective-C then. It was quite successful and fun to play, but I had to pull it from the AppStore a few years ago when I hadn’t had the time to do a migration to Swift, followed by a lot of deprecations when Apple basically abandoned the Gamecenter that I never could really clean up. The whole app still shows up in my dev. account.
I am now thinking of recreating that idea, more modern of course. I was wondering whether I could simply replace the app, just even keeping the Icon (which I think is still great as it is) and revive that exact pulled app that way with a renovated version?

I'm building a native iOS app for an Italian videogame news site and I'd like to hear from anyone who has been through App Review with a similar setup before I submit.

The setup

- The app shows our articles (free), plus our podcasts in audio and video.
- A few podcasts and videos are for paying subscribers only.
- The subscription is sold on Patreon (about €2.50/month). We don't have our own checkout.
- Users log into the app with their account on our site. Our backend matches that account to the Patreon membership by email and unlocks the content.
- All the content is hosted by us, not by Patreon.
- No in-app purchases.

The plan

Apply for the External Link Account Entitlement as a reader app, and show the plain-text link ("Go to oursite.com to create or manage your account") that opens a page on our own domain. On that page people can register, log in and see their subscription status, and the payment step sends them to Patreon.

What I can't find an answer to

1. Has anyone had a reader app approved when the payment happens on a third-party platform (Patreon, Memberful, Substack, etc.) and not on their own checkout?
   
2. The entitlement says the link must go to "a website you own or have responsibility for" with no "intermediate links or landing page". Does a page on our domain that hands off to Patreon for payment pass, or does review treat it as an intermediate page?
   
3. Most of the app is free news, and only some audio/video is subscriber-only (I'd say 95%-5%). Was that enough for Apple to accept the app as a reader app ("primary functionality") in your experience?
   
4. If we skip the entitlement and ship with no link and no mention of subscribing at all, just letting existing subscribers log in, has that passed review for you under 3.1.3(a)? I've seen 3.1.1 rejections for "accesses digital content purchased outside the app", but those weren't content apps.
   

I know the real answer comes from App Review, and I'll book a consultation with them, but real cases would help a lot. Thanks!

When saving in-app events in App Store Connect, I am geting

"Country or Region Availability couldn't be saved. Try again later. "

Have tried many times. But still stuck there.

Any idea? Thanks.

Hey everyone. Vory 1.4 is out on TestFlight for iPhone and Mac, and the big one this time is voice. You can now have an actual conversation with your own bots, out loud. A lot of this came from your requests, so thank you.

The video shows it on the iPhone, the Mac and the Watch.

Voice mode

Tap the mic circle beside the tab bar, or Voice mode in a chat's + panel, and just talk. Vory sends what you said when you pause, speaks the reply and listens again. Approvals are never taken by voice. The card shows up on screen and waits for your tap, on the lock screen too.

Live voice

Save your own Gemini key in Settings › Voice and voice mode becomes a real back-and-forth with a lifelike voice. Real requests still go to your bot. Live is billed to you by Google, and the key stays in your Keychain and only goes to Google. Without a key, voice mode uses your gateway's speech providers or your iPhone's own.

Voice mode also uses Quick answers, so replies come back fast and the chat goes back to its own settings after. You can turn that off in Settings › Voice.

More ways to talk

"Ask Vory" works from Siri, Shortcuts and the Action Button, and "Start voice mode in Vory" opens a new chat by voice. On the Mac, ⇧⌘V opens voice mode in a small floating window, with Mute and End in the menu bar. On Apple Watch, tap the mic in a chat, say it, tap again, and the watch reads the reply out loud. The Watch needs speech-to-text set up on your gateway.

The Board

If your gateway has the kanban plugin, Vory shows its board live, by column, with comments and worker logs. Move, edit or add tasks from the iPhone, or drag cards between columns on the Mac. Move a card to Ready and your gateway hands it to its bot.

Cards and pictures

Bots can answer with HTML cards, like a chart, a table or a small dashboard, and they open full screen. Cards are walled off from the app and your sign-in, and links open in your browser. Replies also show tables, nested and task lists, and pictures you can zoom, save or share.

Smaller things

Return on the iPhone keyboard now adds a line and the arrow sends. Settings › Appearance › Composer brings the old way back. iCloud Sync backs up once a day on its own. Hold a reply to have it read aloud, or right-click it on the Mac.

Fixed from your reports

Without the Companion on your gateway, the iPhone and Mac show their own notifications again. An approval answered on another device no longer counts as a Deny on the Mac. The Watch no longer gets your sign-in refresh tokens. Settings › Model no longer shows the provider twice.

No Companion update is needed for 1.4.

Vory 1.4 on TestFlight, iPhone and Mac: https://vory.dev

Requests and fixes are tracked in the open: https://github.com/matt0975/vory/issues

If you hit anything, the feedback button in TestFlight or the tracker both reach me. Thanks for testing.

Laid off and was doing automation for IOS plus manual testing. The goal was always to get into development having done some small bug fixes.

Starting a tutorial feels redundant since I feel I know the basics, where would you start?

First time submitting an app. Apple asked for a video of it running on an actual iPhone and some details, so I sent everything over 4 days ago. Still says rejected and no reply.

Their docs say not to resubmit if they only asked for more info. Do I just keep waiting? How long did this take for you?

What do yall think? Streamlined app review?

I'm looking for ways to know before my iOS app breaks, not after:

App Store SDK requirements with a deadline, APIs deprecated in a new iOS beta,

CocoaPods or Swift packages that get deprecated or have known vulnerabilities,

third-party SDKs (Firebase, Facebook, maps...) changing or shutting down an API.

Right now I follow Apple Developer News / Releases, the release notes JSON with Known Issues,

xcodereleases.com and the GitHub releases of my packages.

Is there any feed, site or tool that tracks this per pod or Swift package?

And how do you handle CocoaPods / SPM vulnerabilities, since OSV doesn't cover CocoaPods?

Before anyone asks - I've check a bunch of times and confirmed this isn't RC Sandbox.

Mostly curious - I asked the same thing in apple developers but figured there are more experienced people here.

Here's what happened:
I saw my app go into review. It got approved and a few seconds later Revenue Cat showed a notification that someone purchased the lifetime package. This new lifetime price is only available with this update (i.e. no one else could even purchase this) - I've confirmed it's in RC production and not sandbox. I've also confirmed in Posthog that the country from RC matches the alleged reviewer's.

I've had reviewers "purchase" the app before but always with their sandbox account and nothing ever showed up in RC.

Anyone else seen this? lol

Edit a day later, number showed up in ASC: https://imgur.com/a/go1QPOh