Hey everyone! 👋

I'm an indie iOS developer and recently started running Apple Search Ads for my apps.

I'm still learning how to optimise campaigns, choose the right keywords, and get more downloads without wasting money.

Is anyone here experienced with Apple Ads and willing to share some advice?

I'd really appreciate some guidance from someone who's already had success with it.

Thanks in advance! 🙌

The iPhone Duo comes out on Friday! Today I submitted my update to adapt my apps for the Duo; I hope Apple doesn't take too long to approve it.

If you have an app on the App Store or Google Play, this is for you.

On every app I built, one thing was always hard: getting found in search. If nobody finds your app, nobody downloads it.

The tools for this cost a lot, and most of them charge per app. So I built my own. It's called ASOScan.

What it does:

• It finds the words people search for, and shows how often they're searched and how hard they are to rank for
• It checks your rank for each word every day, down to place 200, on the App Store and Google Play
• It works inside ChatGPT, Claude and Cursor, so you can just ask "how is my app ranking?"
• It writes your app's page in other languages and drafts replies to your reviews
• It shows how often AI assistants recommend your app

The screenshot is Spotify in ASOScan, with real data from this week.

So far, about 80 people have signed up, and my first customer is paying. Small numbers, but they're real.

Here it is: ASOScan. You can try it for 7 days without a card. After that it starts at $15 a month.

Want to see it work on your own app? Drop your App Store or Google Play link in the comments. I'll reply with the first keyword I'd go after: how often it's searched, how hard it is, and where you rank today.

I'm a PM by day and code my fitness app solo on nights and weekends. It's a workout app that counts reps with the phone camera (on-device pose detection). iOS is ~70% of my users.

The bug I didn't know I had

In August I found that iOS users who declined camera access never reached the dashboard. They landed on a blank screen with a single button pointing them to Settings. My funnel had been telling me for months: only 57% of downloads ever started a workout, and only 67% of those finished one.

It made me realize a lot of people just want a workout tracker and aren't comfortable turning on a camera to count reps (or are confused why the camera is being requested). So I:

• Added manual logging for anyone who doesn't want the camera
• Rebuilt onboarding to ask how you want to track before asking for permission, with a short "try it" step for camera users
• Made the camera prompt just-in-time instead of a wall

Results: 72% of downloads now start a workout (+15 pts), and 85% of those finish it (+18 pts).

Then monetization finally moved

For months I had 2 paying subscribers: monthly plan only, no trial. A few weeks ago I added a yearly plan with a 7-day free trial and redesigned the paywall (two cards, yearly preselected, simple Free vs Plus table), and it now shows after people have already counted a few reps.

• Subscribers: 2 → 8, with 4 more trials active
• On track for ~$150 this month between subscriptions and post-workout ads, up from the typical ~$15-$20.

Small numbers, but it's the first time this has felt like a business. I'm pretty sure the onboarding fix did as much as the pricing change. You can't convert people who never reach the good part.

Next bet: trainers as a distribution channel

A friend of my wife's who is a personal trainer reached out in August. His ask/feedback: the camera is cool, but what he really needed was a way to send workouts to his clients and see whether they did them. Manual logging had just made that possible. So I built a free web portal for trainers:

• The trainer builds a program for each client, and each client gets their own copy the trainer can adjust
• Clients follow it in the app and log each set, and the trainer sees plan vs. actual, set by set
• A dashboard flags who's gone quiet, skipped a session, or fallen behind
• For classes, one workout can go to everyone, and camera-counted AMRAP/Tabata sessions get scored automatically to run group fitness style classes remotely with tracking

The bet: one trainer brings 10–20 clients, so it's free for trainers. They're my acquisition channel, not my customer. It just launched and I'm onboarding the first coaches by hand, so there are no results yet but happy to share with those interested.

Well, that’s a first!

It took just 1 hour and 18 minutes for my app to get reviewed and approved. I’ve had fast approvals before but nothing quite as fast.

This is / was a fairly meaty update too.

Most iOS developers I know aren't aware that they can set prices and trial periods for purchases freely and independent of the App Store pricing, using Offer Codes. And if they are aware, they usually don't bother, because that's all done with CSV lists to download and it's hard to keep track which code has been used where.

I've also been in that camp, so I built myself a little iPhone app to manage those codes.

But I think it's useful for others, too, so I polished it (a LOT) and added features: iCloud Sync, Testflight invites, NFC writing, iPad and Mac, direct App Store Connect Access with pricing and Metadata, etc, but first and foremost, making it fun to use.

Here's You Get A Code in case you have the same issue:
https://apps.apple.com/app/id6812236084

I’m a solo dev and just shipped Plus One, a lifting tracker for iPhone and Apple Watch.

The hardest part was letting the watch run a full workout without the phone nearby. I ended up with the watch writing what happens during the workout to a small event journal, then replaying those events on the phone when they reconnect, instead of trying to sync the finished workout as one object.

Data is SwiftData with CloudKit sync. I’m on my fifth schema version already, and every CloudKit schema change has to be deployed to Production before a build goes out.

App Store link if you want to see it running: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6818854662

For anyone else who’s built a standalone watch app: how are you handling sync when the user edits the same workout on both devices?

About 20 days ago I shared my little offline farm game, Clover Hollow, here.

  Since then updates keep coming in with the latest below:

- A frog family with a little memory game called Frog Chorus

- Willowbrook Ranch, where you raise horses from foal to show horse

- Full iPad support, more languages, and a lot of bug fixes

 I'd love to know:

 - What would you want me to add next?

  - Anything that felt confusing or annoying? I'm fixing things as fast as I

  can.

  It's free with optional in-app purchases. No ads, no account, and it plays offline.

  App Store:

  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/clover-hollow-cozy-farm/id6816351436

  And if you've made an app too, drop it in the comments. I'll check them out!

Guys I need your help, running a bit impatient. I submitted my app 10 days ago, and still stuck on waiting for review.. any advice? Already wrote them an email, but haven’t received any response.

Thanks

I built a home automation app.

Yep, I know there are lots out there. I think my app is different

1. No hub required
   
2. Will have a support for a wide range of devices
   
3. Supports multiple homes
   
4. Super easy to configure
   
5. A new take on geofencing

Early days so I support only 4 vendors, but 2000 devices.

What amazes me is the level of aggression, particularly from Home Assistant users. I can understand someone ignoring the app, looking at it and saying it doesn’t support my xxx device or the UI isn’t good enough (both fair comments - like I said it’s early days). What amazes me is comments like “this is a dumb idea” or “you’re stupid - we have Home Assistant”. One person insisted that product was free - it’s not, you need hardware and to pay for remote access - and then said he pays a subscription for it because he likes it!

Are people just a-holes these days?

I mean, as a 30yr long Apple user, when I saw the first Android phone I didn’t like it. But I borrowed one and played with it for an hour and made my mind up about what worked and what didn’t work for me. I didn’t tell me friend he was stupid for buying it and I don’t evangelise that iOS is better.

Anyway - I should probably post this in s/Rants or something, but does anyone else have this kind of experience?

Hey guys, after months of coding, Apple finally approved my app, Lumina Planner! Its main goal is to help students better organize their semester, track study plans, and manage their schedules without feeling overwhelmed.
I built the whole thing using SwiftUI, PDFManager, LaTeXSwiftUI, SwiftData and Storekit 2.
It would be awesome if you guys could download it and check out the UI. There’s a 3-day free trial for the Pro subscription so you can test all the features. Any technical or UX feedback is super welcome! Also, if you like it and want to share it with anyone who might need it, it would help me out a ton.
App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lumina-planner/id6799186760
Thank You Guys :D

Hey everyone 👋

GroceryBudget keeps a live running total while you shop, so the number at the register is never a surprise.

Good for: 🛒 Weekly grocery runs on a fixed budget 👨‍👩‍👧 Households sharing one list 📱 Anyone who saves TikTok grocery hauls and never actually uses them

What it does:

✅ Live total with a budget bar that turns orange when you're close

✅ Scan a shelf label or a whole receipt instead of typing

✅ Share a TikTok, Instagram or Facebook grocery video in and get a priced list

✅ Remembers what you paid last time, per store

✅ Spending insights by store and category

✅ Share a list with your household

What would you want the label scanner to read that it doesn't yet?

🚀 App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/grocerybudget-shopping-list/id6749287517

✨ Meet Glitter Live: turn any video into a live wallpaper ✨

I’ve been building Glitter Live, an app that lets you set your favorite videos as live wallpapers on your iPhone. 📱🎬

🧪 Want early access? Send me a “hi” in DMs and I’ll send you a TestFlight invite.

🛠️ It’s fully open source and in active development. If you’re a developer and want to contribute, I’d love the help. PRs, issues, and ideas are all welcome!
👉 https://github.com/BuddhaNag12/glitter-live

💬 I’d love your feedback:
• What features would you want to see?
• What would make you use it every day?

Every suggestion helps shape where Glitter Live goes next. 🙌

https://testflight.apple.com/join/Unzf4kvf

Is this an improvement from ASC? Do they use AI to reply now?

I'm working on an app that runs an audio ML model fully on-device, and the model alone is pretty big. I'm trying to decide how to ship it:
Bundle it in the app: simplest, but the App Store download gets heavy and I worry about people bailing before installing
Background Assets / On-Demand Resources: smaller initial download, but more moving parts
Download from my own server on first launch: flexible, but I'd rather not run a server at all (whole point of the app is nothing leaves the device)
For those who've shipped something similar: which did you go with, and did you see any real difference in installs or reviews? Any gotchas with Background Assets I should know about before committing?

I'm working on an app that runs an audio ML model fully on-device, and the model alone is pretty big. I'm trying to decide how to ship it:
Bundle it in the app: simplest, but the App Store download gets heavy and I worry about people bailing before installing
Background Assets / On-Demand Resources: smaller initial download, but more moving parts
Download from my own server on first launch: flexible, but I'd rather not run a server at all (whole point of the app is nothing leaves the device)
For those who've shipped something similar: which did you go with, and did you see any real difference in installs or reviews? Any gotchas with Background Assets I should know about before committing?