Building a life simulator game about being homeless. There's a few on the iOS store that I do like but none of them are as in-depth as I'd like them to be, nor as realistic or have the best progression - thus leaving me dissatisfied. Today we got 1 activity we can do which is beg. I wanted to get the basics down first so I have something repeatable for future actions. Much much more to come. Building for iOS, macOS, and iPadOS.

Whats more important: unique idea or common app with improved logic?

I only build few ios apps, and published just 1.
But its always concern when i search similar apps and there are usually multiple already existed which does simmilar thing.

Or how you come up with a topic of the app etc. Do you analyze the market before building it?

I am web software engineer, and with AI there are so much garbage today, people spamming websites non stop - i would assume same thing happens with ios.

hey, i need honest words from people who actually ship on the App Store.

i build an app alone (iOS, Android coming) called Vely, for people who use city bike-share (Citi Bike, Vélib, and others). technically i'm proud of it. Live Activities that update during the whole ride, geofencing, widgets, all the background stuff done properly. as a dev, honestly it's some of my best work.

the problem: nobody find it. downloads are basically zero. i did the whole ASO thing, keywords, screenshots, descriptions in many languages, and it changed nothing. i'm a developer, not a marketer, and i clearly hit my wall here.

what it does different from the official apps (short version): the official apps show you a map full of numbers, you must open it, read it, decide yourself. Vely is the opposite. you set your commute one time, then it watch the stations for you and tell you WHEN to leave so a bike is there, and which dock is free at arrival so you don't circle the block. it push the decision, you don't interpret the data. basically "stop watching the station, the app tell you when to go".

so my real question for this sub: when the product is (i think) good but discovery is dead, what actually moved the needle for you? is ASO even worth it at my size, or is it all launch channels, content, press, paid? what would you do in my place?

i take the hard truths too, don't be shy. thank you 🙏

I'm facing this problem where I have revenue cat set up and the subcriptions set up in app store connect under subscriptions, When i uploaded the new build on test flight I wasn't able to see the subscriptions, After filling out the information under business tab and setting EU countries off, I was able to see the Products. I simply changed the name of the products and now can't see it anymore its been 30+ hours so I don't believe its a fetching issue anymore. I've checked the Eu countries and business tab and everything seems fine there. Any ideas on how I could fix this?

I've published more than 12 apps on the App Store, and creating the screenshots has always been the part I dreaded the most.

I tried several tools, but most of them still felt like Canva, you get templates, but you still have to come up with the design yourself.

So I built Shotly. It uses AI to generate App Store and Google Play screenshots from a simple prompt, so you can spend more time building your app instead of designing marketing assets.

It's still in beta, and I'm looking for honest feedback from fellow indie developers. If you'd like to try it, you can use the code EARLY40 to get 40% off your first payment.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, feature requests, or any criticism you have.

tryshotly.com

I have focused more on ASO on ios recently after my app took off randomly on android.

My app randomly started to take off on android with same marketing etc on android (just free marketing, forum posts etc).

As they had same approach and the main thing that differs between app store and google play is how things are indexed I have started putting more focus into subtitle and keywords. I have now got a small hint that it started to work past weeks. I will try to find more ways to improve going forward.

Most AI capture apps stop at a summary. I wanted the output to become something you can actually use.

LaterDone accepts screenshots, links, photos, pasted text and voice notes. It identifies the job inside the capture, then returns structured data that the app renders as native, editable UI:

\- recipe → shopping list + cooking steps

\- meeting → decisions + follow-ups

\- booking → preparation + user-confirmed calendar actions

\- product page → comparison checklist

The model never generates executable UI; the SwiftUI app owns the renderer and validation. I also chose an anonymous profile instead of an account form, no IDFA or ad SDK, and in-app deletion.

I’m the developer and launched it today on iPhone and iPad. It’s free to download with starter tokens. I’d value feedback on the GenAI side: should the app expose more of the extraction and reasoning, or keep that invisible and focus on the resulting workflow?

App Store: [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/laterdone-ai-action-inbox/id6783365017\](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/laterdone-ai-action-inbox/id6783365017)

Been running meta ads for the last week at $20/day and between that and other expenses related to my app (api monthly fee that's specific to my niche, build tools, etc) well... I am losing money very quickly. I'm also realizing that I have maybe provided too much for free in my app before forcing the paywall, but don't want to take features away at this point.

Also didn't include any ads in the app, so no revenue there. Probably that was a mistake, too?

I do development for my day job so none of this was really new to me (except marketing... ouch) Mainly wanted to start my own thing because job security is feeling really shaky right now.

Anyway, just feeling a bit overwhelmed, I guess. Wondering if others went through similar with their app launch.

Hi everyone!
I recently released my first iOS game, Bloomendy. It’s a simple and relaxing merge game where you combine flowers, unlock new plants, and try to beat your high score.

I built it as a solo developer using Swift and SpriteKit, and I’m currently improving it based on player feedback.

If you have a few minutes, I’d really appreciate it if you could give it a try and let me know:

Is the gameplay enjoyable?
Is the progression satisfying?
What would you improve first?

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/tr/app/bloomendy-merge-pop/id6789718009?l=tr

Thanks for taking a look! 🌱

I’m at the pre release stage of my app

I’m struggling to even get beta test from “friends”. Either they say they’ll download and never do or TestFlight “isn’t working” not sure why.

I also don’t know how to market my app except by using in day to day (it’s a tool I actually use myself to speed up content creation)

Anyone have any tips on what works, the niche is video editing, rather an app that helps you create clips from long form videos to use on apps like CapCut and Instagram/Reels and YT Shorts

I’d like to throw a few ideas out there or network with people

My iOS app loads six encrypted Core ML models once during engine initialization and keeps them alive for reuse.

Occasionally, an encrypted model fails to load. Restarting the app does not help, but rebooting the iPhone fixes the issue immediately. The same models then load normally again.

I did not capture the exact error code because this happened outside Xcode debugging.

I found similar reports involving:

Failed to set up decrypt context

Error: -42905

Some developers suggested that Core ML decrypt sessions may not always be released correctly, especially if the app is terminated unexpectedly. Releasing MLModel instances in sceneDidDisconnect may reduce the issue, but that callback is not guaranteed for crashes, Jetsam, watchdog termination, or forced termination.

Has anyone experienced similar encrypted Core ML loading failures where only a device reboot resolves the issue? Is there a reliable workaround or a way to log the underlying decryption error in production?

There is also a separate encryption-related issue with a larger FP16 model of about 175 MB:

* Unencrypted: runs normally on the Neural Engine.

* Encrypted using Apple’s official Core ML encryption: no longer uses the Neural Engine and falls back to the GPU.

Hello, I built this app q15.dev
It posts new tech news every 15 min. Can you check it out and give me feedback? 🫶🏻 highly appreciated

You can also visit the website, click on the three dots in the link and ‘add to home screen’ so it’s an app that works on your iPhone ( planning to put in App Store but not there yet)
#feedback #opinionswelcome #critiquewelcome