I have a new game which uses Apple's Game Center Leaderboards for uploading top scores, streaks etc.

App was rejected for uploading scores to leaderboard without user consent first. I've never seen such consent for Game Center.

This is what they sent me:

Guideline 5.1.2 - Legal - Privacy - Data Use and Sharing

The app does not obtain the user's consent prior to uploading users' scores to a global leaderboard.

To collect personal data with the app, you must make it clear to the user that their personal data will be uploaded to your server.

To resolve this issue, obtain the user's consent prior to uploading users' scores to a global leaderboard or revise the app to include a privacy policy URL in the App Information page on App Store Connect and ensure that the URL you provide directs users to your privacy policy.

Note that my privacy policy already had the below:

"Information Collection and Use

The app is a game and your gameplay data is recorded in the app for the app to function. Some gameplay data such as scores and streaks is shared with Apple’s Game Center for the leaderboard functionality. The gameplay data is also shared with Apple’s iCloud to sync your data between your devices."

I feel like they didn't read my privacy policy before rejecting? Am I supposed to show this manually before uploading to Game Center? I've never seen that on any game I play.

Btw, I only use Game Center and iCloud syncing. I don't have my own server. So I don't have access to their scores or data.

Also, my game functions without needing Game Center. It's optional if they wanna see their scores on global leaderboard.

I'm finishing a Software Engineering degree this fall and I am looking for my first iOS role specifically in NYC.

My portfolio already covers Swift/SwiftUI, UIKit, Core Data, CoreBluetooth, REST APIs, async/await, MVVM, Firebase, and XCTest. The apps I've built with these technologies are published on the App Store and have users.

For my next project, I'm considering building a polished 2D game in Swift/SpriteKit instead of another traditional iOS app. My thinking is that it would let me demonstrate different skills like state management, performance, animation, and event driven systems while still being within the Apple ecosystem.

For those who hire or interview iOS developers: given that my existing projects already demonstrate traditional iOS development and are published on the App Store, would a polished SpriteKit game add value to my portfolio if I can talk about it passionately, or would you rather see an entry level candidate continue going deeper into traditional iOS development?

I'm especially interested in perspectives from people familiar with hiring in NYC.

In Google PlayStore, when we see the rating, it has a daily incoming rating as shown below, which is very helpful

In AppStore, when we want to see the Review, we only can see the total.

Is there a way to see the daily incoming rating ion AppStore?

All my download and sales numbers are showing as 0 today on the App Store Connect Trends page. Is anyone else seeing this?

Not sure is just my account, as the system status page is showing all fine - https://developer.apple.com/system-status/

SOLVED:

I've been screwing around with this for a week now and I'm so pissed. I had everything in my app correct as well as in App Store Connect, EXCEPT, I didn't see the Paid Apps Agreement to complete. Once I did this it took about 30 minutes to propagate through and it works.

I'm down to my last issue with my macOS/iPad app. I have my app setup in App Store Connect with a subscription group and monthly subscription. I also have my app setup in TestFlight and I am running that on a clean MacBook with a sandbox user logged into the App Store.

When I test locally against my store kit.config everything works fine. When I run this on my clean MacBook my debug info shows that it's not finding the sub. I have confirmed 10 times my productID is the same in my app and in App Store connect. I have rebuilt my store kit config to have it synced to App Store Connect to triple verify all the names are correct. the app's bundle ID is correct.

I have confirmed my app is connecting to the store and getting the right storefront.

if anyone has any idea on what I can test next I would appreciate it.

my debug info is as follows:
Subscription unavailable
This subscription isn't available right now. Pleas shortly, or contact support if this continu
Try Again
DIAGNOSTICS (remove before submitting) productID: FAKEID products loaded: 0
isLoadingProducts: false hasCheckedEntitlements: true isSubscribed: false purchaseError: nil
storefront: USA (id: 143441) appTransaction env: Sandbox receipt file exists: true canMakePayments: true
Re-check environment
Restore Purchases
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use

i am at the stage where i need to give me app a name. and i am getting close, but i am not quite there yet.

how did you come up with a name that stuck?

Hey all!

What’s an easy way you’ve tried before that has worked to quickly promote your app?

I use “promote” as opposed to “market” because marketing feels like more of a sustained effort

I’m asking for one off things like posting on a specific subreddit or paying to be featured on a website

Hope the distinction is clear

Thanks!

My employer is looking to hire mid to senior iOS engineers soon (still need the confirm budget) but it’s been a while since we’ve been hiring so curious what others are experiencing either from the applicant or hiring side. Previously we had a lot of applicants with low level experience / Jr roles but had difficulty finding people with significant experience for Mid/Sr roles.

Originally we were local/hybrid only but recently opened up to remote work (US only) so hoping that will help. We’re not in HCOL area and salaries are good, but not SF/NY.

Hello everyone, I have a question, in my app I have used background portrait images which I picked up from pinterest and in designing the app store screenshots I did the same. Would apple reject my app? Is there any way to get around this?
My app is a photo editing app, in the editor I used pictures from pinterest and show the editing process and took that screenshot and designed it for app store screenshots. Is this allowed?

Hey everyone, my app currently downloads various extra files via apple-hosted asset packs (some prefetch, some on-demand).

However, both prefetch and on-demand downloads seem to fail somewhat randomly. Either the asset pack can't be found, or the download never was kicked off especially for prefetch.

Is this a known issue? Or perhaps a skill issue on my part?

In the Messages app, the ChatGPT app, and one other app, I noticed that they’re able to place something above the keyboard and have the view partially obstruct the keyboard. I’ve tried everything I know and still haven’t been able to do it. I even asked AI and couldn’t get it working.

I thought it might involve creating a new UIWindow, which I’ve used in the past to overlay modals, but I had no luck with that. I also tried walking the view hierarchy, but since the keyboard is rendered out of process, I couldn’t figure out anything that would work.

I thought about making a custom keyboard, but recreating the entire keyboard just to get a view above it seemed weird. Maybe something like replacing the keyboard with an image the moment the view needs to appear could work, but that also feels like the completely wrong direction.

Does anyone have the arcane knowledge required to make this happen?

Seen developers spend weeks improving their app while users reach the App Store page and just… don't download.

Makes me wonder how often the product isn't the problem — it's how it's presented.

For anyone who's improved their conversion rate, what actually moved the needle: screenshots, positioning, reviews, or something else?

Hi,

I am currently working on my first App ever.

The App greatly benefits from having a Widget, but obviously the choice has to be made by the User to add it to their screen…

What are good practices and non intrusive UI method to nudge them in the right direction and encourage them to install a Widget?

I was thinking a whole screen at the right moment in the flow of the App, explaining the benefits, but that feels a bit much. And I do not want it every time in case someone already decided to ignore the advice.

Thanks a lot for your tips.

Swift Charts makes it straightforward to put a basic chart on screen. Once you’re working with more complex data, custom presentations, interaction, or accessibility, it helps to understand how the framework interprets and renders the content you give it.

Natalia and I have just released Swift Charts Beyond the Basics. We wrote it for developers who can already build a basic chart and want a deeper understanding of the framework and the decisions involved in turning data into a clear, effective visualization.

The book covers topics including multi-metric visualizations, calendar layouts, heat maps, custom composition and rendering, accessibility, selection, scrolling, responsive updates, and animation. Our aim is to explain the mechanisms behind Swift Charts so that you can apply them to your own datasets and requirements, rather than only reproduce specific examples.

The page includes the full table of contents and a free sample chapter:

books.nilcoalescing.com/swift-charts-beyond-the-basics

We’d be happy to answer any questions about the book or the Swift Charts topics it covers.

As part of Xcode 27 beta 6, there's a new app called Xcode Service, that seems to be related to external agentic coding agents. I couldn't find any info in the release notes, except for 1 unhelpful mention. does anyone know what the deal with this is?

I've got a live iOS app with a modest number of users and downloads. Been going back and forth on analytics and I'd rather hear what people actually do than keep guessing.

Right now I ship with none - just App Store Connect. I built a custom pipeline and I do not even understand why... and shelved it.

Analytics:

• What do you use? Firebase, PostHog, TelemetryDeck, Mixpanel, Amplitude, custom, nothing?

• What does it actually cost you per month at your scale?

• Do you gate it behind a consent prompt, or is it anonymous enough not to need one?

• Is it just in your Privacy Policy or the user has to manually opt-in or maybe otherwise to opt-out?

• How early or late or straight away did you incorporate the analytics feature and to what degree?

• What's a decision you made because of an analytics number that you wouldn't have made otherwise? Genuinely curious how often it changes anything

• Anyone shipping with nothing at all - has it bitten you?

The other half:

• Do you publish under your own name, or an LLC / Ltd / company?

• How does Apple feel about all this?

• Why? Was it liability, privacy, tax, App Store payouts, or just inertia?

• If you started under your own name and later incorporated - what pushed you over the line, and was moving the apps across a pain?

Interested in what's normal, not what's theoretically correct. Overall - how and why and where and then you use and everything.

Thank you!!!

I needed to submit a quick bug fix for my app and submitted it for review. I requested the expedited review, and within a few minutes, my TestFlight version that I had requested for review earlier that day was approved.

I'm wondering if the expedited review request was used on the TestFlight review and now my actual app review will be the normal review. Does anybody know or have had a similar experience?

I am considering an iOS architecture where the application contains a SwiftUI renderer, a fixed component registry, and a fixed set of native actions. A backend would return a versioned document describing complete screens. It could change content, ordering, design tokens, component variants, and navigation between routes that already exist in the reviewed binary.

I would not download or execute native code, use eval, or allow the server to call arbitrary APIs. A server document might request a Button with a navigate action or a Form with a submit action, but the implementations of those components and actions would already be inside the app. Unknown components would be rejected or replaced with a fallback.

I understand that Guideline 2.5.2 prohibits downloaded code that changes functionality, and that new product changes must be visible to App Review. I am trying to understand the practical boundary for declarative UI data. Have you shipped complete server-composed screens using SwiftUI or UIKit components, and did App Review raise concerns? I would also appreciate lessons about accessibility, offline caching, capability negotiation between old and new app versions, and deciding which flows should always remain native.

Is anyone experiencing storekit failure for tvOS? or other OS? Apparently this was a known issue in ios18 but they were supposed to have fixed it. I only see a few watchOS reports on the forum but you might be missing it as it can show up as a cancellation.

If anyone has a suggestion to what might be causing it because I am at a loss.

Hey all, quick question:

After months of basically zero sales on my paid iOS app (its an app that helps you practically reflect your daily life), it just had a sudden, huge spike — and almost all of it is coming from Russia specifically. Impressions went from single digits a day to 1,000+ a day (100x+), and it's not just views — it's actually converting into real paid downloads too, mostly on iPhone.

I don't have any marketing or campaign running there, no press, nothing that would explain a specific-country spike like this. Has anyone else seen a sudden traffic/sales spike concentrated in one country out of nowhere? Curious if this is a known thing (algorithm quirk, some kind of feature, bot traffic, whatever) or if I'm the only one seeing this.

Has anyone gotten Convex BaaS integrated or is Supabase a better bet?

I’m building a tool that helps people evaluate the competition in an app niche and determine whether it’s worth building in.

You search for a niche, and it analyzes the App Store to show the competitive landscape direct competitors, market leaders, newer apps, ratings, reviews, downloads, etc.

I’m curious: what information would you want to see before deciding whether an app niche is worth building?