One month ago, I posted an update about my app here: it had reached #18 in the Entertainment category with 7.14K downloads. Now, two months after release, it has reached 16.5K downloads.

These numbers are completely organic, and I haven’t spent anything on ads. Marketing has always felt like one of the hardest parts of being an indie developer, so I’m really grateful to see it work out this far.

My main marketing platforms are Threads, TikTok, and Twitter. Even after two months, I still don’t know why some posts go viral. I don’t know the best time to upload, the best type of content, or any secret ingredient for getting lots of views.

But there’s one thing I always do when I post about my app: I never do hard marketing with long text introducing it. I just post videos of myself using the app. Since I built the app starting from my own needs, a lot of people relate to it, and surprisingly, many of them want to use it too. My account has reached 900K total views on Threads and Twitter, and that makes me really happy.

Seeing something I built reach this many people still feels a little unreal.

Now I’d love your advice: at this stage, what should I focus on to make sure the app stays sustainable in the long run? And if you were in my position, what’s the single best thing you would do next to help the app go further?

And if you’re one of the people using ProwlLog, thank you so much. I really appreciate every single one of you.

Jokes aside, it's still wild to me that someone has decided to pay for software that I prompted, er I mean built.

For those of you who are still waiting for your first $1, the day will come and it will feel amazing.

EDIT: Do me a favor. Check out my app, sign up for a trial, forget about the trial, pay me money (so my mom might actually smile at me this year at Christmas). App is FreeReader (TTS that doesn't suck)

Solo dev here. I built Plus One, a lifting tracker for iPhone and Apple Watch that tells you what to beat on every set.

Somewhere past 150 hours of evenings and weekends, someone in the US started the free trial. Then came the longest 7 days of my life. I opened RevenueCat every morning like it was a pregnancy test.

This morning it said Trial Converted. A real person I’ve never met decided my app was worth money.

My hourly rate works out to about 37 cents, before Apple’s cut. I’ve never been happier about 56 dollars.

If you’re sitting in your own 7-day wait right now, hang in there.

App Store, if you’re curious: (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/plus-one-progressive-overload/id6818854662)

Most rejections I see posted here come from the same handful of guidelines. Quick pre-submit list, all checkable in Apple's App Review Guidelines:

1. Login required? Put a working demo account in the App Review notes. A missing or broken one is one of the most common reasons for a 2.1 rejection.

2. Users can create an account? Then they need a way to delete it inside the app (5.1.1(v)). A "email us" link isn't enough.

3. Subscriptions? The paywall needs the price, the billing period, and links to your terms and privacy policy (3.1.2). Add a Restore Purchases button too.

4. Offering Google or Facebook login? You likely need Sign in with Apple or an equivalent privacy-focused option as well (4.8).

5. Screenshots should show the actual app, not just marketing art (2.3.3).

6. Asking for permissions? The purpose strings should say why in plain words. "This app needs your camera" usually gets flagged.

What got you rejected that isn't on this list?

Hello all! I've been reading this sub for a long time (on my personal account - this is one I spun up recently to post as my business) and you've all really helped and inspired me along my journey to being published on the App Store, which is something I've wanted to do since the store launched in 2008. (I was in high school at the time)

Oughtyo is an audio player for playing your local files such as audiobooks, voice recordings, music, or even podcasts. You can add your files from the Files app, and gain powerful playback controls such as shorten silence and granular speed controls, and my favorite feature - bookmarks with transcription. Tap to create a bookmark, and the 20 seconds of audio before the timestamp and 10 seconds of audio after are transcribed on-device (nothing leaves your phone) and added as context to the bookmark. I use this all the time in my book club, where the note on the bookmark is my thought on the content, and the transcription is something I can cite back to my group.

You can check it out on the App Store, but what I'm really here for today is to give away some codes for it as a way to say thanks for the years of community!

All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on this post with the title of your favorite audiobook, and I'll pick a couple of winners tonight!

Hi everyone,

I like cars and I often wonder "What car is this?", but it's too much work to go take a picture, upload it to chatgpt and ask it to identify it.

That's why I built Pokicar, it's a mobile app that:

1. 📸 Identifies any car's make and model from a photo
2. ⚙️ Shows the specs of the car such as engine, year range, hp, MSRP + more specs
3. 📋 Keeps a record of all your spots
4. 🗺️ Has a map of all your spots (+ a feed with other ppls public spots)
5. 🏆 Awards you XP for all your spots, which ranks you on the leaderboard

Think of it like shazam but for cars :)

It's free to install on the appstore, I've attached some screenshots so u can see how it looks :)

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pokicar-car-identifier/id6806370454

PS. I'd love to hear your feedback on what u think i should add, what u like/dont like etc. etc. since the app is still quite small.

I've finally launched Alcogram on iOS after 7 years on Android!

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6780137334

😖 It took a bit of fiddling around with the review process, but they finally approved it on the sixth attempt. Because users can create chat rooms and send messages within the app, I had to develop a system for moderation and blocking.

🛠 I've made screenshots with Codex Astra, design has been made with Claude Design. The app has been developed as a cross-platform application using Kotlin Multiplatform, but if the iOS version proves popular, I plan to replace the UI with a native one.

🍾 The app attracts an audience around New Year's, when people are planning to start a new life; year after year, following the New Year's surge, the number of users slowly declines, but a portion of the audience remains on the app for years.

📆 It's a drinking calendar designed to track what you consume and spend, complete with a built-in social network, stories of users nearby, a live feed of what your friends are drinking, and chats.

🍻 Statistics, your check-ins on a map, customisation, daily notifications, various settings, home screen widgets - the app has it all.

I submitted my app on October 13 and it has been in "Waiting for Review" ever since, so two weeks now. I requested an expedited review and got the reply that they would expedite it, but the status hasn't moved since.

It's a collection app for Pokémon card collectors, already live on Android and the web, and the first users have been really positive. So it's a bit painful that iPhone users still can't get it from the App Store.

Some context in case it matters:
- It's the first release of the app on iOS
- No earlier rejections
- The Android version went through Google Play review without issues

A few questions for anyone who shipped recently:
1. Are two-week waits normal at the moment, or does this usually mean something is stuck?
2. Does cancelling and resubmitting help, or does that put you back at the end of the queue?
3. Is there anyone you can actually reach, other than the Contact Us form?

Any experiences welcome. Thanks!

Is any of you Guys able to develop an CarPlay app successfully that will broadcast a video ? Like CARTV app? i tested CarTV and it worked great! i want to make an app that does similar functionality, I tried using both audio and video entitlement but it didn’t work, only audio

I’ve been working on my iOS app, Away Messaging, which helps users organize SMS and email templates, prepare messages, and manage follow-ups without automatically sending anything.
Originally, the app cost $7.99 upfront. I recently switched to a free model with an optional $4.99/year Pro subscription for features like scheduled reminders and iCloud backup.
The goal was simple: remove the barrier to trying the app while supporting continued development.
I’m also working toward a much bigger vision for version 2.0, evolving the app beyond basic message management into something that makes everyday communication and staying connected easier.
The current version is really just the foundation, and I’m focusing on making the experience more intuitive while building out the next major update.
For other iOS developers:
Have you seen better user engagement after switching from paid to free?
What strategies helped improve retention rather than just downloads?
How do you approach planning and prioritizing features for a major app update?
I’d appreciate hearing what’s worked for other indie developers, especially those building and growing apps on their own.

I have recently built an app that’s currently 100% free, with no paid subscription or other monetization. I’m considering putting a serious budget into ads to grow the user base, but I’m wondering whether that makes sense before having a revenue model.

Would you introduce paid features first, or focus on getting more users through content and ads before monetizing?

I'm a data engineer in Ireland, and I just got my second native iOS app live. It's Faders, a free live radio app that names the song on almost any station. I built it because I wanted something with no account and no tracking.

What I learned getting it through review:
- Apple rejected my first submission because the word "CarPlay" was in my subtitle. App names, subtitles and keywords can't contain Apple product names. Using them in the description is fine.
- Trademark words in keywords are a risk too, so I stripped them.
- I took the app out of review, fixed the listing and resubmitted. The build stays attached, so it cost me only a few days.
- It took a few rounds in total, and the app is leaner than I planned, but it's out.

The app is free to listen to. Optional one-time Faders Plus is a launch price of €3.99, going up to €9.99 on 1 December.

I'd love feedback on the listing

Completely free tool to easily make app store ready mockups https://github.com/burhanuddin20/studio941-releases

Hello everyone, what’s the most challenging part of being an iOS developer?

I’ve been working on my MoneyLexa app for the past few months, and I’m curious to hear about your experiences. What challenges have you faced with App Store approval, subscriptions, user acquisition, or monetization?

Would love to hear your thoughts and learn from the community!