Even the best apps struggle to get noticed—over 5 million apps compete in stores, and most never hit 1,000 downloads. Visibility, not quality, is the real challenge. App Store Optimization (ASO) is the key to breaking through. Optimizing your app’s title, keywords, visuals, and description, combined with ongoing testing and competitor analysis, can drastically improve discoverability and downloads in 2025.

Hi everyone, I’m trying to submit my first release with In-App Purchases, but I can’t keep the IAP attached to the submission. Status: Not published yet (first release) Version: 5.0.0 (multiple builds: (7), (8), etc.) What happens I upload a new build and select it for version 5.0.0. I go to Add for Review and select my newly created IAP (auto-renewable subscriptions). I submit the version. When I re-open the submission details, the IAP section is empty (they no longer appear as “Included in this submission”). The result is a double failure: App rejection (Guideline 2.1 – “IAP not found in the submitted binary”). Each IAP is also rejected for lack of a binary in its review context. It looks like the IAP and the build keep getting detached from each other after I submit. Since this is my first version, I’ve tried changing builds and even editing version metadata, but it still feels like I’m just “editing the first version” rather than creating a fresh link between this binary and these IAP. What I already tried Creating the IAP and selecting them during Add for Review. Ensuring the IAP have complete metadata/localizations and pricing. Re-submitting using a new build number (5.0.0 (8), etc.). Checking Monetization → In-App Purchases and Subscriptions; products exist, but after submit they stop appearing under the submission. (When testing the opposite path) Removing IAP entirely for a non-IAP release — but Review still referenced IAP “linked” on their side. Questions What is the exact, canonical sequence to link a new build to newly created IAP so they remain listed under “Included in this submission” after I hit Submit? For first-time IAP, do I need to press Submit for Review on each IAP product before selecting them in the app submission? Or is selecting them during Add for Review enough? Which product statuses are required so that IAP do not drop off the submission? (Ready to Submit vs Waiting for Review, etc.) Can changing the build (or editing version metadata) after attaching IAP cause them to be silently removed from the submission? Since this app is not yet published, is it advisable to create a new app version (e.g., 5.0.1) to “reset” the linkage, or should a new build under 5.0.0 be sufficient? Any guidance or a step-by-step checklist to keep IAP attached to the submission would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! — Victor

To make an iOS app available on Apple Silicon Macs, we need to enable the availability option under Pricing and Availability in App Store Connect. But unfortunately, macOS 26 is not still available as a choice there and I don't want to make the app available on earlier macOS versions. Does anyone have any solutions? Would adding the LSMinimumSystemVersion key to Info.plist work?

Hi everyone, we are currently facing an issue with one of our apps regarding the new icon requirements in iOS 26. • We created the app icon using Apple’s Icon Composer. • On the device, everything works perfectly: the app icon is shown on the home screen, and it can also be customized with the new iOS 26 features (colors, transparency, etc.). • However, in TestFlight the app icon is not displayed at all (in the TestFlight app on the device). • In App Store Connect, the icon is also not shown in the overview for the app. Interestingly, within the list of TestFlight builds in App Store Connect the icon is visible. What we have tried so far: • Created an archive and manually uploaded it to App Store Connect → no icon in TestFlight. • Took the working Icon Composer asset from another app target where everything works correctly, deleted the old one in this project, and copied the working asset into the problematic target. → Same behavior: visible on the device, but still missing in TestFlight and App Store Connect overview. In contrast, in another app (using the same workflow and also Icon Composer), everything works perfectly: the icon shows up on the device, in TestFlight, and in App Store Connect. Has anyone experienced a similar situation? Is there something specific that needs to be set in App Store Connect (e.g. Marketing Icon / Branding section), or could this be related to the new iOS 26 icon handling? Any help or hints would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I’ve been building iOS apps since 2011 and have worked on hundreds along the way. Recently, I started a series on App Store Optimization (ASO) to share tips, strategies, and lessons learned. In this first post, I dive into how responding to customer reviews can directly influence ASO performance and App Store ranking - covering timing, response style, and best practices to turn negative reviews into positive ones.

iOS build not appearing in App Store Connect after upload via Xcode and Transporter (React Native), Uploaded IPA “successfully” but build never shows in App Store Connect — React Native iOS. App type: React Native mobile app Android: Already published on Google Play (works fine) iOS goal: Upload the iOS build so it appears in App Store Connect (for TestFlight/release) No matter how I upload (Xcode Organizer Archive or the Transporter app), the build never appears in App Store Connect. It does not show under My Apps > [My iOS App] > TestFlight, nor under App Store Connect > Activity > All Builds. I’ve tried multiple times over several days. Xcode Organizer: “Upload to apple" there is no error, Transporter: delivered but app is processing , Email : there is no feedback with my problem please contact me

Our VPN app on the Apple App Store has seen a slowdown in installs lately. I’d appreciate any suggestions on effective strategies or new tactics to drive growth

I want to know if App Store Connect provides daily breakdowns of new 1–5 star ratings rather than just cumulative totals. This would help me track the impact of remotely enabling a feature, but I haven’t found such an option.

We've been creating iOS apps for a few years now, but when I tried last month, I got an error in my XCode that says: No profiles for 'com.os.hub.mth2' were found Xcode couldn't find any iOS App Development provisioning profiles matching 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx'. I'm not sure if it's the cause or not, but when I look at the signing certificates, the Developer ID Application Certificate says: Missing Private Key The weird part of that is that I see a private key with this name in my Keychain access, so I'm not sure what's wrong. There has been a significant time gap between now and the last time we created a mobile app, so I'm not sure if something changed in XCode/MacOS to cause this issue, or if something expired. I'd appreciate any advice.

I just launched my app Stonk on the App Store and spent $100 on ads but haven’t seen any downloads. I’m curious if others rely on the same strategies or if bigger ad budgets work better. Marketing has been challenging, so I’d appreciate advice on how to advertise more effectively.

This is my first launch, and i submitted 4 versions of my app. All the versions were reviewed and accepted. For each submission i filled in the Age Rating questionnaire, but after all the 7 steps, it shows UnRated. When i fill in the questions for the Age Rating, and in my game app i have no nudity/obscene or defamatry content of any sort, and i eplxicitly mark this questions to NONE, but after answering all questions, on the final step i see the warning: "Based on your selections, this app can't be made available on the App Store. Apps on the App Store can’t contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, and so on)." Which is BS because the app contains nothing of the sort and epxlicitly answered all related questions that it contains nothing of the sort and the app submissions are reviewed and accepted for distribution,.

Can we Wrap a website in a React Native Web view and Make it live on iOS? Here is an example code (Just a web application wrapped inside React Native ) import React, { useEffect, useRef, useState } from "react"; import { BackHandler, StyleSheet } from "react-native"; import { SafeAreaProvider, SafeAreaView } from "react-native-safe-area-context"; import { WebView } from "react-native-webview"; export default function App() { const webviewRef = useRef<WebView>(null); const [canGoBack, setCanGoBack] = useState(false); // Handle Android back button useEffect(() => { const backHandler = BackHandler.addEventListener("hardwareBackPress", () => { if (canGoBack && webviewRef.current) { webviewRef.current.goBack(); return true; // prevent app exit } return false; // allow app exit }); return () => backHandler.remove(); }, [canGoBack]); return ( <SafeAreaProvider> <SafeAreaView style={styles.container} edges={["top", "bottom", "left", "right"]}> <WebView ref={webviewRef} source={{ uri: "https://www.kallardo.com/" }} style={styles.webview} startInLoadingState={true} javaScriptEnabled={true} domStorageEnabled={true} onNavigationStateChange={(navState) => setCanGoBack(navState.canGoBack)} /> </SafeAreaView> </SafeAreaProvider> ); } const styles = StyleSheet.create({ container: { flex: 1, }, webview: { flex: 1, }, }); I want to know will we get approval easier or makes it complicated or not allowed

Lately every app that I submit (games) with in app purchases, always coins , the app gets rejected with: Guideline 3.1.1 - Business - Payments - In-App Purchase Your app uses intermediary currency to purchase items that function as non-consumable products but still does not include a restore mechanism. Users restore transactions to maintain access to content that they've already purchased It baffles me that reviewers think buy different number of coins is non-consumable. I have tried to explain that coins will be used to buy weapons and skins and they will also be earned at the end of every level yet for some reasons they are still rejecting the app. It is absurd. This is the second app that I have to go through with this. The first one they eventually figured it out but this one no.

I built the Appvector tool – aso.report, a completely free ASO analysis platform designed to help indie developers easily improve their App Store listings without complex metrics or costly subscriptions. Just paste your app’s URL to get instant insights, multi-country analysis, and actionable recommendations - making ASO simple, accessible, and effective for everyone.

Hello everyone, For example, our app currently has one subscription group in App Store Connect with 5 plans (2 annual, 2 monthly, and 1 quarterly). By default, users can go into Apple Subscriptions in Settings and freely switch between all of these plans. However, our business requirement is to only allow users to stay on one annual plan and one quarterly plan. We don’t want them to switch to the other plans. My questions are: Is there any best practice or recommended approach to restrict subscription switching within the same group? Would removing the unwanted products from sale be the correct approach, or are there any risks/downsides with this method? Has anyone faced a similar situation and found a practical solution? Any guidance or shared experience would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

ASO is by far one of the most frustrating parts of being an indie iOS dev. Despite trying keywords, descriptions, screenshots, and icons, results are unpredictable and competing with big-budget apps feels impossible. Has anyone found a way to make it work?

App store connect shows proceeds of Rs. 118.05 for a price of Rs 199 which is 60% cut instead of the usual 30%. Why?

Since the app was submitted on September 3, it has been stuck in the "in review" status for more than 7 days without being rejected, without further information updates, and without any other feedback. We can't delay any longer, the lack of progress is disrupting our plans. Please inform us immediately on how to proceed or upgrade the review. We contact the Apple review team almost every day (via email), but there is no clear reason for the response. This makes us feel frustrated while waiting for feedback, and at the same time, our users cannot wait any longer.

I want to test the "Remove from Sale" scenario in Sandbox. I set my subscription to "Remove from Sale" for all territories in App Store Connect, but I can still make new purchases and auto-renewals continue in the Sandbox environment. Is this a known limitation? Or is there a specific way to make this work for testing? If it can't be tested, I'd like to know the expected production behavior. What changes occur in the App Receipt and what App Store Server Notification is sent?

Hello, **I'm Using ** Unity 6 LTS Unity Apple GameKit + Core plugins Turn-based matchmaking interface w/ 2 players max App Store Connect API for rule-based matchmaking I have already enabled game center in app store connect (I think) authenticated players and matched via friend request I am stuck Using queues to match players automatically I'm working on a rule-based matchmaking system which aims to place two players against each other into a GKTurnBasedMatch. I have a simple Unity Project that correctly authenticates a user and proceeds to send a matchmaking request. The matchmaking script utilizes the Unity plugins' GKTurnBasedMatchmakerViewController.Request(...) request function with a GKMatchRequest.Init() request configured with a QueueName equal to the App Store Connect API Queue I created. The queue I created is also linked to a ruleset with a very basic rule that checks if the properties contains a key called 'preference' that contains a string value for what side the player wants to play for this match. If during the matchmaking, the preferences between players are different, then the match is made and both players should join the match; each player gets to play the side they have chosen. I have my rule expression designed to just check if the preferences are not equal: requests[0].properties.faction_preference != requests[1].properties.faction_preference When I launch the game with two physical iPads and begin the matchmaking request, each player is immediately presented with two options: Invite a friend, or Start game The Problem: Inviting a friend works to get two players into a game, but queue seems to not matter, and clicking start game will just put the current player into its own match (no one joins). The Question: How do I get queue based matchmaking to work in Unity for a Turn-based match with only two players who are able to select the enemy side they want to play dictated by a rule that compares enemy play-side preferences? Resources I've used: Apple Unity GameKit Plugin: https://github.com/apple/unityplugins Matchmaking: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/gamekit/matchmaking-rules Multiplayer rulesets: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/gamekit/finding-players-using-matchmaking-rules