For ages, we've been using appStoreReceiptUrl to detect if the app was installed from TestFlight or not, but now that's deprecated. Since we have a strict policy of no warnings on the project, we need to find a way to check if the app was installed from TestFlight or from the App Store. Does anyone know what's the new way to do so? I thought about using MarketplaceKit.AppDistributor.testFlight but to use MarketplaceKit you need to jump through hoops that our app really doesn't need to - we don't distribute outside of the App Store. Any ideas are much appreciated! 🙏

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?

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.

The app icon of my iPad app appears as a placeholder/template instead of the correct app icon when viewed through the App Store. It is correctly displayed on the website version of the App Store, in App Store Connect, and when running the app. I noticed that another app with the same issue is "Things 3 for iPad." This might be related to the fact that both apps are iPad-only. I implemented a new app icon using the new Icon Composer. Since users can switch between different icons, some are created with Icon Composer and others are still included traditionally within the asset folder. This is my app (Bubbles' Journal): https://apps.apple.com/app/id1547297023

Hi, We have a app with some auto-renewing subscription in a group of subscriptions. When a user upgrade from a subscription to another, the "user receive a refund of the prorated amount of their original subscription" (https://developer.apple.com/app-store/subscriptions/). How is the prorated calculated ? Example : subscription to 14,99$ / month. If subscriber upgrade after 10 days, is the refund calculated 10/30 of 14,99$ (so ~5$) ?

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

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,.

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.

Hi Everyone, I’ve recently launched a utility app focused on cleaning, optimizing, and improving device performance while protecting user privacy. It includes features like Junk cleaning, Duplicate/Large/Old file removal, App Uninstallation/Updater, Browser cleanup, and Startup Management tips. I’m trying to better understand how App Store search ranking works for this type of app so it can feature higher in search results. Specifically, I’d like to know: What factors influence whether an app shows up at the top for keywords like “storage cleaner”, “duplicate finder”, or “privacy cleaner”? How important are title, subtitle, and keyword fields compared to downloads, ratings, and reviews? Does keyword repetition in the description improve ranking, or does Apple ignore that? Are there any proven strategies for utility apps (like system optimizers/cleaners) to compete with big, established apps in search visibility? Does localization (multiple languages) significantly improve search exposure, even if the app is English-first? I want to make sure I’m optimizing everything correctly—title, subtitle, keywords, and descriptions—without wasting character space or doing anything that Apple might flag. Any guidance, best practices, or resources on App Store search optimization (ASO) specifically for cleaner/duplicate/optimizer apps would be hugely appreciated! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dustbyte/id6751766823 Thanks in advance 🙏

Hi all, I reached out to AppStoreConnect support and they told me to ask here... I think this is on Apple to fix, but want to follow what they recommend me to do We launched a new app called "Dubsy". On the AppStore, if you search for "Dubsy", you'll get results for Subway, with a note like "Showing results for Subway, tap to search for Dubsy". This is not good for app discovery, particularly with a pretty unique name Have any of you had success with Apple fixing their autocorrect in AppStore search? We could add "subway" to our keywords, but that sounds shady... Any guidance is appreciated

i'm integrating In-App Purchases in our Flutter app using the official in_app_purchase plugin. We are currently testing consumable purchases and facing issues with the way events are delivered from StoreKit to the app. Implementation details I initiate the purchase with: await InAppPurchase.instance.buyConsumable(purchaseParam: purchaseParam); I listen for purchase updates with: final Stream<List> purchaseUpdated = inAppPurchase.purchaseStream; _subscription = purchaseUpdated.listen((purchaseDetailsList) { _handlePurchaseUpdates(purchaseDetailsList); }, onError: (Object error) { updateApplePaymentStatus(isSuccess: false, response: jsonEncode(error.toString())); }, onDone: () { _subscription.cancel(); }); Issues Observed Control on purchase button event As soon as the user taps the purchase button, the App Store purchase sheet is shown. Question: Is there a way to intercept control at this point (before showing the sheet) to perform additional checks or logging? Cancelled payment after UPI intent In our testing with UPI payment flows (UPI intent triggered from Apple Pay/linked payment method), if the user cancels the payment from the external flow, we don’t see a clear event in purchaseStream. Question: How can we reliably capture this cancellation status on the app side? Event timing after successful purchase Currently, the purchaseStream event is only triggered after the StoreKit purchase confirmation popup has been dismissed by the user. Question: Is there a way to capture the event earlier (i.e., right after StoreKit confirms payment success), so we can update our backend and UI without waiting for popup dismissal? Request We would appreciate guidance on: Best practices for intercepting purchase initiation before the StoreKit sheet. Recommended way to detect and handle cancelled payments (especially in UPI flows) managed on frondend side. Whether it is possible to receive successful purchase events without waiting for the user to dismiss the confirmation dialog. Thank you for your support.

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.

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’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.

Hi, I submitted an app update for review, and before, I automatically received an email from Apple saying, "Your app is under review," but now I haven't received that email. Does this mean there's a problem with the app? Did I do something wrong? Or do I just not receive that email every time? (So far, I've received it every time I've submitted an app for review.) I hope you can help. Thank you.

Hello all, My question is, how to get APP (specialized in make SOPs for industrial users) that has already been listed outside of mainland China to be listed on apple store of mainland China? Can I simply refile it to cover China mainland with existing apple developer account or do I have to create a new local apple developer account to start the listing process? Your advise and help will be highly appreciated. Thank you, Link

Hello, We are working on integrating billing into our dating app, targeted at the Russian market. Our main requirement is to support subscriptions with automatic renewal and cancellation. We understand that, according to App Store Review Guideline, all digital subscriptions should use Apple In-App Purchase (IAP). However, we are unsure how this applies in Russia, where some local regulations may limit the use of non-Russian payment processors, and where not all Russian bank cards are accepted by Apple. Our question is: -For iOS apps in Russia, is it strictly required to use Apple IAP for subscriptions? -Are there any approved exceptions allowing integration with local processors such as Robokassa or YooKassa? -How are other developers currently handling subscriptions for the Russian market? We want to ensure full compliance and avoid any risk of rejection or removal. Thank you in advance for any clarification. Best regards, Dan

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.

I work on a MacBook Pro M3 Max 36GB RAM I am running macOS Tahoe Version 26.1 Beta (23B5042k) The last few days I had a couple of situations where Blender 4.5 LTS Froze and I had to forcequit, I noticed Blender would get Deleted with no notification after the forcequit, it was nowhere to be found on the Application List, Finder. Thought it was a blender issue because I run a special module with it. However around 30min ago I was using Mem and the App froze and I had to ForceQuit, The app also got removed, is not on the list of application and nowhere to be found however the icon on the dock which remained shows a Question Mark. I think this is an OS Behavior I just dont know what to attribute it to.

Hello, I have a question regarding the Mac App Store deployment and App Review process. Our macOS app will also be distributed on the Steam platform. In our current build setup, the App Store build output (inside Contents/MacOS/) may still contain Steam-related dynamic libraries (e.g., libsteam_api.dylib) and metadata/configuration files (such as .txt files used only by Steam) These files are not used in the App Store version. Users will not see any Steam-related information, functionality, or UI when the app is running. Their presence is simply a byproduct of the current packaging process. My concern is whether including such unused Steam-related files in the App Store submission could be considered a violation of App Store Review Guideline 2.3.10, or otherwise lead to rejection during review. Would Apple recommend that we strictly separate the build targets so that the App Store submission does not contain any Steam-related files, even if they are unused and invisible to the user? Thank you very much for your guidance.