Hi everyone, I’m an educator developing apps for my school, and I am currently in a highly stressful situation with our latest educational app. I’m hoping some experienced iOS developers can offer some advice on what to do next. Our students urgently need this app to revise for their upcoming exams, but our submission seems to be completely stuck in the review queue. Here is the timeline of what happened: Nov 6: I submitted the app for review. Apple requested a testing account, so I promptly provided the demo credentials along with a screen recording video of the app in the App Review Information section. Current Status: It has been sitting in "Waiting for Review" ever since, with absolutely no movement. What I have tried so far: Expedited Review & Email Follow-up: Because the school exams are starting very soon, I submitted an Expedited Review request explaining the strict deadline. After waiting over 48 hours with no response (I’ve been checking my spam folder continuously), I also sent a formal follow-up email via the Contact Us > App Review Status form to inquire about the delay. I have yet to receive a reply to either. Developer Support Callback: I tried to request a phone callback via Contact Us > Membership and Account > Phone. However, whenever I enter my number (a +852 Hong Kong number), the Apple website just returns a red error message: "There was a problem processing your request." My questions for the community: Since the phone callback system is returning an error and my emails are unanswered, is there any other effective way to reach a human at Apple Developer Support to check on my Expedited Review status? If an Expedited Review request hasn't received a reply after 48 hours, does that mean it was silently ignored/rejected? Would it be a bad idea to submit a second Expedited Review request focusing purely on the school exam dates, or will this flag my account as spam? I really need to get this live on the App Store before the exams start. Any insights, similar experiences, or advice on how to navigate Apple's "black box" right now would be deeply appreciated! Thank you so much!

I am new to Apple development program, started learning coding and now I want to publish my app - is it mandatory to pay 100$ per year to Apple? any one has any solution for this?

Hi everyone, I'm Alexsander. My friends call me Lexie. I have been working as software developer since 6 years ago, I have a lot of experience with Java and I started working with Angular since the last year. I am new in the Apple ecosystem and I have a question about best practices in full native Swift apps. There is any source (blogs, youtube channels, books, et al.) where I can understand the best practices? Like, I've heard about MVVM to scalable apps but I don't know exactly how to apply it. I think it's because usually I do not have my front-end components in the same project of my backend. I've been watching some videos from Apple Developer youtube channel and they are absolutely amazing, but they only keep teaching people to use the "raw" resources, not matching with the best practices. For example, I saw using swift data we do not need to write any SQL Query, unlike Java Ecossystem where even we use a ORM we usually write our queries natively, whether creating a table or fetching data.

Hello, We have an assessment application that placing the device into Education Assessment Mode (also referred to as Single App Mode) to provide a secure exam environment. On our test devices, Education Assessment Mode behaves as expected. While an assessment session is active, we have verified that third-party notifications (such as WhatsApp and Snapchat) do not appear. However, one of our customers recently reported that during an active exam, a Snapchat notification was displayed while the device was still in Education Assessment Mode. We have been unable to reproduce this behavior on any of our test devices, even after repeated testing with the same application. Has anyone experienced similar behavior with education assessment mode? Specifically: Can there be any scenario where third-party notification banners are shown while an assessment session is active? Are there any known edge cases or system conditions that could allow notifications to appear during Education Assessment Mode? Is there any way to verify from the application that the assessment session is still fully enforced by the system? We're also interested in knowing whether Apple is aware of any issues related to notification suppression while an education assessment mode is active. Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

When deploying Macs through Automated Device Enrolment (ADE), we've found that automatic date and time configuration still depends on the Location Services pane in Setup Assistant being enabled. What's particularly interesting is that macOS already determines and pre-selects the correct language and country/region before enrolment begins, which suggests that some form of geographic awareness already exists during setup, whether through GeoIP, network-based location detection, or another mechanism. Despite this, the correct time and time zone are not automatically configured unless Location Services is enabled. For organisations pursuing zero-touch deployments, this creates an unnecessary dependency on a privacy-related feature purely to obtain accurate time settings. Today, administrators often resort to workarounds after enrolment, such as: Using scripts to configure time settings via systemsetup. Modifying the authorisation database to permit automated changes. These approaches introduce additional complexity, require elevated privileges, and create deployment dependencies that should not be necessary for such a fundamental operating system function. If macOS is already geographically aware enough to determine the correct language and region during Setup Assistant, it should also be capable of automatically configuring the correct date, time and time zone without requiring user interaction with Location Services. Benefits would include: True zero-touch and near zero-touch deployment workflows. Fewer Setup Assistant prompts and reduced user interaction. Accurate date, time and time zone configuration immediately after enrolment. Elimination of unnecessary post-enrolment scripting and workarounds. Improved privacy by avoiding the need to enable Location Services solely for time configuration. A more streamlined enterprise deployment experience across all MDM platforms. This would bring date and time configuration in line with the existing automatic language and region detection behaviour already present during ADE and significantly improve Mac deployment workflows at scale. I've already submitted Feedback Assistant report FB21973612 for this enhancement request. This has been a well-known pain point for Mac administrators for many years, particularly for organisations striving to achieve fully automated and consistent provisioning workflows.

Hello, I am the developer of Kodogram, an educational programming platform that allows users to learn, inspect, edit, and execute code. My app was rejected twice under Guideline 2.5.2 despite the fact that all executable source code is fully visible and editable by users before execution. According to Guideline 2.5.2, educational apps may download code provided that: The code is used solely for educational purposes. The source code is completely viewable by the user. The source code is editable by the user. Kodogram is designed specifically for programming education. Users can learn, inspect, edit, share, fork, and test source code written in multiple programming languages, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, C, C++, C#, Java, PHP, and others. In the application: Users can view the complete source code before execution. Users can edit the source code before execution. Users can create forks of shared projects and modify them. Users can test and learn code written in multiple programming languages. Code execution occurs only after the user has reviewed and optionally modified the source code. During the review process, Apple attached a screenshot showing only the final "Run Output" screen. In response, I provided additional screenshots demonstrating: Complete source code visibility before execution. Separate source code views for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript examples. The code preview/editor screen where users can review and modify code. The final output screen shown only after the code has been reviewed and executed. The attached screenshots use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as examples, but the same workflow applies to all supported programming languages within the platform. My question is: Has anyone experienced a similar Guideline 2.5.2 rejection for an educational coding application where the source code was already fully visible and editable before execution? Is there any additional requirement, documentation, or implementation detail that App Review may expect beyond demonstrating that source code is completely viewable and editable by the user prior to execution? Any guidance or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hello Apple Developer Community, I’m Samriddhi, a student at Hult International Business School studying Business Analytics and Design. I’m interested in exploring a potential collaboration with Apple around student life, creativity, productivity, design, and how Apple products support learning and creative work. I couldn’t find a direct official email for collaboration requests, so I’m posting here to ask if anyone can guide me toward the right Apple team, contact channel, or partnership process. I would be happy to share my audience details, content ideas, and previous work privately with the appropriate team. Thank you for your help.

Hey everyone! I wanted to share a small project I’ve been working on called Swiftgrounds: https://swiftgrounds.dev It’s a community-driven index for Swift Playground books and apps. This is my attempt to bring an option for creators to reach learners and share their content. Swiftgrounds supports the same JSON feed format Apple originally designed, so if you already have a feed set up, you can plug it in without making any changes. If you’re building Playground content, I’d love for you to give it a try and share your work there. Hope you like the project!

I am preparing for Swift Student Challenge, but it seems like the iPad Playground app still not support the latest SDK. I can't use frameworks like FoundationModel, etc., directly in playground app My playground for this year would require iPad environment since it uses PencilKit, ARKit, etc., and I also want to use the latest tech + the liquid glass UI Right now, I develop the project as a normal Xcode project, and I am wondering how do I post it? As Xcode playground, it must run on macOS As Swift Playground project, the iPad version of Playground does not support latest APIs and it can't compile

I was working on my challenge submission but when I created a iOS swift playground through Xcode, the playground generated get's defaulted to iOS 18, and I can't use latest features like the new glass design seemlessely without using #if available macro's everywhere so I manually changed iOS 18.0 to iOS 26.0 in the package.swift file. So far there have been no problems but as the package.swift file recommends not to change it manually so am I in any problem can someone give me advice of whether it's a legit option ??

I'm working on my Swift Student Challenge 2026 submission and have a question about the evaluation environment. My app targets iOS 26 (I had to configure this on the Package.swift file directly) and uses the Speech framework for on-device speech recognition. I've selected Swift Playgrounds as my evaluation path (rather than Xcode) with the intention of having it run on a physical iPad rather than Simulator. My question: What version of iPadOS will the evaluation iPads be running? The reason I ask is practical, as my app's minimum deployment target is iOS 26. If the evaluation device is running an earlier version of iPadOS, the app won't launch at all. I've searched the eligibility and terms pages but couldn't find this documented anywhere.

Hello Everyone, I reviewed many previous year's submissions posted on swift's student's challenge distinguished winners section and noticed that most of them or all of them were designed and implemented for iOS devices only so is it a valid option to design our playground apps solely to run and function on macOS only?

Hi Community, I'm excited to share R Helper, a speech practice app I built with accessibility as the core focus from day one. App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/speak-r-clearly/id6751442522 WHY I BUILT THIS I personally struggled with R sound pronunciation growing up. It affected my confidence in school and job interviews. That experience taught me how important accessible practice tools are. R Helper helps children and adults practice R sounds with full accessibility support. ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES IMPLEMENTED VoiceOver - complete navigation and feedback Voice Control - hands-free operation Dynamic Type - scales to large accessibility sizes Reduce Motion - respects user preference Dark Mode - user controllable High Contrast compatibility Differentiate Without Color THE CHALLENGE Most speech practice apps ignore accessibility. I wanted to change that and prove that specialized educational apps can be fully accessible. KEY FEATURES Works 100% offline, no internet needed Zero data collection, privacy first Generous free tier with all accessibility features included 10 story missions with gamification 7 languages supported including RTL for Arabic LESSONS LEARNED Accessibility is not hard when you prioritize it from the start. VoiceOver labels and hints make a huge difference. Testing with accessibility features enabled is essential. Standard SwiftUI components handle most accessibility automatically. Reducing motion significantly helps users with vestibular issues. TECHNICAL DETAILS Built with SwiftUI, targets iOS 17 and up. Universal app for iPhone and iPad. Fully offline using CoreData and local storage. No third party analytics, privacy focused. QUESTIONS FOR THE COMMUNITY What accessibility features do you find users request most? How do you test accessibility features efficiently? WHATS NEXT I'm currently working on expanding the word library, adding more story content, improving haptic feedback Thanks for reading. Nour

Hi everyone, I’m not sure if this is the right place for it, but I wanted to share a bit of my background and ask for advice from developers who’ve been in the industry longer than me. I started learning to make games when I was a kid using Game Maker. Later I got into Unity and even worked a few years as a solo developer for small startups — building Unity apps, VR projects, AR demos, websites, servers, everything. But I never had a real team, never had mentorship, and none of the projects I worked on ever reached production or real users. Life changed and I moved to the US, where I had to switch careers completely. Now I’m trying to come back to software development, but I’m struggling with a feeling that I’m “not good enough” anymore. The tech world has moved so fast, and companies like OpenAI, Meta, Epic, etc., feel way out of reach. So my question to the community is: How did you get started in your career? Did you ever feel like you weren’t good enough? How did you push through that and continue improving? Any honest advice would help a lot. Thanks.

We have a STEM learning app for kids, and I've been exploring ways to get it listed under the Education Ecosystem Partner (K–12) collection on the App Store. I couldn’t find a clear pathway or guidelines for eligibility. Could you please point me to the relevant documentation or let me know if there's someone I should reach out to for this?

I am a high school teacher from China, currently teaching programming courses at my school. Several issues are preventing the course from being completed on schedule. As shown in the image, there are two problems: The preview issue has existed since updating to the latest software and system version; I don't know how to resolve it. After renaming a Swift file, this window keeps popping up, even after closing it. This problem didn't exist last year. How can I fix this? Thank you for your reply! 我是一名来自中国的高中教师，目前在学校开设编程课程，目前有几个问题导致课程无法如期完成。如图所示,存在两个问题: 一、自从更新了最新版本的软件和系统后,预览问题就存在，不知该如何处理 二、swift文件重命名后，一直跳出来这个窗口，关掉以后还是跳出来 去年的时候还没有存在这样的问题，请问我该如何处理，感谢您的回复！

Hi there, I am working on an iOS mobile app, with a MVVM architecture and created an SPM folders for my DesignSystem, CoreKit, UnityBridge, and VoicePipeline. I added the packages locally, and dragged them into the project. Is working this way recommended? Or not? Should all the SPM folders I listed above be used this way, or should only some? New to this, unsure what is best. I do plan on sharing my code with other devs to work on. I thought this made sense, but if i did it the other way I was unsure how I would share the packages what is a best practice. Thanks so much!

It's a great platform to grow your knowledge. Apple Teacher

I'm working on an iOS/iPadOS app and need to determine programmatically whether the device is a Shared iPad as configured through Apple School Manager (ASM). Shared iPads allow multiple users to sign in with Managed Apple IDs and are typically used in educational environments. I want to identify this configuration at runtime within my app. I’ve looked into UIDevice, NSProcessInfo, and MDM-related APIs but haven't found a reliable way to detect whether the current device is a Shared iPad. Is there an API or method to check if the current iPad is configured as a Shared iPad (via ASM)? Any guidance or code examples would be appreciated.

Hi everyone 👋, I’m new to the Apple Developer Forums and just getting started with building apps for iOS/macOS. I’ve explored the documentation but wanted to introduce myself and ask for some advice from experienced developers. Currently working on: An iOS app using SwiftUI Learning more about integrating Sign in with Apple Exploring best practices for App Store submission Here’s what I’d like to know: What is the recommended approach to saving minimal app state before termination? Are there SwiftUI lifecycle metho18336114753ds or SceneDelegate hooks I should be aware of? Is UserDefaults the best tool for small state preservation in this context? Would love to hear from anyone who’s implemented sim18336114753ilar behavior — even a high-level suggestion would help. Thanks! Harjeet Singh