A notarization stuck “In Progress” for 60 hours. A returning developer’s app failing validation with error 90286 because Automatic Signing prefixed the bundle ID with a 15-year-old Developer ID instead of a Team ID. A Canadian VoIP startup rejected under guideline 3.1.1 with no clear test for whether prepaid calling credits count as “intermediary currency.”…
How to plan for the iOS 27 SDK cliff: Liquid Glass, size classes, and Reality Composer Pro migrations
Apple’s annual SDK cycle keeps shipping silent breaking changes. The UIDesignRequiresCompatibility plist key is honored on Xcode 26 builds and ignored on Xcode 27 builds. iOS 27 collapses iPhone horizontal size classes to compact, breaking ten years of storyboard constraint variations with no runtime warning. Reality Composer Pro 3 imports projects from RCP 2 with…
How to launch an indie iOS app when discovery is broken and Apple can Sherlock you
There are roughly 2,000 new apps released on the App Store every day. Apple Ads charges $10–20 per paying user in competitive categories. And Apple just demoed on-device food recognition in iOS 27’s camera app, wiping out the differentiation of every calorie photo app in one keynote slide. The follow-up Reddit thread, “Why would anyone…
How to Transfer Applications for App Store Small Business Program Members
The App Store Small Business Program offers lowered commission cost with one big caveat: no app transfer. But apps graduating from a “hobby” into a “small business” would definitely involve transferring ownership. Read how to transfer apps without engaging in the app transfer process and losing out on the program’s benefits.
How to Pass App Store Review: Guideline 4.3 Spam
Publishing similar apps is considered spamming. Yet there are valid reasons to develop multiple apps from the same code base. Here is what you need to know to avoid being labeled as spammer by app reviewers.
Look-Alike Apps are Considered Spam by App Review
Some developers’ app updates were rejected from the App Store because their apps look similar. Worse, some others were marked as spammer due to publishing apps that looks like another developer’s app. How can you avoid this?
How to Combine Apps into a Single Container App
It would be a big blow when Apple rejects your suite of apps, call it “spam” and tell you to move into a container app. If this is happening to you, then this article would be a solution to your predicament.
How to Publish White-Label Apps in the App Store
Being a white-label app vendor in Apple’s store is not easy. App Review could label you as a spammer because of a number of similarly-looking template apps and jeopardize your entire developer account.
How to Pass App Store Review: Guideline 4.2 Design – Minimum functionality
Delivering a “minimum viable product” won’t be viable if your app isn’t going to pass App Store Review. Is your app “good enough” for the App Store? Is it appropriate for the App Store and not better off in the web? Read on to ensure your app pass the gates of App Review.
How to Provide Free Time-Limited Trials in the App Store
Providing “lite” version of apps had been the strategy to provide free trials since the dawn of the App Store. However these reduced-functionality apps fall short on demonstrating its full capabilities, which in itself be ineffective in enticing the user to buy. Fortunately that is no longer the only option available for App Store apps.
Modeling In-App Purchases Inventory
There are four types of in-app purchases in Apple’s App Store, with their own unique ways to manage it. The challenge is how to isolate the intricacies of these product types from the rest of the application. Otherwise a move from non-consumable in-app purchase to a subscription type would involve a major rewrite. Learn how to manage an app’s inventory of purchases and get the code base resilient to changes in the business side.
Time-Limited in-App Purchase
What if you need to create a “holiday special” in-app purchase? The item would only be available at a limited period some time in the future. However those who have bought the item would be able to use it beyond the purchase-able period, including restoring purchases should they need it.
I want to let some non-consumable iAP items just be sold during a particular period of time. Also the user who purchased these items still can restore and use it after the time period has elapsed.
Creating time-based in-app purchases (iAP) can be difficult. First all iAPs would need to go through App Review, hence they would need to be available before your app is live. Second is that there’s practically no way for the app to differentiate the app review environment versus the actual production environment – nor does Apple want you to.
But what if I say it can be done? What if you can have a non-consumable iAP, pass it through app review, and only made it for sale only during a specific period in the future? Interested? read on.
All About In-App Purchases
There are four types of in-app purchases in Apple’s App Store, with their own unique ways to manage it. Learn how to manage an app’s inventory of purchases, get the code base resilient to changes in the business side, and tips on how to implement some more esoteric business models as in-app purchases.
How to Sell watchOS Applications as an In-App Purchase
How do you sell a watchOS app? Through in-app purchase of course, like these fine apps have done. However there’s a caveat condition that you need to guard for, otherwise you risk having angry customers.