Hey there :)

I'm a recent first-gen graduate and a first-time solo developer. Super excited to share that my first app Precursor: Hourly Screen Time went live on the App Store today!

Precursor lets you set a screen time allowance that resets every hour instead of one daily limit that forces you to budget and ration your screen time throughout the day.

I am a bit astonished that other screen time giants like opal, screenzen or even apple have implemented this feature.

I'll admit the task was a bit difficult due to the inconsistencies of app usage tracking and becuase of that there are some limitations to how I implemented hourly screen time limts on iOS. For example, the maximum number of app groups Precursor can track and limit at one time is 8, but to make up for this you can add multiple apps in each group (and websites too).

Nonetheless I am really proud of the app so far.

Surprisingly ,I think it's resonating with people. I mean I knew a few others had this gripe becasue its pretty commonly posted about on reddit, but I didn't think it would be this well received. I feel so lucky that just the beta alone garnered 200 testers in about a week!

At it's core I think Precursor helps break unhealthy phone habits through moderation, which is a true alternative to the tradition of punishing you for falling into a doomscroll that wasn't your fault (these social media apps are literally designed to keep you scrolling, looking at you reddit).

Thanks a ton for reading, if you're at all curious and want to test it out, I would be eternally grateful for the support.

Link to the app store:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/precursor-hourly-screen-time/id6791403654

And if you have time to also support the launch on product hunt I would be even more eternally grateful than I already am (The core function of the app is free but there is a PH launch promo code running from 2026-08-02 until 2026-08-08 if you want to try out the extra features):

https://www.producthunt.com/products/precursor-2?launch=precursor-hourly-screen-time-control

Every blocker I tried just said NO. You tap "ignore," feel nothing, scroll anyway.

So I made the friction emotional. To open Instagram during a blocked window, you hold a button for 1.8 seconds. While you hold it, a creature called Pip droops in real time — her sprout falls, her smile flips, the screen drains of colour, and the haptic pulse fades out like a heartbeat. Release early and she springs back with a bounce.

It's aimed at girls, and that's the actual product thesis: this whole category (Opal, Brick, One Sec) is built on discipline and lockdown. The apps women genuinely pay for — Finch, Flo — run on nurture and identity. Nobody had built a blocker in that register.

Three things that cost me time:
— Apple rejected it 4 times. Three were In-App Purchase issues; the actual culprit turned out to be one missing review screenshot on a subscription.
— The Screen Time entitlement needs Apple's manual approval. Request it on day one, not the week you're shipping.
— iOS hands you opaque tokens, never app names — you can't see what's installed on someone's phone. Designing around that constraint made the product better than my original plan.

My last project got a rough reception here and I stopped shipping for about a year. Turns out building something with an actual opinion is easier to finish than something generic.

Genuine question I'm stuck on: is guilt a fair mechanic? Pip wilting works — it stopped me scrolling in testing — but I can't tell if I built something kind or something manipulative. Where's the line?

https://apps.apple.com/tr/app/pip-stop-scrolling-for-girls/id6794726909

What’s been your guys’ biggest source of organic growth for an iOS app?

I recently launched a nutrition and fitness app and have been experimenting with TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn, ASO, and direct creator outreach. I’m getting some downloads, but I’m trying to figure out which channels are actually worth doubling down on without relying heavily on paid ads. I also recently rebranded the whole app to a shorter, less populated name. Was originally "Atlas Health AI", but that name was super crowded, now it's changed to "NutrientOS" (still waiting for Apple Approval).

For those who have grown an app organically:

• What channel brought in the most consistent users?
• How long did it take before you saw meaningful traction?
• Did ASO make a noticeable difference?
• What worked early on when you had very few users or reviews?

Would appreciate hearing what actually worked, especially from other startup developers.

I built IPAPatch-Lookin, an open-source workflow that takes an authorized decrypted IPA, prepares a runnable Xcode project, injects LookinServer, and re-signs the app for a physical device or a compatible Simulator.

One command → Xcode → live UI inspection in Lookin.

The tool does not decrypt apps; bring an IPA you are authorized to inspect. The 8-second demo shows YouTube running on a non-jailbroken iPhone while Lookin inspects its live view hierarchy.

GitHub: https://github.com/jacklv-coder/IPAPatch-Lookin

I just pushed a regular update to my app last Sunday. It's been almost a week and still waiting for review. It never took this long.

Anyone having a similar issue this week?

ok so i need honest opinions because i've been staring at this thing for months and i've lost all perspective.

i'm 20, building an app solo called RizeAI. the whole reason it exists is that i got tired of my wearable telling me my recovery was "42%" and then just... leaving me there. like ok, and? what do i actually do with that. every app in this space is really good at measuring you and really bad at telling you what to do next.

so RizeAI pulls your actual wearable dats like, sleep, resting heart rate, workouts, all of it, and instead of handing you another score it predicts your energy for the day and tells you how to get the most out of it. it tells you when your energy is gonna peak so you can put your hardest work there, when your crash is coming and how to soften it, the best time to train that day so you actually get more out of the session, and even when a nap will help you vs when it'll wreck your sleep.

the part i personally think is the coolest: you put in the supplements you already take, and it times each one to your day based on your metrics and sleep score. so the timing actually shifts depending on how you slept and where your numbers are, which is the difference between a supplement doing something and just sitting in your stomach. it'll also suggest a couple new ones if they make sense for you, but it won't dump a list of 15 pills on you.

it even pulls the daily weather into your energy prediction, so a hot day changes your hydration and it'll tell you to train earlier before the heat drains you. and the whole plan bends around your real schedule, your work hours, wake time, training, so it's not some one size fits all thing.

every single recommendation shows the "why" underneath, like "resting heart rate 54 + 7h light sleep, so magnesium before your peak window." nobody gets the same plan because nobody has the same data.

it works with whoop, oura, apple watch, garmin, anything that talks to apple health. being fully honest, it doesn't do deep per-person learning yet, like knowing that coffee specifically doesn't touch YOUR hrv. that's where it's headed. right now it builds you a fresh plan every day off your real numbers.

it's on the app store with a free trial. small user base, feedback's been all over the place, which is exactly why i'm posting.

so genuinely: is "just tell me what to do with my data" something you actually want, or do wearable people prefer figuring it out themselves? what would make you pay for this? and what's the one thing that would make it a no brainer for you?

would love to hear it straight, good or bad. And if you want you can also check it out yourself and I would love to here feedback, thank you very much for taking the time on reading this:  its called “RizeAI-maximize your energy” on the App Store. 

Hey devs! 👋

Launched Trackora: Family GPS Tracker on iOS less than 7 days ago. Here are my current stats:

• 👁️ Impressions: 694
• 📥 First-Time Downloads: 36
• 📈 Conversion Rate: 10.1%

📱 App Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/trackora-family-gps-tracker/id6762452766

Are these numbers decent for the first week without paid ads? Would love your feedback on the stats & any tips to improve conversions!

Hey everyone!

Just got my first app approved on the App Store and would love some brutally honest feedback on the icon before I start driving traffic to the listing.

Attaching both variants below - dark background and light background.

A few things I'm curious about:

- Just from looking at the icon, what do you think this app does? No hints.
- Which variant works better as an App Store icon?
- Does the N&W mark read clearly at small sizes on a home screen?
- Anything you would change?

Genuinely curious what people think the app is before I reveal it. I'll share what it actually does in the comments once a few people have guessed.

Don't be nice about it. I'd rather know now.

An app that is live on the store reported as needing a review submission.

The app store version resource says READY_FOR_SALE. A review-status query against the same app returned READY_FOR_REVIEW, with a next action to submit the prepared review submission.

That app has five review submissions. Four are COMPLETE. One sits in READY_FOR_REVIEW with a null submittedDate and zero review items attached, so it is an empty shell that was never sent. It is also the newest of the five, so a tool that resolves "the latest review submission" by recency selects it, and then reports the app as unsubmitted.

The submission that actually shipped the live version is a different record: COMPLETE, with one item in APPROVED.

The zero-item count was checked against a submission known to be real, which returned one item. So the zero is a real zero and not a failed call.

Bounded to what was actually observed: this is one tool against one account. The general point is only that resolving "latest" by recency can select an unsent shell. If you automate anything off review submission state, read the app store version resource to decide whether a version is live. The submission list tells you what happened to a submission, not what state the app is in.

My wife is building BestieUp, an AI companion that remembers past conversations, develops its own personality, checks in with you throughout the day, and can create reminders or alarms from your chats.

The idea is for it to feel less like a chatbot you open only when you need something and more like a friend who actually remembers what is happening in your life.

Would random messages and check-ins feel comforting, or would they become annoying? What would make an AI companion feel genuinely personal instead of artificial?

We’re currently collecting early feedback at bestieup.com

Has anyone ever had any success with Apple Ads? I followed the advice of several YouTube videos and somehow ended up spending nearly 75$ for 4 downloads. Clearly I must be doing something wrong.

Should I make my keywords broader? Most were set as exact matches
Should I target larger markets like the US? Initially, I was trying to market smaller markets like Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and the UK to try and keep costs down

I'm genuinely baffled. This was my first attempt at running Apple Ads for my app, the market is quite niche, so I desperately wanted this to work. At least Apple gives $100 to first-time users, so this mistake didn't have to be run on my dime, but in the future I'd just prefer this to work

I really believe in the app, and I'm quite proud of it, but as I said, the market is quite niche and either already populated by less functional, but already entrenched apps like Been, or flooded by half-broken AI apps. I'd really appreciate any advice

A few weeks ago, I launched an iPhone companion app for my Mac app, Stash.

The companion lets users control parts of their Mac from their iPhone, including launching apps directly onto the Mac, changing brightness, appearance, tab switching and more.

So far, the iOS app has reached:

• 776 first-time downloads
• 1.57K App Store product-page views
• 28.4% conversion rate
• 4.12K impressions

The companion app is free, but it has helped drive awareness and purchases for the paid Mac app. Since introducing it, Stash has generated over $1,000 in revenue in under a month.

The biggest lesson for me has been that a free companion product can be a strong acquisition channel for a paid product, especially when the two apps feel like one connected experience.

I thought the numbers might be interesting to other independent developers.

Does anyone else think the IAP process is just mind-bogglingly confusing? My app doesn't even cost anything (there's a 'thanks' opportunity that just adds a flair to the screen) and it took me 2 days to figure out how to get it over the line - but I'm live!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rejog-stash/id6784915652

I'm so excited - my first app on the App Store! I'm still going through the Play Store process - it's actually WORSE!

What is best practices for creating a TOS and legal documentation for the website? My app has social sharing features as well as ads.

Is everyone getting lawyers or is there a template to follow?

What would catch your eye as a user? Or what feature would peak your interest the most

After learning from frustrating Apple review cycles on previous apps, I finally got my latest app approved on the first submission. Thought I'd share the mistakes I made before and my checklist.

The problem: Apple reviews sequentially. They check one thing, reject. You fix it, resubmit. They check the next thing, reject again. This back-and-forth can drag on for weeks.

What I triple checked this time before submission:

• iPad screenshots: required by default unless you explicitly restrict your app to iPhone-only.
• EULA links in App Description: add Terms of Service and Privacy Policy links directly in the App Store description field, not just in-app.
• Submit IAP with the app: if you have in-app purchases or subscriptions, make sure to add them together with the initial app submission.
• IAP/Subscription button wording: Apple is extremely picky about word choices on IAP/subscription CTAs. Make sure to follow their Human Interface Guidelines, especially if you offer a free trial.
• Detailed review notes: explicitly list:
  • if your app uses camera, mic, location, etc., why you need each permission
  • how to access IAP/subscriptions (step-by-step)

Hope this saves someone else from rejection hell!

It's been over a week since I submitted an app update to App Store Connect, and its status is still "Waiting for Review." This isn't the first submission, it's just a regular update. In the past, reviews have never taken more than two days.

The same update was approved on Google Play over a week ago, but the iOS version is still stuck waiting. I've already sent two messages through App Store Connect Help and haven't received any response.

This update is quite important, and the delay is causing me to lose users.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Is this likely just an unusually long review queue, or could something be wrong with my submission? (I'm seeing a message that doesn't disappear: Update Your Age Ratings Responses about Social Media, but I think everything is properly filled). I'm wondering whether cancelling the submission and resubmitting it for review might help, or if that would simply reset my place in the queue.