My experience with App store review - unfair treatment

Hi guys, I dont know if I expect any any help or I just want to rant on this one...

I built an pokemon card scanner apps. I know there are dozens but that's not the point here.

I have been rejected multiple times because of using "pokemon" term in appstore page or showing pokemon cards in screenshots.

My app was finally accepted with "pokemon" in subtitle, which help users finding my app.

They are now blocking my update because of that.

The thing is : there are dozens recently updated apps using pokemon terms and images without any issue !

It seems this rule is applying to me but not to others, they are using terms in titles, subtitles, showing cards images in screenshots or app preview...

Apple keep rejecting my updates even if it has been approved before, it's driving me crazy.

I submitted a form for unfair treatment but no feedback so far indeed.

Here it is, let me know if you had a similar experience and how you manage to solve it !

Thanks !

reddit.com
u/PaintingTop9521 — 15 hours ago

Screenshots update - What do you think ?

Hi all, I am about to release those new screenshots for my app. I would love your feedback on it !

Is the message crystal clear ?
Would you download it ?
Any rookie mistake here ?

Thanks !

u/PaintingTop9521 — 10 days ago

I made something you may appreciate

Hi everyone !

Over the last few months, I built Skanit as a side project for a friend.

Long story short, actual scanner were either too slow and/or too costly. I challenged myself to build a state of the art free alternative.

I am very happy with it so far, users seems to really like it.

ps : No account needed, no ads, no subscription, everything stays on device.

Let me know what you think, I would love some feedback !

u/PaintingTop9521 — 11 days ago

How to place an image in a 3D mockup

Hi all.

I am trying to add an image to a 3D phone mockup but I can not find a way to do it properly.

I experimented with Skewdat plugin (second image) but it's not suited for this case.

Is there a way to distord the image by moving each Image corner points so it matches devices ?

I spend a lot of time searching for a solution but I must be dumb : I can not think there is not a built-in solution for that.... Even powerpoint can do it...

u/PaintingTop9521 — 14 days ago

Almost all my users are coming from a single reddit post

Distribution is not easy but when it actually work, it feel amazing.

It is really like a dopamine shot but the downside is that you want more of course

What do you do to keep install consistants on your side ?

u/PaintingTop9521 — 1 month ago
▲ 206 r/FrenchTech+3 crossposts

Running AI models is not easy but really worth it !

I spent wayyy too long on this project 😄

After being laid off, I wanted to understand AI vision models more deeply, how to train them, etc... I have a friend who spends weekends at card shows looking for valuable Pokémon cards. Existing scanners were too slow for him, so I built this for him.

At first, it was just a test with some big models like DINO. The results were nice, even without any finetuning. As a challenge, I wanted the solution to run directly on the user's device (no hosting costs for me ).

BUT these models were way too big to run on my iPhone, and way too slow as well. My goal was a real-time card price checker, working on multiple cards in a single frame. I wanted to be able to identify cards in less than 30 milliseconds, even if there were 30 cards in the same image.

I can tell you it did not work at all 😄.

I almost broke my iPhone because it got so hot from all the computations. I learned a lot from this and was finally able to recognize a card in less than 10ms, and complete the whole recognition pipeline in under 100–200ms most of the time.

I spent so many hours trying to optimize everything, making sure every millisecond of compute was worth it...

After I got the detection pipeline working, I thought I "just" had to build a simple interface for it...

NOPE. I spent even more time building everything around the app, even though I don't have any backend.

Because it's a personal project and I have no server costs, I didn't implement any monetization. You just download it, no account, et voilà! You are ready to go.

Right now, I have over 4,000 users on iOS, and I'm so happy.

Still looking for a job, though 😄

Thanks for reading!

ps : the app is called Skanit.

u/PaintingTop9521 — 11 days ago

I can't use "Pokemon" term on my Pokemon card scanner, am I f*cked ?

I built an app which is a Pokemon card scanner. I had a lot of users thanks to reddit posts (1300 !!) but my ASO stays very low.

Since I can not use any Pokemon related term or show something related to it, I feel like I won't be able to make it in search results.

However, lot of others apps uses it and seems to have no problem...

Did you had the same issue, how did you manage it ?

reddit.com
u/PaintingTop9521 — 2 months ago

Hi All ! Over the last month I built Skanit, an iOS app that lets you scan multiple pokemon cards at once to get their prices instantly. 100% free.

Existing apps require you to scan cards one by one, which isn't very practical when you're hunting for gems in a binder filled with dozens of cards.

The app is now available on the App Store! It’s 100% free, no account is required, and the AI runs locally on your phone. I do not collect any data.

It would be awesome if you could send me your questions and feedback so I can keep improving it and figure out what to prioritize for future versions.

Have a great day !

Apple store url :
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/skanit-tcg-bulk-scanner/id6758763239

If you want to check how it looks :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEK4MdwQIq4

Ps for mod team : From what I understood from the sub rules, this post should should be compliant. Let me know if you have any remarks :)

u/PaintingTop9521 — 2 months ago

Hi investors !

A few weeks ago, I finished developing my personal project: an iOS app that lets you scan multiple cards at once to get their prices instantly. 100% free.

Existing apps require you to scan cards one by one, which isn't very practical when you're hunting for gems in a binder filled with dozens of cards.

The app is now available on the App Store! It’s 100% free, no account is required, and the AI runs locally on your phone. I do not collect any data.

It would be awesome if you could send me your questions and feedback so I can keep improving it and figure out what to prioritize for future versions.

Have a great day !

Apple store url :
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/skanit-tcg-bulk-scanner/id6758763239

If you want to check how it looks :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEK4MdwQIq4

ps for mod team : From what I understood from the sub rules, this post should should be compliant. Let me know if you have any remarks :)

u/PaintingTop9521 — 2 months ago

Hi guys ! Please dont throw a stone at me but I developed an app via flutter + native code for instant pokemon card recognition (Skanit).

It's working great on IOS and it's already deployed on Apple store.

I am working on the Android version but since I only have a Iphone at the moment, I can not test it on a real device. Of course, I am using the android studio simulator but my models are running very slow on it (1,5 seconds vs 100 ms on Iphone simulator). It seems simulator does not emulate GPU. Anything else i should be aware of when working the it ? Thanks a lot !

u/PaintingTop9521 — 2 months ago

I remade my screenshots based on your feedbacks, what do you think ?

Hi all, Over the last few months, I developed Skanit, a free Pokemon scanner that allows you discover the value of your cards.

Unlike other apps, it allows users to scan multiple cards at the same time, in the blink of an eye. I had a ton of downloads following my reddit posts (1500 in the first two weeks) and I am so happy about it.

Even if people seems to really like it, I struggle a lot with ASO. Without my post I have like 4 downloads a day... I remade my screenshots based you your feedbacks, what do you think ?

Thanks guys !

u/PaintingTop9521 — 2 months ago