I got tired of App Store Connect keeping me 48 hours behind, so I built a way to see new users and revenue in real time
A few weeks ago, I released new app on the App Store. It got some traction on Twitter, so I opened App Store Connect feeling hopeful about the sales numbers. Instead, I saw "Not Enough Data".
I refreshed it few hours later. Same thing. I checked again the next day. Still not enough data. I actually saved a screenshot of this.
It is not only a launch-day problem. You ship a big update, announce it on Reddit or X, start an ad campaign, or unexpectedly get some attention, but the analytics are always behind.
So I built InitSignal. It is deliberately much narrower than a traditional analytics SDK. You add a lightweight Swift package to your app, and it sends one event when someone opens the app for the first time. After that, the SDK goes quiet.
Privacy was a constraint for me, I wanted the App Store privacy nutrition labels stay as minimal as possible, so the SDK only sends the basic context needed to make each signal useful. No identity, sessions, screens, or behavioral history. At the same time, the goal is to give developers as much useful information as possible without invading their users’ privacy.
The dashboard shows for each download:
- the app version
- device
- OS
- storefront
For paid apps, InitSignal uses storefront pricing to estimate gross revenue and proceeds after Apple’s cut.
I also added Slack and Telegram for notifications, which I've been using with my own apps for the past few weeks, and the dopamine hit is real.
I recorded a quick walkthrough showing how InitSignal works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YajsKsYLdi4
Tech Stack
- Node.js and TypeScript with Postgres for backend and API
- React and TypeScript for the web app dashboard
Development Challenge
The interesting problem was deciding what “new” means without identifying or continuously tracking a user. The SDK stores a local first-launch marker so later launches send nothing. It also uses StoreKit 2 app transaction metadata to avoid reporting an existing customer as newly acquired when they first install a version containing InitSignal. The API deduplicates retry attempts on the backend.
It's available today, would love to hear your thoughts or any feedback!
https://initsignal.com
The Swift SDK is here:
https://github.com/InitSignal/initsignal-swift
If you ship iOS or macOS apps, how do you currently deal with the reporting delay after a launch or major update?