r/appledevelopers

Hey all, I'm currently building Lockn, an app that helps you do more and plan less. Rather than planning your whole week, you plan day by day with Lockn.

It incorporates over 10 different productivity methods and has some really cool features.

Its launching really really soon, I just wanted to get a rough sense if any of you would use it 😄

If there are any additional features you would like to see added do drop a comment below! or if there is anything you think you don't like feel free to let me know too!

thanks so much for reading!!

Wrapped a 4-month solo build and shipped Reflect on iOS last week.

It's a journal app — voice transcription in 10 languages, paper-journal OCR, and AI insights over your own entries (Yearly Narrative, "Ask AI" with citations from your writing).

Stack:

- React Native + Expo SDK 54, EAS Build

- Firebase (Firestore + Cloud Functions on Node 22)

- Gemini via Vertex AI server-side, ADC — no client-side key

- RevenueCat for subs

- Native Apple Watch companion

- ~52 screens, 10 languages (EN/FR/ES/PT/DE/IT/AR/KO/JA/HI)

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6762427801 (Disclosure: my app.)

Happy to answer anything about the architecture, Expo 54 stability, or the server-side Gemini setup.

A few things I'd love this sub's take on:

1. Vertex AI vs. AI Studio key. I went Vertex + ADC to keep the key off the client. It added boilerplate. Worth it for you, or do you stick with a key behind a proxy?
2. Apple Watch companion. Has yours actually driven discovery, or is it purely retention?
3. Cold launch with 0 followers. Beyond ASO, what actually worked for your initial distribution?
4. Localization. Did shipping in 5+ languages pay off commercially, or would English-only have been fine for early validation?

I am a game developer, and I mainly create games for Android platforms. Recently, I planned to release my games on iOS as well, so I decided to create an Apple Developer account.

I already had an Apple ID, so I simply logged in with it, went to the Account section, filled in my information like name and address, and submitted it. After that, I got stuck on this grayed-out screen/state.

Now I’m unable to edit anything or check what actually went wrong. Can anyone help me understand what I should do next and how this issue can be fixed?

Just celebrating a small win; I built a supply inventory app for people with diabetes. I'm type 1 diabetic, and built this for myself after running out of critical supplies while caring for my newborn. After about 2 months of iterating, I was able to demo it for a few diabetes influencers and blogs, and the first few pieces of media were published on Monday.

So I started building this app earlier this year and shipped v1 a couple weeks back had to wait on Apple review longer than expected .

Then tried marketing it , mostly on Reddit and one small community WhatsApp group . Skipped instagram and youtube because the niche is tiny and ads would just burn cash on the wrong audience . Saw barely anything , 1-2 trials started ,both cancelled within a day . The audience was off .

So I stopped pushing it . But out of nowhere , a user who cancelled the trial earlier came back and subscribed . It feels like I have actually made something worth paying for .

Now I am confused on how to get more . I have started doing App store optimisation but what else can I do to actually boost downloads and revenue ??

The app is a community focus tool and has a hard paywall after onboarding .

I built ViewBuddy because movie/show discovery still feels oddly disconnected from the people you actually watch things with.

The app is for:

- seeing what friends are watching, rating, and reviewing

- comparing taste before you trust a recommendation

- building watchlists and playlists

- browsing as a guest before deciding whether to create an account

I'm the developer, and I'm looking for practical feedback from people who try a lot of mobile apps:

1. Is the purpose clear in the first minute?

2. Does the feed feel useful before you have a lot of friends on it?

3. What would make you invite one friend?

4. Does anything feel confusing, slow, or unnecessary?

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/viewbuddy-rate-review/id6759533775

No pressure to be nice. Specific criticism is much more useful than generic encouragement.

Your MacBook has a lid angle sensor. It's been there for years, quietly tracking how far you open the screen so macOS can sleep when you close it. Apple uses it. Almost nobody else does.

I got curious about what else you could do with it.

Turns out, quite a lot. I built a small utility called Lid that turns lid position into an automation trigger. The use case that sold me: working in public and wanting to hide my screen without the full laptop-slam.

What you can do with it:

• Privacy blur at ~60°: screen frosts over when someone walks by, no shortcut needed
• Auto-lock at ~20°: walk away, lower the lid slightly, Mac secures itself
• Smart scheduling: different rules for work hours vs. evenings
• App-aware overrides: keep screen visible during Zoom even if you adjust the lid
• Media pause: close halfway, podcast stops. Open back up, resumes where you left off

It's all IOKit. No external hardware, no camera tricks, no network calls beyond a one-time license check. The sensor data never leaves your machine so zero analytics, zero telemetry.

The catch I ran into: The raw angle values aren't documented well and they behave slightly differently across MacBook generations. Retina vs. Air vs. Pro M-series each has its own noise pattern. I ended up smoothing the signal with a deadband and some hysteresis, but I'm still finding edge cases.

What I'm looking for feedback on:

• Would you ever use something like this?
• Does anyone have any cool use cases for something like this?

Side note: Has anyone here stumbled on more undocumented sensor/API on Apple hardware?

app @ maclid.app

Apple approved my app on the first submission. No rejections. Here's everything I did including surviving 3 days of Screen Time API hell.

Just shipped Mindbrake, it blocks your apps and makes you solve a math, physics, or coding challenge before you can open them. Earn minutes by answering correctly. Miss it, stay out.

First submission. Zero rejections. I think a few things made the difference.

The review notes were a full test script. Not a cover letter. A step-by-step walkthrough: how to get past the paywall with a sandbox account, how to trigger the Screen Time shield, what happens if they don't want to grant FamilyControls authorization (the app has a full mock mode so there's no dead end). Reviewers are humans reviewing dozens of apps a day — I made their job easy.

The mock fallback saved me. If the reviewer didn't want to deal with real Screen Time permissions, they could still see the entire core loop working: pick an app, get a challenge, earn minutes, get unlocked. No feature behind a wall they couldn't test.

Clean privacy story, no ambiguity. No accounts, no data leaving the device. The apps you block are an opaque iOS token — Mindbrake never knows which specific apps you picked. I spelled that out explicitly because FamilyControls apps get extra scrutiny.

The hard part wasn't the review — it was getting to submission.

Screen Time took me 3 days to stop breaking. The bug loop was: blocking works, unlock doesn't. Fix unlock, re-blocking breaks. Fix that, the same app won't re-lock after multiple sessions in a row. The root issue was that my app and its 3 extensions were each talking to different ManagedSettingsStore instances.

App is live with a 7-day free trial:

https://apps.apple.com/app/mindbrake/id6766659926

Happy to answer anything about Screen Time, the extension architecture, review notes, or the LATAM payments setup.

For years I tried using Apple Notes, Google Keep, Notion, and random docs to store important information like WiFi passwords, IDs, recovery codes, bank references, project notes, subscription details, device serial numbers, and all the tiny things you need “someday.”

The problem wasn’t storage. It was retrieval.

Everything eventually became a mess of folders, labels, pinned notes, screenshots, and half organized text dumps. Even when the data was technically “saved,” it never felt instantly accessible. I still found myself searching endlessly or rewriting the same information again and again.

So we built Fields.

The idea was simple: create a minimal personal data vault focused on quick recall instead of endless note taking. Something structured enough to stay organized, but lightweight enough to feel instantly usable.

Instead of giant documents and cluttered pages, Fields lets you create custom fields for the exact information you want to store. You can organize data cleanly, hide sensitive values, lock the app with Face ID or Touch ID, and keep everything encrypted on device with AES 256 encryption.

I also wanted it to feel handy. Open the app, find the info in seconds, close it. No workspace setup. No complicated hierarchy. No productivity system to maintain.

A lot of apps try to become your second brain.
Fields is designed to become your reliable pocket reference.

Still improving it every week, especially around security, UX, and backups. Would genuinely love feedback from people who also feel overwhelmed by modern note apps.

 Hey, solo dev here.
I made a very simple landing page for my app NYC Intel and I’m not sure if it works or feels too bare.

Flow is basically:
user types an address
gets a quick “block score” + a few stats
then prompt to download the app
That’s it.
I’m intentionally keeping it minimal, but now I’m wondering:
is it clear enough?
does it feel useful or just gimmicky?
would you actually type an address here?
Would really appreciate blunt feedback 🙏