Hey everyone,

Every time I launch a new iOS app, I waste way too much time trying to find good places to submit it. I’d Google “launch directories,” end up on old blog posts, and then scramble to make a messy list for myself.

At first, I just had a simple Excel spreadsheet with 52 launch directories that I shared on Reddit. It got over 400 upvotes, which was awesome! But people kept asking for more: like domain ratings, traffic stats, dofollow links, and even more sites.

So I finally just made one solid list of 80 launch directories that actually matter. Sites like Product Hunt, Hacker News, Indie Hackers, AngelList, and a bunch of others where people really look for new apps and tools.

What’s cool is that most folks visiting these directories are indie hackers, developers, and founders, so basically people like us. And yeah, they might be the perfect audience for your app. Maybe your habit tracker or whatever you’re building could help them out too.

I also added DR next to each site so you get a sense of how much traffic or SEO value they might bring.

No paywalls, signup forms just a straightforward resource that I wish I had every time I launched something.

Here it is if you want to check it out: launchdirectories.com

Hope it saves you some time and helps get your app in front of the right people.

Good luck with your launch!

Happy Sunday everyone! Just posting a half serious half laugh, wishing everyone a great week!

I read and follow the rules and mostly get immediately approved but I’ll still have my fingers crossed for this next hour! Haha

I've developed a tool that makes it easy to upload all metadata along with screenshots to App Store Connect at the click of a button. This same tool also adds all (or selected) localizations and translates everything into all languages.

No more exhausting copying and pasting or drag-and-drop. I wrote the description, title, subtitle, and inserted the links, added 40 locales with one button, translated them with another, and then sent everything with the screenshots to App Store Connect. That's it.

How do you use the program?

You select a workspace folder (either empty or existing if you've worked before). You add the data to connect to your App Store Connect account. You add the locales you need. You write the description and other information for your app just like you usually do. You upload the screenshots. You click "Translate." You click "Upload to App Store." Done. Your page in Connect is now translated and filled out in 40 languages.

It's visible around the edges of the yellow circles, I don't really appreciate the look and I want to get rid of it, is that possible, or is this just going to be the future of app icons 😭

Welcome to issue #57 of the iOS Coffee Break Newsletter 📬.

One recurring task I often find myself doing is generating dummy data, both in work-related and personal projects. While it is not particularly time-consuming, it is something I can automate to save a significant amount of time down the road.

So, this week, I put together a guide on building a command-line tool for generating dummy data using the Swift Package Manager. With SPM, creating CLI tools becomes much simpler, especially since we can build them directly in Swift.

https://www.ioscoffeebreak.com/issue/issue57

I’ve had a side project for a year now, and finally finished it. I’m reading the terms thoroughly, trying to make sure I’m following all the rules of the App Store. I’ve tested it on my watch and on my iPhone, and it works great and I think it’s unique enough despite being a yet another fitness app.

Without knowing the details of the app, do you have any tips or suggestions on dos and donts? Any pitfalls to avoid?

Hello,

It’s been two months since I released my app, and I’m wondering how I can improve its performance and statistics.

The app is a note-taking app with a paywall for premium online features, such as posting notes, inviting people, and sending notes to friends.

Currently, I’m not running any paid ads. I only posted the app on Product Hunt and created Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook profiles, but I haven’t invested in paid advertising yet.

Do you have any suggestions on what I should focus on?

If so how has your experience been?

Anything important to look out for?

I'm currently building an Android / iOS app using KMP. I focused on the iOS app first and am now starting to build the Android version. So far so good, but I'm interested in hearing feedback and experiences from people who are further into the process with apps published on the App Store and Play Store.

linktapp.io is a personal CRM / relationship manager. It's quite complex because it has a lot of interaction with the native code on each platform for things like contact imports.

Have you found it difficult to maintain both versions of your KMP app? Has it been straight forward to push app updates to both platforms?

I love coding side projects. Been thinking of publishing one here or there. But by the time it's working and usable, I see an ad for one that looks almost exactly like mine. Like uncannily similar. Makes me not want to even try to publish anything in case it's "oooooh he's trying to copy so-and-so's app..." etc. Any advice on my predicament?

Thanks,

aa.tib

Hi everyone,

My iOS app recently went through a pentest, and one of the findings was that we are storing user-sensitive details (user ID, email, name, and auth token) in UserDefaults. The pentest team flagged this as insecure.

I want to understand the standard/best practice for storing such details in an iOS app. Specifically: • Is Keychain the recommended place for storing tokens and identifiers? • Should non-sensitive details like user name or email also be kept in Keychain, or is there another safe way to persist them? • Are there any Apple guidelines or OWASP standards around this?

Looking for some guidance (or reference docs) on the right approach so I can fix this properly and avoid issues in future security reviews.

Thanks!

I’n building a screen time control app and want to let free users experience my blocking feature with a single app and have to pay for adding more.

I’m not modifying the picker itself. Just presenting it as is and for the confirm button I manage based on what has been selected.

I haven’t seen an app implementing this feature so wanted to confirm if it is actually allowed.

I launched my app with 1/3 of the eventual content included, with the intention of adding new content every couple weeks that would be uploaded and added to the internal database. That's working fine. But I realized today while testing something that the UX for someone who downloads it is going to get kind of bad when there are enough update messages to cover the screen (and more). There are still about 80 issues (400 articles) to upload as they get reformatted.

I can tell the updates to do their thing quietly, but I kind of want to let the current users know there's new content.

Suggestions on ways to handle this so new users have a better experience than closing 37 messages when they first launch the app?

It's not a controversial app by any means, but I think people will send me death threats if I publish this brand new and original app under my real name. No, it's not an AI girlfriend app. It's a pretty dumb gooner app, but it has been never done before and it will print money guaranteed. Something simple like Flappy Bird that has never been done before.

Hey everyone,

I’m struggling with integrating in-app subscriptions in my app. I’ve managed to test it in the simulator by using 'Resolve Issue' in Debug -> StoreKit and right-clicking on failed transactions.

However, when I try to run it on my personal device, I created a sandbox account and sign in through Settings -> Developer. I think I've followed the steps outlined here correctly.

The problem is that whenever I attempt to purchase, it says "For testing purposes only. You will not be charged for confirming this purchase," with a 'Subscribe' button beneath. When I click it, it flashes 'Done' and doesn’t do anything, it logs as a failed transaction, just like in the simulator. I don't even get the option to sign in with another account.

I feel like I must be missing something simple. Has anyone else run into this issue? Any recommendations or tutorials you could point me to?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Last time Apple made changes t

For reference, I have no idea what I'm doing... I'm building an IOS app with cursor ai and a little help from chatgpt. basically where im at now is I can install my app to my phone, but the core functionality is missing because of the missing replaykit. this is the error message I keep getting: Provisioning profile "title v5 Broadcast Upload Development" doesn't include the com.apple.developer.replaykit.broadcast entitlement." i have no idea what to do. i've remade my app groups and profiles literally like 6 times now... i can only handle so much. Does anyone have any advice? Like I said I don't have any idea what I'm doing, so if you need more info lmk

Hey everyone, just a quick update from my post last month.

I shared an early TestFlight version of my wellness app here. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the five anonymous Redditors who downloaded it and submitted bug reports - your feedback was incredibly helpful.

Thanks to you, the app has passed review and is now officially available on the App Store!

It's a freemium app designed to help you track your health metrics. I'd be thrilled if you wanted to check it out.

• Download it here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/health-tracker-w-carebox-pack/id6747051778

If you do give it a try, please consider leaving a rating or review if you are so inclined.

I'm still open to all constructive criticism, so feel free to comment or DM me with any thoughts.

Thank you all again!

I used to offer Lifetime for my app at about 2.5x the annual price. Obviously it's better to move towards subscriptions and I felt like Lifetime cannibalized the annual subscription. Therefore I removed the lifetime option. Now I frequently get asked about if Lifetime is still available or if Lifetime will come back.

I am unsure about what to reply. Of course I can very easily unlock Lifetime for the user in RevenueCat. I know some people will never subscribe but would pay for Lifetime.

Should I just unlock Lifetime for everyone that asks me via email? Just say Lifetime is no longer available? What is the best way here?

Thank you

Personally I think I prefer the cleaner purple one but I think the average person would prefer the extra colour in the first image?

I’d love some feedback on which one you prefer, or what changes you would make!

Can you get banned from the Apple Store for making adult apps? I was wondering if there are rules you need to abide to when making apps for the Apple Store. What kind of apps are off-limit? I thought about something that was never done before and that could print a lot of money.

I launched two apps on the App Store a month ago. One had 500 downloads and the other 100.

Hello, happy Saturday! I’m at a crossroad!

My app is fairly niche and I picked a keyword to target that is 25 popularity score in keywords research tool (and 2 dots on App Store Ads), I rank #11 for it, and get about 150-200 impressions a week without external advertising.

I’m running an experiment right now to target my app for a higher popularity keyword to increase my top of funnel impressions, although it’ll be harder to rank high for, it’ll help me capture more users who may not be directly looking for my app (that’s my hypothesis)

The crossroad -> is it better to have a high rank (rank 1-10) for a niche low-mid popularity keyword or rank moderately (rank 10-25) for a 35-50+ popularity keyword.

I’m curious to hear about your experiences!