I'm curious how other developers approach competitive research when exploring a new app idea. My workflow has always been pretty manual — I open 15-20 App Store listings in separate tabs, screenshot them, then download each competitor and screenshot their onboarding flows. Everything gets dragged into a Figma board where I try to spot patterns in how competitors handle onboarding, pricing, and feature presentation. It works, but it takes forever and I lose momentum before I even start building. The text-heavy tools out there (App Annie, Sensor Tower dashboards, spreadsheets of keyword rankings) give useful data, but they never matched how I actually think about the market. I think visually — I want to see all the competitors laid out side by side, compare their screenshots, scan their reviews, and get a feel for the landscape at a glance. I ended up building a tool to scratch this itch: https://app-canvas-one.vercel.app/. You describe an app idea or paste App Store URLs, and it lays out competitor screenshots, ratings, reviews, and download estimates on an interactive canvas you can zoom around. Think "Figma board meets App Store research." It's early and I'm actively looking for feedback from other developers who do this kind of research. If you have opinions about what's missing from your competitive research workflow, I'd genuinely love to hear them — either here or happy to jump on a quick call. A few things I'm specifically wondering: Do you do visual competitive research at all, or is it mostly spreadsheet/data-driven? What's the first thing you look at when evaluating a competitor — screenshots? reviews? download numbers? At what point in your process do you decide "this niche is worth building in" vs. moving on?

We've been pulling daily download reports (First-time downloads + Redownloads) via ONGOING requests and noticed random missing days in our data — in April alone, we were missing the 11th, 14th, 23rd, and 27th. After debugging, here's what's actually happening: Apple sometimes publishes two consecutive ONGOING instances with identical content (same processingDate → same Date in the CSV) The day after a duplicate, the CSV skips a date entirely — that data is simply never published Those missing days are gone forever. There's no way to recover them via API Does this happen to anyone else? Do you know if there is a way to recover missing data?

We've been pulling daily download reports (First-time downloads + Redownloads) via ONGOING requests and noticed random missing days in our data — in April alone, we are missing the 11th, 14th, 23rd, and 27th. After debugging, here's what's actually happening: Apple sometimes publishes two consecutive ONGOING instances with identical content (same processingDate → same Date in the CSV) The day after a duplicate, the CSV skips a date entirely — that data is simply never published Those missing days are gone forever. There's no way to recover them via API Does anyone know if there is a way to fix this and recover lost days?

My app (Team ID: QD8Z9J4JZJ), despite the requested expedited review, has been stuck in “Waiting for Review” since Mar, 29 at 10:40 AM. Since this is causing us financial problems, I would greatly appreciate an update on its review status as soon as possible.

Hey everyone, I applied for the App Store Small Business Program on February 18th and I still haven't heard anything back, that's almost 20 days now. Is this normal? How long did it take for those of you who got approved? I'm starting to wonder if my application even went through correctly. Would really appreciate hearing your experiences — especially if you applied recently. Did anyone else wait this long? Thanks

What is everyone using to create awesome "Previews and Screenshots" images for your app? I tried Gemini AI and the art was great, but it's so stupid it just ignores the dimensions I tell it to use.

Hello, I am experiencing an issue with the Apple Developer Program. Yesterday, I enrolled in the Apple Developer Program and entered my Visa card details. However, later that night, I received a notification from my bank that the payment was charged but failed because my balance was insufficient. After that, I added funds to my bank account, withdrew/canceled my previous enrollment, and then enrolled again using the same Visa card. After re-enrolling, I received a notification from my bank and an email confirming that the payment was successful, with the order ID: “We're processing your order – D00****” However, when I try to track the order by clicking the link in the email or checking the order status, it shows the following message: Something went wrong. There was a problem with your request. Please try again. Could you please explain why this issue is happening and help me check the status of my Apple Developer Program enrollment?

I get a lot of downloads from outside USA but almost no conversion (subscription/IAP) from those countries. Apple App Store does the price conversion based on currency conversion and VAT but it does not take into account that $10 in India or Argentina is a much bigger portion of ones income compared to a US person. Converting all these prices (175 of them) manually is very cumbersome for each subscription tier and for each region.

Hey all, It's been now a few weeks since we started to help clients connect to their App Store Analytics API. I'm starting to notice that very often we'll see things like: Small data gaps. Eg. I have data on June 1, no data on June 2-4, and then data from June 5 to now Big data gaps. Eg. I'd have data on Jan 2024, but not on Feb-Mar 2024, then there's data again from April 2024 onwards. The actual files from Apple are like that we're not doing any treatments whatsoever. That's happening on both ONGOING and ONE_TIME_SNAPSHOT I also opened a Customer Support case and sent the files over 10 days ago, but no definitive answer so far. Are you also seeing gaps like this on your data? Any tips/recommendations?

Love the new web-based App Store that launched today! I’m really hoping Apple will eventually provide a JSON/REST API for search results. Google doesn’t officially offer one either, but because of how the Play Store works for Chrome and Android, developers can use a third-party library like google-play-scraper. For small independent developers like myself, it’s a bit of a disadvantage being priced out of expensive data brokers such as Sensor Tower, who are obviously scraping the App Store anyway. It’s also uncomfortable knowing those companies harvest data from App Store Connect while charging us to access analytics based on our own apps. Would it be too much to ask for an official—or even semi-official—way to retrieve country-specific keyword rankings for apps?

Hello fellow devs and Apple engineers, I want to discuss with everyone about App Preview videos on the App Store. My app NFC.cool is an NFC reading and writing app which interacts with NFC tags that need to be held to the top of device frame of an iPhone. As you can see, this is how my app works and I would like to show that to users on the App Store and present my app in the best way possible. However I keep fighting with app review about device frames and/or "real" hands in my app preview videos. Sometimes I get a reviewer that is ok with the video and sometimes not. In screenshots device frames are accepted and very common. Why are they not allowed in app previews? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. And to be honest, I regularly see app previews with device frames on other AppStore pages. Here is the app preview that got rejected lately: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qTDBGecK0w0 I can easily agree with the hands (even though they are not real, they are a render). But the device frame helps the user to understand what my app does and how it works. Ideally I would like to have some Apple staff to see this post here and hopefully start a small wave that will change the guidelines in the future. Here the message from the reviewer: Product Page Optimization Guideline 2.3.4 - Performance - Accurate Metadata The app preview for NFC Read Write Socials Video includes content that does not sufficiently show the app in use. Specifically, the app preview: Includes device images and/or device frames. Displays real hands. App previews should allow users to see what the app does and how it will >appear on their device when the preview is played in full screen. My answer: Hello, these are not real hands. These are renders. The video is accurately showing what the real use of my app. Please keep in mind that an NFC tag has to be held from the outside to the device to interact with my app. The guidelines definitely support what I did in my video. Please take another look. Thank you. Following the guidelines: 2.3.4 …You can add narration and video or textual overlays to help explain anything that isn’t clear from the video alone. https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#accurate-metadata Use graphics and transitions. If you need to demonstrate how interaction or navigation works within your app, you may add graphic elements, such as touch hotspots. We recommend capturing the native UI resolution rather than zooming in on the view. Ensure that any transitions between scenes don’t imply functionality that your app doesn’t include. Aim to use straightforward transitions, like dissolves and fades. https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-previews/ What's your opinion on this topic?

Hello everyone, Ujjwal here, founder and CEO of a new iOS app in the mental wellness space. Our mission is to provide accessible, AI-driven support for individuals dealing with anxiety, depression, and loneliness. From the very beginning, this has presented us with a unique and critical challenge: How do we effectively market an app to reach those who need it most, while upholding the absolute highest standards of user privacy? We've built our app, ThunDroid, with a "privacy-by-design" philosophy. We leverage on-device processing for our core AI features, utilize end-to-end encryption, and have proudly integrated 'Sign in with Apple' to maximize user anonymity. We believe these are not just features, but ethical obligations to our users, especially given the nature of the data they trust us with. The challenge, however, arises in marketing. This leads us to focus on mission-driven, organic marketing, but it's a slower path to reaching users who might be in immediate need of support. This brings me to my question for this knowledgeable community. What best practices or creative strategies have you found effective for marketing applications? I appreciate any insights or experiences you're willing to share as we continue to grow ThunDroid responsibly. Thank you for your time and consideration. App Store link: (would love to hear your reviews) [https://apps.apple.com/in/app/thundroid-ai-human-companion/id6746182736)

Hey everyone. First post, so apologies if I don't have the culture of the forums down yet. I have an app with the wrong keywords in the App Store. All I want to do is change my keywords and spruce up the marketing. I can't seem to find an option to do this without uploading a new build and it's driving me a bit nuts. ha ha. I feel like I'm missing something. How do you change your keywords or spruce up the marketing speak without doing a new build? Thanks!

Just trialing a new campaign for a newly launched app. Set the daily spend to $10. The spend shows $80 after one day. Why?

Apple ID: 1250312807 App: X‑VPN Date of Issue: July 16, 2025 On July 16, our app X‑VPN was inexplicably removed from the App Store search results for the high‑traffic keyword “VPN”. There was no prior notice, no reason given, and no policy violation cited. We consistently held a Top 3 ranking for “VPN” for several years, so this sudden disappearance is inconsistent with normal algorithmic fluctuations and strongly suggests manual suppression. Normally, App Store search displays five organic results before any editorial content. However, on July 16, the search for “VPN” showed only three apps, skipped positions #4 and #5, and jumped straight to editorial/promoted content—further evidence that our app has been intentionally hidden. We have already contacted the Apple Search team, but their responses insist that “everything looks normal.” Given that “VPN” generates over 200,000 searches per day, it is highly unlikely for a Top 3 app to vanish without cause. We are confident this is manual action. We have exhausted all known channels and don’t know where else to raise this issue. Could someone please investigate and provide a clear explanation?

We’re looking to localize our App Store listing with different metadata (app name, description, etc.) for India and the UAE, both in English. In Xcode, we’ve already added .lproj folders for en-IN (English - India) and en-AE (English - UAE), and confirmed that the localized content is present in the bundle. However, when uploading to App Store Connect, we do not see English (India) or English (UAE) as available storefront metadata options. This is a problem because our current English (UK) metadata is UAE-specific (includes VAT, TRN, etc.), but users in India are seeing that same listing, even though it doesn’t apply to them (India uses GST, e-way bill, etc.). Our questions: 1. Are region-specific English variants like en-IN or en-AE supported for App Store metadata localization? 2. If not, is there an alternative way to offer different storefront experiences (e.g., name, description) for India and UAE? 3. Can this be achieved via custom store territories or another mechanism? Our goal is to tailor the App Store listing specifically for users in India and UAE, both in English.

Hi, I'd like to have a button in my app that links to a website where users can donate to the project. I've tried "Donate to the Project" and "Support the Developer," but both of them were rejected because of: Guideline 3.1.1 - Business - Payments - In-App Purchase: "We notice that your app allows users to contribute donations to the development of your app with a mechanism other than in-app purchase. Although these donations may be optional, they must use in-app purchase since they are associated with receiving digital content or services." Is there a specific label I could use that complies with "3.2.1 (vii) Apps may enable individual users to give a monetary gift to another individual without using in-app purchase, provided that (a) the gift is a completely optional choice by the giver, and (b) 100% of the funds go to the receiver of the gift. However, a gift that is connected to or associated at any point in time with receiving digital content or services must use in-app purchase." But is still understandable as a donations website? I thought that was implied with the two labels I submitted, but I guess not. Thanks, Henry

Looking for a solution: our app name is read more clearly when it is lower-case. We have submitted it to the store in that format, and it shows up on the App Store that way, but when it is sent to the devices, it changes to upper case. I am not seeing results on why this is happening or how to change it. The app name is 1on1 Piano, and when it is downloaded on the device, it changes to 1ON1 Piano, which people often mistake for "ioni piano" and "10 and 1 piano," so we would like it to be consistent with our branding where "on" is lowercase.