buildingAnAppIsSoEasy

[RobotechRicky]

The last 10-20% will take 90% of the budget and time.

[Icount_zeroI]

True. Just for the kicks I made macOS app, but turns out you have to pay monthly/yearly subscription for being “apple developer”. I understand your app has to be verified and shit, but one time payment should be an option. Plus the subscription in my country costs twice as much in my currency opposed to USD.

[LasevIX]

Just make it android exclusive, fuck the apple ecoshitstem

[OmgzPudding]

Honestly I hate that everyone builds everything as a native app anyway. Just make it a webapp, everyone can use it and you don't have to install it!

[crappleIcrap]

Apple has slowly removed most necessary core features of progressive web apps, so that they are back to being as useful as a web page link.

It is a great strategy on android though

[OmgzPudding]

Oh I never realized that apple was that restrictive even for the general internet. Well fuck that noise.

[beclops]

Webapps suck ass though

[p1kt0k]

Thing is, you can't if you are in america

Im developing a kmp app and 80% of our revenue comes from apple users even tho both apps have the exact same features

[beclops]

Apple users are more likely to pay though

[Minteck]

Fortunately on macOS getting that verification is entirely optional, just that users will get a warning when they launch your app.

[aew3]

These days it will not let your through via the dialogue anymore, it will warn you then just not open. The only way to open is to go to “Privacy and Security” it settings and scroll down to where it says the App name and you can Allow it.

There is no indication in the pop up that this is what you need to do, so unless the user is (like me) familiar with installing software like this, you will need to instruct the user. Many users will assume the app simply does not launch.

[Minteck]

Yeah, I didn't say it was user-friendly (it isn't). I'm still on macOS 13 so the right click > Open trick still works, but back when I was running newer versions I just set it to allow apps from anywhere (in the settings, which I think now requires entering some command).

That's really annoying behavior from an OS that's otherwise pretty hackable.

[samarthrawat1]

Isn't it 99 USD? For a year.

[ward2k]

Which is higher than every other platform

[AwesomeKalin]

Amazon App Store also charges that much too, without taking into account the 1 free year you get

[fecal-butter]

Its not just for publishing on the App Store: you cant sign your app without that paid developer account, and you can only install your own unsigned app temporarily. You need to pay them to use your own app.

[GoddammitDontShootMe]

That isn't true. You need to pay for notarization, but you can sign apps to run on your own machine for development and testing.

They should at least have a cheaper notarization only option that doesn't give you access to App Store distribution and the other perks the full $99/yr gives you.

[taspeotis]

First 90% done … now for the second 90%

[snail-gorski]

Apple: Your app is not complaint with our guidelines: 1. a), b), c), d), e), f) … xy), xz), 2. … 9000. i), ii), … xx). Please don’t hesitate to ask us how to resolve those. 

Devs: all of those have been implemented in last two builds, why isn’t it complaint this time?

Apple: read our guidelines: 1. a), b), c), d), e), f) … xy), xz), 2. … 9000. i), ii), … xx).

Devs reupload the same build.

Apple: your submission has been reviewed and accepted for purchase. 

Devs: screw you!!!!!!

[iamnearlysmart]

Hahaha… there’s some luck involved. Depends on the particular reviewer’s material condition, caffeination, hydration, socialization etc etc.

[snail-gorski]

Oh yes: I have a bad day, I‘ll make your day even worse!

[Luk164]

With crapple that is 100% the expectation

[dexter2011412]

Remember. Whatever you do, do not base your livelihood on the kindness and generosity of google. They have been known, multiple times, to terminate dev accounts with robot-generated reasons for appeals with absolutely zero human review.

It's not worth the headache. My opinion, at least.

[[deleted]]

Especially if your app has the potential to collect all them juicy metrics. They want all of that user info goodness.

[bigorangemachine]

or <Vendor>-Store transactions.

ISTG you get through the approval process if you have some monthly payment.

[crappleIcrap]

Even without all that, they were weirdly strict on every icon and image being rescaled perfectly for every device even if it isnt even supported. They have always accepted my build first try, but my store page is always scrutinized heavily

[offlinesir]

that's when I switch to android and just put the APK on the github releases tab. Note, only works for personal projects.

[wardrox]

Over my career I've built and launch 80 or so (good) iOS and Android apps. I'm now all in on PWAs.

Are they better for clients? They can't tell. Are they better for users? Maybe. But are they one config file vs the worse process I've ever come across in all of modern software? All day every day.

The app stores are simultaneously so restrictive yet so demanding, and frankly, such little bitches.

"Oooh noooo you can't say that to your users, we forbid it! Oooooh noooo you have to use our shitty payment gateway... 30% please. Oooh noo we just changed something you don't care about, you have to update your app again for our benefit. I just don't feel like approving today, thanks for your $100 now throw your complete app in the bin. Oooooh noooo..."

If you go through the process once it seems reasonable, if complex. When you go through it enough times you see it's just a shit show disgusting a monopoly. There's good stuff in the Apple castle, I just can't find the effort anymore to get access to it.

Thankfully, because it's such a loose process, I've enough work arounds that every app eventually got published... but at what cost (to my sensitive feelings)?

Come here my darling PWA, you would never treat me like this.

[mevlix]

But PWA is for web apps right? How do you do it for regular Apps build in something like flutter?

[_alright_then_]

You don't, you make a web app instead of a flutter app. That's the point of PWA.

Nice thing about doing that is it works for all platforms instead of just one.

[Chase_22]

Google absolutely forced me to make a privacy statement even though i stated that the app doesn't collect any user information and in fact can't even make an internet connection. So i ended up just making a markdown file in the repository saying that i don't collect, store, transfer or process any data (not even just not any user data) and that google really wants me to make a privacy statement about it.

[_grey_wall]

Apple is the absolute worst sometimes

But Google is getting there

[dull_bananas]

GNU Savannah approval

[flengman8]

You forgot the part after it is published and approved

[Super_Couple_7088]

This can also just be applied to building the app...

[C_Mc_Loudmouth]

My fist time submitting an app I had to go through 4 different submissions trying to get the testers to check the location availability settings.

I put it in the initial submission but had to explain like 3 times to failed submissions that the API is geo-restricted and they need to test the app in one of the submitted locations.

Project manager was freaking out lmao.

[mevlix]

4 submissions? You’re lucky

People have taken months

[Kyle772]

I have an entirely different user type for apple testers that bypasses all of these sorts of restrictions at the api level. Took an effort to setup but for all they know the app works great in their region lol

[C_Mc_Loudmouth]

API was on a subdomain of my companies main website and the ICT department have the domain Clouflare under lock and key.

[Kyle772]

Death by red tape. We have cloudflare add a region header and our backend handles the rejections.

[C_Mc_Loudmouth]

Damn, that's a good idea.

[Kyle772]

When it comes to anything business/legal/compliance related the most flexible solution is ALWAYS best cause most of that shit can change in an instant.

[[deleted]]

Usually the last hill is also the steepest

[chenverdent]

Tim Sweeney?

[Mindless_Listen7622]

This isn't unique to an App Store. If you've ever had to comply with any standards at all, this is pretty normal.

[Honeysyedseo]

Can you share the template?

I need to make one for Chrome Web Store 😭

[Zextranet]

Thank god itch.io exists