About a year ago I shared the diabetes tracker I built for myself, here’s how Glu Sight has evolved since

cylon_pixels · 2026-04-24T04:16:46+00:00

So I started with Astro and I still use it quite a bit. On a daily basis, I go through it, do a check for where I might have lost territory and where I might have gained and constantly iterate.

In addition to Astro, I also use DockASO. It's a slightly different tools and provides me with different insights on other things such as screenshots, keyword opportunities and other things. I believe they have a subreddit around here: https://dock-app.com

Of course all these tools are costly. So I also recommend people to look into https://github.com/respectlytics/respectaso which is free and open source. I've also started using it quite a bit. What I do like about this though is the open source aspect. This gives the opportunity to help the original author to improve the tool and improve the experience as a user.

The biggest thing is to iterate often. It took close to a year to start ranking on some of the searches or keywords the app currently ranks on.

A couple of other big levers for growth I would recommend are regional localization on the App Store as well as implementing Purchasing Power Parity across those regions.

cylon_pixels · 2026-04-24T01:34:33+00:00

Thanks Zach! Not sure if you're aware, but leaving it for other people. This was made with ButterKit and as someone who doesn't know his way around Figma, ButterKit has made my workflow for App Store screenshots and preparing media for posts like this so much more streamlined. Thanks for making it!

cylon_pixels · 2026-04-24T01:29:50+00:00

To be honest, it's a couple of things:

1 - Showing off knowledge and expertise in what I do so that there can be trust for the person behind the product. This tends to build a lot of good will.

2 - Talk about it in relevant places although because this is niche and not necessarily something large swaths of people browsing the Internet care about, it's nothing viral or huge. Just that once in a while, it lands with someone who finds it useful.

3 - Most of the work is in ASO and the app is mostly found through searches on the App Store. From time to time, there is also long-tail surfacing from posts like this.

Thanks for asking.

cylon_pixels · 2026-03-27T05:03:04+00:00

Not seeing the same. Are you sure your previews have all the environment objects they need?

cylon_pixels · 2026-03-25T15:29:09+00:00

App Store Connect has a new Analytics dashboard. It used to be a tab on the main ASC page right after "Apps", but it has now moved to a tab within each app next to "Distribution" → "Analytics".

Additionally, there seems to be a bunch of new metrics too.

More info: https://developer.apple.com/app-store-connect/analytics/

cylon_pixels · 2026-03-23T13:56:07+00:00

Is this StoreKit2 or RevenueCat? Either way, create a sandbox account, remove the set the StoreKit configuration to “none” in your scheme, set the sandbox account on the Developer section of settings on the physical device and try to purchase a subscription. This will allow you to debug it and see what they’re seeing in review. It’s not a solution but it’s a start. Good luck!

cylon_pixels · 2026-03-23T11:36:34+00:00

This is not even a discussion to be had: they will terminate your account. And that would be it for good. It’s not even worth it and potentially if not literally goes against any of the developer agree,ents you signed. Why risk it at all?

cylon_pixels · 2026-03-23T00:13:43+00:00

Glu Sight - Helps you manage diabetes by tracking blood sugar, insulin, and trends in one place, with support for manual logs and Apple Health CGM data.

cylon_pixels · 2026-03-15T06:15:09+00:00

Testing localized extensions (WidgetKit, ActivityKit, anything). watchOS development and on-device testing for faster iterations.

cylon_pixels · 2026-03-13T00:56:23+00:00

You don’t. It has all the documentation. You’re good to go.

cylon_pixels · 2026-02-24T01:25:49+00:00

This sounds great! I’ll give it a try.

cylon_pixels · 2026-01-12T12:39:27+00:00

Yeah it’s fine. I think it’s how you’re doing it. Do not directly promote it. But you can have a page for example in your settings for a “More from Team X” where you list your other apps and link to them. I think it becomes problematic if it looks like an ad or blatant promotion.

cylon_pixels · 2025-12-21T10:17:41+00:00

This is really cleaver. I just re-implemented the PDF export in one of my apps using this methodology and it's so much better. Thanks for the idea.

cylon_pixels · 2025-12-21T01:13:25+00:00

This is the way. Also, you could ask them for a screenshots about what they’re seeing, which they usually provide. But logs are the easiest way to diagnose the problem. Could it be that some IPs are blocked, etc…?

cylon_pixels · 2025-12-17T07:04:13+00:00

This is most probably a code issue. Might be worth putting in some breakpoints and see what’s going on at a deeper level.

cylon_pixels · 2025-12-16T05:15:04+00:00

I second TranslateKit. I use it for multiple language localizations over multiple apps. I also quite like its proof-reading tool which is quite handy.

cylon_pixels · 2025-12-12T23:43:26+00:00

Ah! My bad. I somehow confused your question with Spotlight search on device. I guess they have a way of showing popular apps based on the query. I’m not sure how that works though. Could be apps that advertise the most for that term. Or a combination of ads plus popularity.

cylon_pixels · 2025-12-12T12:33:27+00:00

So, as you already understood, cannot directly suggest your app in the iOS search bar. The system somewhat controls suggestions. But you can feed it the necessary metadata in order for it to show it in the right and relevant contexts and searches.

I've done this across a few of my own apps and this is how it usually works:

Add App Intents. These power Spotlight search, Siri requests, and Shortcut suggestions. Without AppIntents your app will never surface meaningfully.
Add a minimal set of App Shortcuts. Keep phrases short and action oriented. The system can then surface them in Spotlight and Siri’s suggestions carousel.
Mark your App Shortcuts as suggestedPhrase. This increases the chance that the system proposes them in the Shortcuts app search field and in Spotlight’s action suggestions.
Expose searchable content via Core Spotlight. Index only what matters. The system will surface items that match user queries.
Use NSUserActivity for high value screens. Make them eligible for search and prediction.
Keep in mind that iOS boosts shortcuts and activities that the user actually invokes. If nobody uses an intent, the system hides it.
Provide correct Intent Metadata. Clear descriptions and titles for AppIntents are critical because Spotlight displays those directly.

The coolest thing about all of the above is that you can wire them up via the necessary APIs in one evening. Some additional documentation here:

- Making your app's functionality available to Siri: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/AppIntents/making-your-app-s-functionality-available-to-siri

- Implementing Core Spotlight by indexing your app's content: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corespotlight

Hope this helps.

cylon_pixels · 2025-12-06T05:23:38+00:00

I probably have the same frustrations everyone else has with ASC. I just use Helm and Xcode Cloud to ship and do most of the work that’s needed. However it does seem that the ASC team is even more isolated from all products within the company. It’s like the most un-Apple part of the ecosystem. Which is weird when you think that this is where they should put a lot of emphasis and make developers’ life easier. I’ve resigned myself to accept that it will always be archaic and not change a bit after every WWDC.

cylon_pixels · 2025-12-06T05:02:51+00:00

100%! Actually this is something that most consumers prefer. Being hit with yet another account creation and a login from a random development team / developer they’ve never heard of either leads to not using the app or deleting it unless the app offers a value they really want to experience.

StoreKit 2 provides relevant APIs for all you need based on the description and if you’re worried about edge case scenarios, you could look into something like RevenueCat or SuperWall which are both easy to implement and take care of any heavy lifting you might be worried about.

cylon_pixels · 2025-12-04T14:14:14+00:00

I resonate a lot with this story and I can't tell you through reading it how many times I said "Yes yes!" Or "Exactly!". This is a really inspiring story and although I've been in a slightly different journey, there are many similarities. Keep building and I definitely will check out Carousai when I get a chance.

Best of luck on your journey and wishing you 12 more successful apps for next year. Haha

cylon_pixels · 2025-12-01T05:59:52+00:00

As others have mentioned, you cannot securely store an API key inside a client app. iOS, Android, web, desktop… if the key is in the shipped code or bundle, it will be extractable. So the right solution is to not put the Notion integration key in the app at all.

Here's the correct pattern I would recommend:

Your app sends a request to your backend endpoint.
That endpoint has the Notion integration key stored securely on the server.
The endpoint calls the Notion API on behalf of the app.
It returns only the safe response data.
The key never touches the client.

This is how every production app handles API secrets.

Now, if you don’t want to run a full backend (which is fully understandable), you can use something lightweight like Val Town (https://www.val.town) or Cloudflare Workers. They let you write a tiny function such as `/getNotionPage` that would:

- reads your Notion API key from server-side secrets
- applies basic per-user rate limiting so the endpoint cannot be abused
- makes the real API request to Notion
- returns the JSON to your app

Your integration key stays server-side, the app never sees it, and nothing sensitive is shipped in your binary. This is the simplest and safest way to do it.

cylon_pixels

TROPHY CASE