2 How do you make an iOS app?

How do you become an Apple developer?

You need an Apple Account with two factor authentication, and a Mac. iOS apps are built in Xcode, and Xcode only runs on a Mac.

You can start without paying. Install Xcode, sign in with your Apple Account and run your app on your own iPhone. With a free account the app works for seven days, then you install it again from Xcode.

To put an app on the App Store, you join the Apple Developer Program. It is 99 US dollars a year. You can join as an individual or as an organization. As an individual, your own name is shown as the seller on the App Store. As an organization, your company's name is shown, and Apple asks for your company's DUNS number. Getting one is free.

How do you send an app?

Everything happens in App Store Connect. You create your app there, upload a build from Xcode and fill in the store page. Name, description, screenshots, a privacy policy link, what data you collect and the age rating questions.

Before the store there is TestFlight. You send a link, your friends install the app and tell you what broke. The first build you send to people outside your team is reviewed by Apple too.

When it is ready, you submit it for review. Apple usually reviews it within a day or two. If they reject it, the message tells you which rule you broke. Fix that, reply, and send it again. If you want to sell your app, you also sign the paid apps agreement and fill in your bank and tax details.

Read the policies carefully

Read the policies carefully. Also align it with your country's legal limitations.

Apple's rules are in the App Review Guidelines. A few of them surprise people. Every app needs a privacy policy link, even if it collects nothing. If people can create an account in your app, they have to be able to delete it inside the app. If you offer login with Google, you may also need another option like Sign in with Apple. Apps for kids have stricter rules. And an app that is only your website in an app frame can be rejected.

Legal limitations depend on where you and your users are. In Turkey there is KVKK, in Europe GDPR. If you publish in the European Union, Apple asks whether you are a trader. If you are, your address, phone number and email are shown on your store page.

Make an iOS app!

When I make an app, I always check the code as much as I have it written. Because here, working with people's data is not playing a game. But of course, if you have a small project idea, let's start.

First of all, making an iOS app is hard. Not technically, but as a product. Be reasonable. Is it really necessary to publish this, or would a web app be better? Because your app has to pass through many sieves to catch on. Will people always want to keep you in their pocket? Will they want to make room for you on their phones and in their memory?

A web app opens from a link, and you can update it any minute. An app has to be downloaded, and every update goes through review. Choose the app when you really need the phone, like health data, home screen widgets or heavy use of the camera.

The order of prompts

First prompt, no code. Tell the agent the problem, who it is for and the one thing they will do most. Ask for the screens, the data the app keeps and every permission it will ask for. Cross out what you do not need.

"This app is for [who], who [problem]. The one thing they will do most is [action]. List the screens, the data the app needs to keep and every permission it will ask for. Do not write code yet."

Second prompt, the skeleton. Run it in the simulator.

"Create a new SwiftUI app with these screens and navigation between them, with empty content. Do not add any outside packages."

Third prompt, the data. Keep it on the phone first. Then close the app, open it again, and check that your data is still there.

"Save [your data] on the device with SwiftData. Show an empty state when nothing is saved yet."

Then one prompt for each screen. Look at every screen in the simulator and on your own iPhone, with big text and dark mode turned on.

Then permissions. Ask for the camera or location only when someone taps the thing that needs it, and write one sentence about why. iOS shows that sentence in the permission popup. If the sentence is missing, the app crashes when it tries to open the camera.

Then a server and accounts, only if you need them. Ask for account deletion in the same prompt as sign up. Do not put API keys inside the app. Anyone who downloads your app can

dig them out.

Then ask what leaves the phone. Your privacy policy and the privacy details in App Store Connect come from this list. Check it against the code yourself.

"List every network request this app makes, what data it sends and where it goes."

Last, the icon, the screenshots, TestFlight, and then review.