Submitting an App for iOS approval

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨nix98@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

Hi all, I’ve been working on a music recommendation service that pairs with navidrome (think of it as a personal pandora).

I’ve also built an iOS app for it that I am trying to beta test. Even to use TestFlight, you still need to go through Apple’s approval process.

The reviewers are requiring access to a working server to test it, demo videos aren’t being accepted.

I really don’t want to have to set up an external host, as 1) authentication is a bit limited 2) you need a large music collection and I’m not comfortable opening that up on the internet.

Has anyone dealt with something similar?

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BombOmOm@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Yes, iOS app approval is a pain in the ass. They do test the app and if it has to connect to a server, they will ask you to provide such for them to test against.

Setup a virtual host that you only spin up when they need to approve a new version. Give it some royalty free music to serve.

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- nix98@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  This costs me not just time, but money. I know it isn’t much but is really a big pain. The biggest issue is that the app and recommendation algorithm isn’t going to be useful with 20 songs. You really need 1000s of songs to actually use the app…
  
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  - BombOmOm@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    You don’t need to give them a premier experience, you aren’t trying to sell them on the features of your app. It just needs to function.
    
    Load in those 20 royalty free songs and let the algorithm suck at picking the next of the 20.
    
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  - Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    They are not testing for usefulness.
    
    Only what their app store rules say (and sometimes only part of it - once your app is established well with them)
    
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  - BombOmOm@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    For the money angle, something like a Digital Ocean droplet would be appropriate here. They are $4/mo and you don’t even need to run the thing all the time, just when you need an app version approved.
    
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  - Moonrise2473@feddit.it ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    I don’t want to be the asshole but 3 days of a super underpowered VM (it can be a oracle free tier for example) is a drop in the ocean compared to the $100/year/perpetuity that apple wants from devs
    
    Main problem might be the content, as they might think that it’s going to be used for piracy
    
    Maybe try to spin it as “Kevin macleod recommendation engine” by filling it with this content archive.org/details/…/1up
    
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wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Wait, how is this app going to function on release if you can’t stand up the basic resources for it to function for them to test it?

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- SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  Every user has to self host their own?
  
  Did… Did you see what community you’re in?
  
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  - wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Yes, but it still deserves the question to be asked explicitly. I don’t think most iPhone users looking for a music reccomendation app would assume they’d need to selfhost in order to use an app.
    
    And again, if as the dev he’s not prepared to set up his own server for use to pass basic testing, it begs the question of what exactly he’s expecting out of his end users and if it’s truly a reasonable ask.
    
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