Thoughts While Waiting for App Review

I just pressed the button to submit Narro for iOS into the App Store. After 12 revisions, 3 weeks of testing, and 15 external beta testers, I think it’s ready to go.

I’ve worked on teams submitting apps into closed platforms (iOS, Android, Blackberry), but this is my first app submission alone. As I settle in for the inevitable waiting period while Big Apple looks over my code, here are some thoughts:

• The documentation isn’t as nice as you may imagine.
• It is so cool to have a hand in something that is in the hands of so many people.
• Waiting in lines for attention just to be told you don’t smell right is no fun.
• Since it will be reviewed, it’s nice to feel like you’re not able to fuck things up too badly.
• Getting approval and asking for forgiveness sucks.
• You have only one environment to work in, but only one to worry about.
• But not really, because iOS has legacy software and hardware, too.

There are several parallel considerations between a solid web app and a solid native app. I always enjoy optimizing page load for my web apps, and so it was this time. To optimize the app size of Narro for iOS, I used dynamically-generated images for the onboarding tutorial. I didn’t have to include any images at all!

Update 2015-11-08

Got rejected on this first submission:

Apps or metadata that mentions the name of any other mobile platform will be rejected.

Argh. Remove, recompile, resubmit.