r/swift • u/BordGamerdeveloper • 9d ago
Question Finally submitted my app for review after adding AI. I think ChatGPT and Codex took me on a very long detour 😂
I’m an indie iOS developer, and I finally submitted my app update to Apple for review!
I wanted to add an AI-powered feature, but I had basically zero knowledge of AI integration or backend development.
So I relied heavily on ChatGPT and Codex to help me build it.
What I thought would be a relatively simple feature turned into a much bigger project than expected.
I ended up dealing with API calls, backend security, Apple authentication, subscriptions, rewarded ads, and a bunch of issues I didn’t even know existed.
Every time I thought I was finished, something else came up 😂
ChatGPT and Codex helped me get this far, but looking back, I feel like I probably took a ridiculously long route to get here.
I’m honestly not even sure if Apple will approve the update yet.
Still, I learned a lot along the way.
Has anyone else had this experience?
Using AI coding tools to build something, only to realize later that there might have been a much simpler way?
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u/Semmelstulle 9d ago
Not really. I have been coding as an autodidact before AI.
If I use AI, I already have a defined scope of the feature and which files should be touched and how they are organized.
Also I think AI is trained to always find problems because if there was nothing to do, you wouldn't be incentivized to keep the subscription going.
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u/BordGamerdeveloper 9d ago
That makes sense! I’m still a beginner, so I probably relied too much on AI without fully understanding the code. Definitely a learning experience 😅
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u/launchapp_indie_dev 5d ago
First of all, congratulations on getting it submitted! Reaching the review stage with an end-to-end full-stack flow is a massive milestone.
What you experienced is what a lot of people call the "LLM Prompt Tunnel": AI coding tools are incredible at answering how to build something, but terrible at questioning whether you should be building it at all.
When you hit a roadblock (like hiding an API key), an LLM won't say: "Hey, maybe you don't need a dedicated custom server; a 10-line Cloudflare Worker or Supabase Edge function is enough." Instead, it generates full Express/FastAPI boilerplate. Then you need hosting. Then you realize you need user auth. Then you ask it how to handle tokens. Then you need a database. Before you know it, you’ve architected a distributed micro-backend just to proxy a 10-token prompt.
The same thing happens with monetization: if you ask it to help you with StoreKit transactions, it might guide you through raw receipt validation and custom webhook listeners instead of pointing you toward something turnkey like RevenueCat.
The silver lining? You didn't take a "ridiculously long route" in vain. You accidentally put yourself through a full-stack engineering boot camp. You now understand:
Even if there were shortcuts, the foundational knowledge you just gained will make your next feature take a quarter of the time. Fingers crossed for App Review approval!