Solo dev shares five hard lessons from shipping first iOS app to the App Store

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A developer built and launched SnapCal, a barcode-based calorie tracking app for iOS, entirely solo in roughly two weeks using SwiftUI with no third-party dependencies. One key lesson involved mishandling HTTP 404 responses from the Open Food Facts API, which returns that status code when a barcode simply isn't in its database — not when something has gone wrong. Treating "not found" as an error caused users to see alarming server-error messages, and the fix required separating that state from genuine failures in both the network layer and the UI. After submitting the app, the developer received an Apple review request for additional information including a physical-device screen recording, a list of external services used, and documentation of key user flows. The post advises future developers to prepare that review video before submitting, and to distinguish clearly between empty states and actual errors in their app logic.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

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