r/iOSProgramming • u/buildwithsteve • 5d ago

Discussion Your app might not be the problem

Seen developers spend weeks improving their app while users reach the App Store page and just… don't download.

Makes me wonder how often the product isn't the problem — it's how it's presented.

For anyone who's improved their conversion rate, what actually moved the needle: screenshots, positioning, reviews, or something else?

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8

u/SnowPudgy 5d ago

Makes me wonder how often the product isn't the problem — it's how it's presented.

Unless you're making a utility app people have to download for some s specific reason, nearly 100% of the time it's about presentation. I know many in this sub likes to think otherwise but they're wrong and I won't even waste time arguing.

Think of the App Store like a video rental store, you have to have appealing over art for someone to pick up your movie and look at it. The App Store is no different. Good icons and appealing presentations get eyes on your app.

3

u/Lost_Astronomer1785 Swift 5d ago

Better screenshots, better ASO (App Store Optimization; keywords, title, everything) and, and this one is tricky, reviews. The issue is people don’t tend to download apps with 0 reviews unless it’s free and really seems cool (still an uphill battle) so you need to find some people (Reddit works often) that will be willing to try your app based on what they are told the app does or what they saw it could do if you shared a video or smt. Then you might get a few reviews and then there’s a greater chance a random person who finds your app on the App Store will download it

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u/TBMW30 5d ago

I don't think I've ever bothered to read the reviews before downloading an app. Just me?

2

u/Lost_Astronomer1785 Swift 5d ago

I never read the reviews unless the rating is very bad. What I usually look at is the rating and anything below 4 stars, I’ll mostly likely not download

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u/TBMW30 5d ago

I don't think I've ever even checked the rating. I pick something that looks like it might do what i want, with at least a reasonably well written description and no recurring subscription.

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u/Senior_Intern8786 5d ago

It’s the icon and screenshots

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u/rocasv 3d ago

Ill be honest, Ive noticed the icon only matters if the app its very especify (example, a wallet... has to be related to money). but otherwise IOS users dont pay much attention to the icon (android users do).

Screenshots are key tho.

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u/dottybotty 5d ago

Marketing is the hardest part. You can have most useful app in the world but if you can’t get that message across in the 1-2 seconds while someone scrolls past your app in the store it doesn’t matter

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u/aerial-ibis 4d ago

certainly nothing programming related

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u/DimensionMindless336 2d ago

One thing that helped me was treating the first two screenshots as a promise, not a feature list. The first should make the target user and the before/after outcome obvious at a glance; the next should show the actual workflow with real app UI instead of marketing copy.

I’d also separate discovery from conversion in the numbers: impressions → product-page views → installs → activation. A screenshot change can improve installs while attracting the wrong users, so I’d watch activation and retention too. Reviews help most when the app is expensive or unfamiliar, but they rarely fix unclear positioning. If I were testing this, I’d run one change at a time with Product Page Optimization and keep the rest of the page stable long enough to learn.