Vibe Coding May End App Store Reviews
▼ Summary
– The rise of agentic or “vibe coding” AI has enabled many people, including non-coders, to quickly build and submit functional apps to the App Store.
– This surge in app submissions is overwhelming Apple’s human-based App Store review system, causing significantly longer wait times for developers.
– Developers, including major companies, now report review delays of three days to a week, whereas the process traditionally took less than a day.
– Apple’s longstanding commitment to human review is under strain, and the article suggests potential short-term solutions like automated reviews for updates or a separate queue for established developers.
– The current system is deemed unfair to established developers, and the article questions whether a fully human review process can be sustained.
The rapid rise of agentic coding, often called vibe coding, is creating a fundamental challenge for Apple’s App Store. Since late 2025, advanced AI models have enabled both non-coders and seasoned developers to generate functional applications with minimal oversight. This surge in new and updated app submissions is overwhelming the platform’s traditional human review process, leading to unprecedented delays that threaten the system’s viability.
Developers across the spectrum are experiencing significantly longer wait times. What was once a review process typically completed within a day now frequently stretches to three days, a week, or longer. Major companies and independent creators alike report being stuck in review limbo. The core issue is scale: a system designed for a manageable flow of human-written code cannot efficiently handle the volume generated by AI-powered development.
Apple has historically championed its manual review system, with leadership like former executive Phil Schiller advocating against automation. However, the economics of reviewing a flood of apps, many of which may generate little to no revenue, make maintaining a purely human process unsustainable. The current model appears broken.
Potential short-term solutions exist to alleviate the pressure. One approach could involve maintaining human review for new app submissions while automating the process for routine app updates. Another would be to create a separate review queue for established developers, ensuring their frequent updates aren’t delayed by the influx of new, AI-generated applications. While Apple offers an expedited review request form, it’s intended for critical bug fixes, not as a workaround for systemic backlog.
For professional developers who regularly update their software, these extensive delays are more than an inconvenience, they represent a serious operational hurdle. The queue is being clogged by a wave of vibe-coded apps, putting timely updates at risk. While this trend may eventually stabilize, the immediate reality suggests that fully human app review may need to be reconsidered, at least for certain segments of the submission pipeline.
(Source: 9to5Mac)
