TestFlight

TestFlight review process (if any) seems almost instant, even for external use. I am not sure how it exactly works, as there seems to be some optional(?) review stage for external use, but it has never blocked us for any amount of time that I remember.

App store review process (iOS)

Getting app on the app store, on the other hand, does take some time. All of these are for this year ( 2025 ), and here’s the rough data:

  • Our first version
    • First review started 29 hours after submission
      • Failed 92 minutes after
    • Second review started 17 hours after submission
      • 125 minutes later, success
  • Second version
    • Review started 11 hours after submission
      • 70 minutes later, success
  • Third version
    • Review started bit over 4 hours after submission(!)
      • 59 minutes later, success
  • Fourth version
    • First review was aborted by us after 3 hours
    • Second review started 28 hours after submission
  • Fifth version
    • First review was aborted by us after an hour
    • Second review started 27 hours after submission
      • 67 minutes later, success
  • Sixth version (the one I am waiting for, and why I am writing this)
    • First review was aborted by us after 21 hours
    • Second review was aborted by us after 34 hours (mostly weekend)
    • Third review we’re waiting for ( at time of the writing, 16 hours )

It seems that the review process takes bit over day to get started, and on weekends it is slower. Our most recent version has been mostly in review queue for couple of days, but of course we have found some bugs during review process, fixed them, and resubmitted, but that presumably leads us to starting from the start of the queue again.

Still, it is not as bad as app store ad system efficiency (or lack of it), that I may write about some day..