I’ve been working on this app, part of a larger product, on and off for a few months. It wasn’t a straight sprint. Progress came in bursts between other responsibilities, moments of motivation followed by stretches where life simply got in the way. Still, slowly, it started to resemble something real.
Right before Christmas, I finally felt it was ready enough to submit for App Store review. Hitting that submit button felt like crossing a small but meaningful threshold. Whatever happened next, at least the app had reached someone else’s hands.
By the new year, I had a response.
Rejected.
The reason itself was frustrating in a very particular way. The app had been reviewed on a platform it wasn’t designed to support. Side-Track was built for iPhone. I had explicitly removed support for iPad and macOS. Yet the review feedback indicated it had been tested on iPad, where it understandably did not work.
I replied, explained the situation, and asked for the app to be reviewed on the intended platform. And then I waited.
Waiting is where things tend to unravel a bit. With no response, doubt started creeping in. Maybe I had missed something. Maybe there really was a bug I hadn’t caught. This was my first iOS app, after all, and it didn’t feel unreasonable to assume the mistake was mine.
I was tired, juggling other work, and slowly made peace with the idea that this wasn’t shipping anytime soon. I braced myself for another rejection email and mentally pushed the app down my list of immediate priorities.
Then today, I got an email I honestly did not see coming.
“Congratulations! We’re pleased to let you know that your app, Side-Track, has been approved for distribution.”
It took a moment to register.
Relief came first. That quiet exhale you don’t realize you’re holding. I went back to what I was doing, trying not to make a big deal out of it. People ship apps every day. This wasn’t some monumental achievement.
But a few minutes later, I stood up and realized I felt lightheaded.
That’s when it clicked. I was genuinely happy. Elated, even. That slow, delayed payoff after weeks of uncertainty hit harder than I expected. Delayed gratification, it turns out, is pretty powerful.
This isn’t a finish line. If anything, it feels like the very first marker on a long road. Maybe one percent in. There’s still a lot of work left to do, and many things I want to improve, rethink, or build from scratch. But this small moment of progress made something clear.
If making progress feels this good, then maybe it’s worth sticking with it.
Side-Track is now live on the App Store everywhere.
If you give it a try, I’d really appreciate your thoughts and constructive feedback. There’s still plenty to build, and your input will help shape what comes next.
