Mobile Apps

iOS app development in the UK

Native iOS makes sense when your app depends on what the iPhone does best, or when your customers expect it to feel completely at home on Apple’s platform.

Discuss Your Project

Writing in Swift gives you the fullest access to Apple’s frameworks, and new platform features are available to you first. That matters if your app relies on HealthKit, Core ML, ARKit, widgets, Live Activities or tight Apple Watch integration. Cross-platform tools can reach many of these through plugins, but there’s usually a delay after Apple releases something, and more friction once you step off the well-trodden path.

The trade-off is cost: you’re building for one platform, and Android would be a separate project. So native iOS tends to suit products with a heavily iPhone-based audience, apps with demanding hardware or graphics needs, and companies that want the best possible experience on Apple devices. If you want both platforms from one budget, read about cross-platform development.

Getting through App Review

Apple reviews every submission against its App Store Review Guidelines. The usual stumbling blocks are privacy details that don’t match the app’s behaviour, in-app purchase rules for digital goods, apps that are too thin to justify being an app, and missing in-app account deletion. We design for these from the start, so that review isn’t a nasty surprise a week before launch.

When native iOS is the right call

Heavy use of Apple frameworks

HealthKit, ARKit, Core ML, Apple Pay or Watch features are central to the product.

Demanding performance

Graphics, camera or audio processing where every millisecond is noticeable.

Mostly iPhone users

Your audience data shows that a separate Android app isn’t the priority yet.

iOS services

New iPhone and iPad apps

Swift and SwiftUI apps following Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines.

Modernising older apps

Moving Objective-C and UIKit code forward without a risky full rewrite.

Apple ecosystem features

Widgets, Live Activities, Apple Watch companions and Sign in with Apple.

App Store submission

App Store Connect setup, privacy nutrition labels, TestFlight betas and review handling.

Where it fits

  • Health and wellbeing apps using HealthKit
  • Premium consumer apps with an iPhone-heavy audience
  • Internal apps for teams equipped with iPads

Technology

  • Swift
  • SwiftUI
  • UIKit
  • Xcode
  • Core Data
  • HealthKit
  • StoreKit
  • TestFlight
  • XCTest

iOS Apps questions

Do we need a Mac or developer account?
You’ll need an Apple Developer Programme membership in your organisation’s name, so that the app belongs to you. The development tooling is our side of things.
Can our iOS app take payments?
Digital goods consumed in the app generally have to use Apple’s in-app purchase, and physical goods and services can use providers such as Stripe or Apple Pay. Apple’s rules vary by region and change over time, so we check them for your case.
Can you take over an existing iOS app?
Yes. We’d review the code and its dependencies, and check it still builds against the current version of Xcode, before recommending anything.

Related services

Interested in iOS App Development?

Outline what you need, and we will reply by email with questions or next steps.

Start a Project