[Crisis] App Store Reviews Now Take Up to 45 Days as AI Apps Overwhelm the System

App Store's app review process is in crisis. Reviews that normally take under 24 hours are now taking up to 45 days. Apps are piling up in "Waiting for Review" limbo for over a month.

The cause: the explosive rise of "vibe coding" — building apps by simply talking to AI. Now that anyone can create an app, submissions have flooded the App Store and overwhelmed the review system. Apple has remained officially silent.

How Bad Is the Delay?

The numbers tell the story.

The Apple Developer Forums are filled with desperate threads. Titles like "Long delays in App Review" and "App stuck in Waiting for Review" have appeared at least six times since February 2026.

The worst case: a developer posted on Apple Community that they submitted an app on December 12, 2025, and it was still in "Waiting for Review" as of January 26, 2026 — 45 days later.

The inconsistency is extreme. According to developer Michael Tsai's blog, one macOS app waited 10 days, got rejected, then was approved in 20 minutes on resubmission. Developers are left guessing.

Why Is This Happening? The "Vibe Coding" Wave

The direct cause is a surge in App Store submissions.

"Vibe coding" refers to building apps by simply talking to AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Cursor. You describe what you want, and the AI writes the code. No programming knowledge needed — if you have an idea, you can build an app.

The result: App Store submissions have skyrocketed.

According to AppFigures data, 2025 saw 557,000 submissions — a 24% year-over-year increase and the largest jump since the 2016 peak. That's an average of 1,865 new apps released every day.

Former Tesla AI lead Andrej Karpathy posted that he "vibe coded a whole iOS app in Swift without having programmed in Swift before" in about an hour. The fact that people with no programming experience can now build apps has inspired a wave of new creators.

What Do AI-Made Apps Look Like?

Currently, 27.1% of all apps on the App Store include AI features. That's more than 1 in 4.

According to 9to5Mac, AI apps generated roughly $900 million in App Store revenue in 2025, with ChatGPT-related apps accounting for about 75%.

But quality is a growing concern. Some people are building serious products, while others are mass-submitting low-quality apps generated entirely by AI. This mix of quality and junk is flooding the review team.

What Is Apple Doing About It?

Apple has issued no official statement about the review delays.

On the Developer Forums, the only response is individual replies saying "we're looking into it." Developers who called Apple Support were told: "Yes, we're aware. Sorry."

Meanwhile, Apple has taken a different action. On March 18, 2026, it blocked updates for two popular vibe coding apps.

Apple's concern is that apps can change their behavior after passing review. Vibe coding apps generate and execute code on the fly based on user instructions, meaning the app can become something entirely different from what was reviewed. For Apple, that renders the review process meaningless.

The irony: Apple is simultaneously adding AI coding tools (OpenAI and Anthropic integration) to Xcode. It's promoting "building apps with AI" while restricting "apps that dynamically change with AI." This contradiction has left developers confused.

What Are Developers Saying?

On the Apple Developer Forums, multiple developers report that delays "started in February and have continued for over a month." Mac developer Spencer Dailey noted that "review times have increased 3–5x."

The developer community has concrete suggestions: "Only have humans review new apps — automate update reviews." "Create a priority review queue for established developers."

How Does This Affect App Users?

You might think this is just a developer problem, but it affects users too.

Delayed reviews mean delayed bug fixes and security updates. If a developer discovers a vulnerability and submits a fix, but that fix sits in review for 30 days, users remain exposed the entire time.

New apps and services also reach the market more slowly. If it takes over a month to get on the App Store, startups may choose to launch on Android first — potentially leaving iPhone users behind.

What Happens to the App Store When Anyone Can Build an App?

Since its 2008 launch, the App Store has operated on a model of "humans reviewing each submission one by one." It has successfully handled hundreds of thousands of submissions per year. But now that AI has dramatically lowered the barrier to creating apps, that model may be reaching its limits.

Even at 557,000 submissions, 2025 is still well below the 2016 peak of 1 million. The issue isn't just volume — it's likely that the quality variance of AI-generated apps is making each review take longer. Gray-area apps that are hard for humans to evaluate are increasing.

Starting in April, Apple will require builds using the iOS 26 / Xcode 26 SDK or later. While this is a routine annual update, it could indirectly filter out AI apps built on outdated SDKs.

But the fundamental question remains: how long can the "one human reviewer per app" model survive in an era where anyone can build an app? What comes after Apple's silence? That's what we're all waiting to find out.

Sources

• ▸ 9to5Mac - Vibe coding could mark the end of the App Store review process as we know it (March 29, 2026)
• ▸ 9to5Mac - Apple pushing back on 'vibe coding' iPhone apps (March 18, 2026)
• ▸ MacRumors - Apple Quietly Blocks Updates for Popular 'Vibe Coding' Apps (March 18, 2026)
• ▸ AppFigures - The App Store Just Logged Its Biggest Release Year in Nearly a Decade (December 2025)
• ▸ 9to5Mac - Apple made roughly $900M from generative AI apps in 2025 (March 19, 2026)
• ▸ Michael Tsai - Mac App Store Review Times Increasing (March 2, 2026)
• ▸ Apple Developer Forums - Long delays in App Review
• ▸ Apple Community - iOS app submission stuck in Waiting for Review for 45 days