From Zero to App Store: My First Swift App Made with AI

For someone who had never touched Apple's Swift development before, I was amazed to find that—with the help of AI—I could actually build a complete app. Here's my story. One evening, while walking with my mom, we talked about how many Chinese apps are overloaded with ads. She casually complained that the calendar app she was using was full of them. I was surprised—why not just use Apple's built-in Calendar? She explained that it didn't have the features she needed, like public holidays and the traditional Chinese almanac. At that moment, a lightbulb went off: I already had a developer account, so why not just build one myself? So I opened up AI and asked: "Can you write me a Swift calendar app with a beautiful UI that supports dark mode?" Almost instantly, AI generated the code. When I ran it, the interface looked great. Next, I needed to display holidays. Since I had no budget, AI suggested using the free holiday API provided by timor.tech. It not only integrated the API but also added local caching so the app would still work offline. I then asked for a "year view" with color-coded holidays, and AI delivered. For the almanac feature, AI generated a JSON dataset and wrote an algorithm to process it. I noticed the results didn't always match other calendar apps. AI explained that different "calculation standards" exist and even added a toggle so users could switch between them. Once that was done, I asked it to adapt the app for visionOS and macOS—AI handled that smoothly too. Since all of the code was generated in one go, what I had was just a single, very long file without any modular structure. When I first submitted it to the App Store, Apple rejected it under Guideline 4.2: Design—Minimum Functionality. I went back, asked AI to add push notifications and a welcome screen, and on the next submission, it finally passed review.

从零到App Store:我用AI开发的第一款Swift应用

作为一个从未接触过Apple Swift开发的人,我惊讶地发现——借助AI的帮助——我竟然能构建出一个完整的应用。这是我的故事。 一天晚上,我和妈妈散步时聊到国内很多应用广告泛滥。她随口抱怨说自己用的日历应用满是广告。我很惊讶——为什么不用苹果自带的日历呢?她解释说自带的日历没有她需要的功能,比如法定节假日和传统黄历。那一刻,我灵光一闪:我已经有开发者账号了,为什么不自己做一个呢? 于是我打开AI问道:"你能帮我写一个界面漂亮、支持深色模式的Swift日历应用吗?"几乎瞬间,AI就生成了代码。运行后,界面效果很好。接下来,我需要显示节假日。由于没有预算,AI建议使用 timor.tech 提供的免费节假日API。它不仅集成了API,还添加了本地缓存,使应用在离线时也能正常工作。 然后我要求做一个带有颜色标记节假日的"年视图",AI完成了。对于黄历功能,AI生成了一个JSON数据集并编写了处理算法。我注意到结果并不总是与其他日历应用一致。AI解释说存在不同的"计算标准",甚至还添加了一个切换开关让用户自行选择。 完成这些后,我让它为visionOS和macOS做适配——AI也顺利搞定了。由于所有代码都是一次性生成的,我拿到的只是一个非常长的单文件,没有任何模块化结构。当我首次提交到App Store时,Apple以准则4.2:设计——最低功能要求为由拒绝了。我回去让AI添加了推送通知和欢迎界面,再次提交后终于通过了审核。